Cadmus-Authored Article Connects Source Water Protection, Climate Change, and Reductions in Carbon Emissions
In a recently published article, several members of the Cadmus staff show how protecting drinking water sources can promote efforts to mitigate global climate change. More important, those mitigation efforts can provide new funds for further source water protection-bringing additional climate change benefits-in a sort of feedback loop.
In their article, G. Tracy Mehan III, principal; Chi Ho Sham, Ph.D., vice president; Charles Hernick, associate; and Jane Obbagy, vice president, note that some long-used techniques to protect sources of drinking water also remove greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the atmosphere, sequestering the carbon in plants and thus helping to mitigate climate change. Evolving markets for offset credits that help regulated entities meet their obligations to reduce GHG emissions may, in turn, provide funds for additional investments in source water protection, they say.
Offset credits are contracts purchased by an emitter for GHG emission reductions. Drinking water systems can calculate the amount of carbon sequestered by planting trees and native grasses and investing in other source water protection (SWP) practices that capture carbon, then sell credits in a carbon market to fund that or other SWP projects. Greater SWP will improve water quality, help drinking water systems achieve human health goals and further mitigate climate change. Carbon markets won’t solve source water protection funding problems for all systems, however; the potential for biological sequestration in the arid Southwest, for example, is not as great as in the verdant Pacific Northwest.
Whether selling carbon credits will generate sufficient revenues depends on a number of factors, including the amount of carbon captured, the value placed by the market on each ton of carbon dioxide equivalent sequestered and the cost of SWP measures. Water systems will need to consider the trade-offs between managing land to maximize water quality and managing to maximize carbon sequestration before deciding whether to participate in carbon sequestration, the authors conclude. Their article, The Source Water, Climate & Carbon Connection, appeared in the November 2009 issue of Water and Wastes Digest. It also is available on the magazine’s Web site at http://www.wwdmag.com/The-Source-Water-Climate-Carbon-Connection-article11236.
About The Cadmus Group, Inc.
Founded in 1983, employee-owned Cadmus (https://cadmusgroup.com) helps government, non-profit and corporate clients address critical challenges in the environmental and energy sectors. We provide an array of research and analytical services in the United States and abroad, specializing in solving complex problems that demand innovative, multidisciplinary thinking. Our major service areas are Water, Energy Services, Social Marketing and Market Transformation, Health Policy and Communications, Green Building, International Development and Strategic Environmental Consulting.
Our staff includes scientists; engineers; statisticians; economists; MBAs; marketing, public relations and communications professionals; attorneys; information technology specialists; and public policy analysts. Many of our senior consultants are nationally recognized experts in their fields, and several serve on high-level U.S. government science advisory boards.