Fractured Water Final Long from Model D TV on Vimeo.

This was a bi-national effort to introduce an integrated water management (IWM) (water supply, stormwater and wastewater) approach to six municipalities: three in Oakland County, Ml and three in the Grand River watershed in Ontario. These communities were specifically selected by the team because they are small- to mid-sized communities that extract water from a variety of ground and surface water sources and face challenges (overuse of groundwater supplies, stormwater runoff impacts, etc.). The team explored and tested the environmental and financial impacts on these municipalities for adopting water conservation and green infrastructure practices and developed a set of management actions for each that will reduce environmental impacts and decrease costs. They also tested knowledge-transfer techniques to encourage adoption of such practices.

The team created an extensive toolbox (spreadsheet tools, how-to guides, case studies, reports, and videos all available on the project website) that will help other communities begin taking steps towards a more integrated approach to water management. They delivered an innovative marketing campaign with Issue Media Group (IMG) that resulted in four feature articles and two videos that brought widespread exposure to the work.

This project was the result of a successful planning and convening phase supported by the Fund.