{"id":609,"date":"2015-05-15T14:19:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T18:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/commissioner-neukrug-touts-leadership-value-water-forum\/"},"modified":"2022-12-03T13:39:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T18:39:22","slug":"commissioner-neukrug-touts-leadership-value-water-forum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/water.phila.gov\/blog\/commissioner-neukrug-touts-leadership-value-water-forum\/","title":{"rendered":"Commissioner Neukrug Touts Leadership at ‘Value of Water’ Forum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
\nThe panel at Value of Water Coalition's WHYY forum. Photo Credit: Brian Rademaekers<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The tragic Amtrak crash that claimed eight lives and left hundreds injured in Port Richmond last week was an inescapable topic for panelists speaking at the May 14 Value of Water Coalition forum at WHYY's studios. Organized as a National Infrastructure Week<\/a> event, What\u2019s the Value of Water? The Pennsylvania Story<\/em> featured five speakers, including Philadelphia Water Commissioner Howard Neukrug.<\/p>\n

Like others at the forum, Neukrug noted how the “terrible” Amtrak tragedy sparked an intense and emotional debate about the importance of infrastructure investments.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s fascinating to watch this discussion that\u2019s happening with infrastructure now,” Neukrug told the audience, noting the tone in Washington D.C. became “very partisan, very quickly.” \u00a0But, Neukrug said, there are valuable observations to be made regarding how people think about infrastructure funding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you really want to create change in the city, or to create change in infrastructure in America, there are only two ways to do it \u2026 one is crisis, and the other one is leadership. What\u2019s fascinating is that, if you watch this, crisis ain\u2019t working,\u201d said Neukrug. \u201cCrisis happens. You can look at California today and realize that they\u2019re just about out of water. And, yes, there are some policy shifts, and they are trying to figure out how to conserve water at the tap \u2026 but no big innovative change has come out of it. So, that takes the two ways of creating change and kind of shoves crisis to the side and leaves us with leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pointing to the tagline in the new Philadelphia Water logo<\/a> \u2013 \u201cEst. 1801\u201d \u2013 Neukrug detailed the city\u2019s long history as a leader in innovative water management, starting with the creation of Fairmount Park as a means of protecting drinking water sources and the development of the Fairmount Water Works to deliver that drinking water.<\/p>\n

As for more recent examples of leadership, Neukrug pointed to Philadelphia Water\u2019s 25-year Green City, Clean Waters plan<\/a>, a nationally recognized model that uses Green Stormwater Infrastructure to achieve federal stormwater requirements while saving taxpayer money and contributing to the larger goal of making Philadelphia the greenest city in the country.<\/p>\n

He also pointed to the department\u2019s Biogas Cogeneration Facility at the Northeast Water Pollution Control Plant<\/a>, which turns human waste into energy needed to run treatment plants. Features like that and the sewage geothermal installation and solar photovoltaic system at the Southeast WPCP are important in part because they reduce air pollution, but also because every dollar not spent on energy is a dollar that Philadelphia Water can spend on improving infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Neukrug said the ultimate goal isn\u2019t just to get treatment plants to a \u201cnet zero\u201d status where they are using no outside energy, but to create \u201cnet positive\u201d facilities that can actually produce power for use elsewhere. That forward thinking recently saw the\u00a0city awarded with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s Green Power Leadership Award<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have really changed the game in Philadelphia,\u201d Neukrug told the panel.<\/p>\n

For more on Commissioner Neukrug\u2019s comments during the forum, check out the video clips below.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Neukrug's Opening Remarks:<\/strong><\/p>\n