ERG is a national leader in addressing the varied and complex water-related challenges facing communities across the country, including the availability of clean and safe water resources. To tackle such issues, we work at national, regional, and local levels and bring together multi-disciplinary teams from across our service areas: Water Quality and Infrastructure, Drinking Water and Infrastructure, Resilience Solutions, Ecological Services, Public Health, Life Cycle Services, Strategic Communications, and others. Recognizing water as essential to life, ERG is committed to creating integrated solutions that are effective now and sustainable for the future.

We are helping solve multiple water resource challenges with organizations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Land Management, state regulatory agencies (e.g., Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Massachusetts, Montana, Nevada, Virginia), and others.

Below are examples of how our team is working to deliver impactful results:

• Water Reuse Program and Policy Support – In partnership with EPA and over 140 organizations, ERG has been instrumental in developing the National Water Reuse Action Plan (WRAP), providing ongoing support for its implementation since 2020 to advance reuse within an integrated water management framework. We are also supporting multiple states on their regulations and policies to enable the reuse of treated wastewater effluent for beneficial purposes.
• Water Efficiency Market Transformation – For more than two decades, ERG has played a critical role in EPA’s WaterSense program, fostering the creation of water-saving technologies and consumer products to help conserve America’s water resources. ERG’s technical, communications, and partnership support for WaterSense has helped result in over 8.7 trillion gallons of water saved since 2006.
• Adaptable Reservoir Management – For the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State of California, ERG has helped develop and roll out an innovative resilience strategy called “Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations” (FIRO). FIRO uses precipitation forecasts to flexibly manage reservoirs, releasing water before floods and holding water to mitigate droughts.
• Assistance for Small Communities – ERG is supporting EPA on a technical assistance program that connects communities with tools and resources to pinpoint water and wastewater issues, devise action plans, enhance their technical, financial, and managerial capacity, and access funding for water infrastructure projects.
• Water Workforce Support – For the State of New Mexico, ERG developed and is helping implement an initiative to expand the pool of trained water operators, bolstering the state’s capacity to consistently provide clean water.
• Convening Experts and Innovators – ERG has supported numerous expert convenings to advance knowledge and actions to help secure our nation’s water resources. Examples include the annual “State Summit on Water Reuse,” involving over 20 states; the “Onsite Water Reuse Summit,” including policymakers, technologists, and implementers from the across the country; the “Global Dialogue on Water Reuse” with representatives from over a dozen countries; and convenings on innovation in surface water permitting.

For more than 40 years, ERG has been at the forefront of helping state agencies and organizations in addressing pressing environmental challenges and enhancing their programs to protect the environment and communities. ERG provides our clients tailored, impactful support to meet their unique needs. We identify and bring together an array of skills from across ERG, utilizing a cross-disciplinary team of environmental scientists, engineers, communications specialists, data scientists, economists, web designers, and other professionals to develop innovative solutions in collaboration with our clients.

We support organizations at multiple levels—state, regional, county, tribal, and local—to solve environmental challenges in states across the country.

Here are examples of how our team delivers impactful support across the country:

Making Post-Wildfire Environmental Monitoring Data Accessible to All - In response to the tragic Maui wildfires in 2023, ERG has been supporting the Hawaii Department of Health and partners in compiling, visualizing, and providing public access to environmental sampling data for a range of hazardous substances that could have been released during the fires in Lahaina and Kula in an interactive online data dashboard. This initiative ensures that the public has access to crucial information, empowering individuals, families, and communities to make informed decisions and take necessary precautions to protect their health and safety.

Improving Air Quality and Optimizing Permitting Efficiency - ERG’s team of air quality and permitting experts helps our regulatory clients more efficiently and thoroughly review permits, while ensuring compliance with air quality regulations. For Maricopa County, Arizona, ERG is helping the county maintain an exceptional record of meeting required air quality permitting timelines through the implementation of efficient but rigorous permit review procedures. Similarly, ERG staff has been approved as a Qualified Professional under Pennsylvania’s Streamlining Permits for Economic Expansion and Development (SPEED) program, helping the state in expediting air permit reviews while keeping economic development considerations at the forefront.

Assessing Air Quality Impacts from Industry - For Colorado, ERG is evaluating the air quality impacts of petroleum refineries in the state, comparing relevant regulatory requirements in the state with requirements in other states and Federal regulations, and identifying best practices and technologies to help state regulators minimize emissions from petroleum refineries.

Helping Eliminate Lead in Drinking Water - For multiple states, such as Hawaii, New Mexico, and Nevada, ERG has helped develop lead service line inventories to reduce community exposure to lead in drinking water and comply with the federal Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR).

Protecting Wetlands - For the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, ERG helped implement an interim dredge and fill program by establishing permitting processes to protect the water quality and biodiversity in sensitive wetland habitats for “gap waters” that fall outside the federal Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction.

Reducing Surface Water Pollution - ERG provides wide-ranging technical support across multiple states including Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, and Virginia, to protect surface water quality through implementation of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES). This includes supporting water quality standards and total maximum daily load (TMDL) programs, developing nutrient trading approaches, writing NPDES permits, conducting compliance inspections, supporting enforcement, providing training, and more.

Creating Healthy and Sustainable Learning Environments for Children - ERG’s sustainability experts and public health scientists have prepared a comprehensive report for the Massachusetts State Legislature, identifying strategies and best practices for creating sustainable and healthy learning environments for students across the Commonwealth. ERG’s clean transportation experts have provided technical and planning support to many states to guide their school bus electrification efforts. For New York, ERG developed a School Bus Electrification Roadmap and Guidebook, and ERG assists the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and eight Massachusetts school districts in achieving the school bus electrification goals set by the state. Under contract to the U.S. EPA, ERG’s circular economy experts prepared the Oregon School Food Share Program Guide to provide guidance to Oregon schools and districts on implementing a school food share and donation program.

Protecting Children and Communities from Harmful Chemicals - ERG’s public health scientists and digital solutions experts collaborated to construct the High Priority Chemicals Data System (HPCDS), an online platform that supports reporting of information about the presence of chemicals of concern in children’s products, required by statute in Oregon, Washington, and Vermont. ERG is developing a similar tool for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to support the mandatory reporting of products containing intentionally added per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

ERG is a national leader in solving the many complex challenges associated with PFAS and supporting clients in making PFAS-related decisions. We accomplish this with integrated approaches and expertise from across our service areas, including Digital and Information Solutions, Drinking Water and Infrastructure, Ecological Services, Economic and Policy Analysis, Public Health, and Water Quality and Infrastructure. ERG’s PFAS clients include federal agencies (e.g., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Park Service, and U.S. Department of Defense), state agencies (e.g., Massachusetts, Arizona, and New Mexico), and international organizations (e.g., Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development). Our interdisciplinary PFAS work includes:

• PFAS Analytic Tools – ERG developed EPA’s first-ever repository of place-based PFAS records from all national-level data systems.
• Interim Guidance on PFAS Destruction and Disposal – ERG’s treatment technology and statutory program experts helped EPA’s agency-wide workgroup prepare PFAS destruction and disposal guidance mandated by Congress.
• Exposure Assessments – ERG conducted eight exposures assessments for CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry that included exposure questionnaires, measurements of PFAS concentrations in the blood of more than 2,300 people exposed to PFAS-contaminated drinking water, and sampling of tap water and dust in a subset of participant homes.
• Effluent Limitation Guidelines – For EPA, ERG is supporting formative research to characterize PFAS in industrial effluent across several industry categories and to evaluate treatment options.
• Treatment Options for Drinking Water Systems – For the state of New Mexico, ERG delivered a seminar to water system managers covering treatment options for removing PFAS from drinking water and management of PFAS in residuals.
• Surface Water and Fish/Shellfish Tissue Sampling – For the state of Massachusetts, ERG conducted statewide sampling of PFAS levels in surface water and fish in 52 rivers, lakes, and ponds and is now characterizing PFAS levels in saltwater fish, shellfish, and macroinvertebrates.
• PFAS Information for Clinicians – ERG helped ATSDR prepare updated PFAS informational materials for clinicians.

ERG is a national leader in adaptation and resilience across natural resource and built environment sectors including land use, transportation, coastal areas, natural lands, agricultural lands from national to local scales. We succeed by building bespoke teams that draw from all relevant ERG service areas—including Resilience Solutions, Organizational Effectiveness, Economic and Policy Analysis, Digital and Information Solutions, Facilities Planning and Engineering, and Clean Transportation—to assemble the breadth and depth of expertise needed for each project. Each team designs and implements an integrated approach tailored to the project needs. Examples of our resilience work for federal, state, and local agencies and non-profit organizations include the following:

• Resilience Assessments – For the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Pentagon, ERG designed an assessment framework and conducted resilience assessments for facilities across the country, including project recommendations and prioritization approach to reduce risks.
• Accelerating the Pace and Scale of Nature-Based Approaches in California – ERG has been supporting The Nature Conservancy, Mariposa County, and the State of California in identifying approaches to advance large-scale projects to meet California’s goals for natural and working lands.
• Vermont’s Municipal Vulnerability Indicators Tool – ERG worked with Vermont state agencies, municipalities, regional organizations, and community groups to identify indicators and design a tool to help municipalities assess vulnerability and resilience across the state.
• Assessing How Extreme Weather Impacts the Mobility of Vulnerable Populations – With other team members, ERG is helping the Transportation Research Board develop a framework that transportation departments across the country can use to integrate infrastructure and community resilience into their plans, policies, and priorities.
• ResilientMass Plan – ERG supported a comprehensive update of the Massachusetts adaptation and mitigation plan to improve the science and projections and risk assessment and expand the plan to include sustainability, and community and neighborhood considerations.
• Resilient Lands Strategy for Sonoma County, California – To develop Sonoma County’s first-ever natural and working lands plan, we convened and worked collaboratively with advisory groups, farmers, community organizations, tribes, and county departments to identify strategies to increase resilience.
• Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan – For the Bay Conservation and Development Commission which serves as the Coastal Zone Management Agency for the San Francisco Bay, ERG was part of a team that designed resilience guidelines to support local jurisdictions in developing Subregional Shoreline Adaptation Plans that are resilient, sustainable, and effective for building regional and local economic and ecological strength.