Broad Vision for Integrated Planning 

Leaders from the City of Springfield, Greene County and City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri, have embarked on developing an integrated plan to address the regulatory challenges facing their wastewater, stormwater, drinking water and power utilities.

The Springfield–Greene County approach is unique in that it includes not only stormwater and wastewater, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guidance suggests, but also resources related to solid waste, drinking water and air quality. The planning approach has received the written endorsement from both state and federal regulators and was selected as a national pilot study by the EPA in October 2014.

For the last eight years, our personnel has been the City’s primary advisors on Clean Water Act-related issues. Over that time, HDR and the City have driven favorable policy-making activities at the state level and developed innovative strategies to mitigate the impacts of new regulatory requirements. Building off of this successful track record, we were retained to support the City as they work through the Integrated Plan process. Since the City initiated the IP process in 2013, our services have included the following:

• Regulatory Support: These issues include water quality standards development and rulemakings, impaired waters listings, total maximum daily loads and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting.
• Watershed Restoration Planning: We negotiated with Missouri Department of Natural Resources to use the Integrated Plan as the primary tool for resolving impairments rather than TMDLs, and are currently working with the City to apply this approach. 
• Database Development and Data Management: We developed and maintain a comprehensive environmental database for data storage and analysis through the IP process. 
• Pollution Source Identification: We are developing a multi-criteria decision analysis model to identify the most significant sources of pollution.    
• Sustainable Return on Investment: The City has used our SROI process as the primary tool to prioritize infrastructure investments within the Integrated Plan. SROI builds upon best practices in cost-benefit and financial analysis methodologies, complemented by advanced risk analysis and stakeholder elicitation techniques. This unique triple-bottom-line approach will provide the City and regulators with the information needed to select investments that will truly provide the “biggest bang for the buck.”