American Rivers produces reports, fact sheets, tip sheets and other types of publications to support researchers and practitioners in river conservation.
February 14, 2022
Ellerbe Creek Green Infrastructure Partnership A new Approach to Restoring Durham’s Streams and Rivers Our urban landscapes were not designed historically with the idea of protecting and restoring our natural environment. Weaving green stormwater infrastructure into an existing landscape can have significant benefits for both the human and natural... Read More
February 1, 2022
Climate Change & Rivers, Restoring Damaged Rivers, Urban Waters, Water Pollution, Water Supply
Rivers are essential to life. They provide our drinking water, nurture fish and wildlife, power our economy, connect us to the natural world and are vital to healthy, thriving communities. Rivers also flow through the major challenges facing our country. Climate change is an existential threat, fueling record-breaking floods... Read More
May 19, 2021
Historically, the infrastructure that makes up our water systems has been funded by government grants, loans, and by traditional municipal bond issuances. Adding private investment, in the form impact bonds, P3s or outcomes-based financing, can create additional opportunities to deliver water projects efficiently and effectively. This report explores innovative... Read More
June 30, 2020
Conserving Clean Water, Stormwater and Sewage, Urban Waters, Water Pollution, Water Supply
In recent years, green infrastructure has become a proven solution to address many of the challenges created by urban stormwater. By soaking up stormwater and harvesting it to grow trees and plants, green infrastructure can provide multiple benefits to landowners, neighborhoods and communities. Green infrastructure can be particularly useful... Read More
March 25, 2019
As climate change continues to roll out new and increasingly unpredictable conditions all over the country, it’s becoming clear that, for some communities, water scarcity is a problem that isn’t going to be solved when the weather “goes back to normal.” This is especially true when extremes of flood... Read More
February 15, 2018
Urban Waters, Water Pollution, Water Supply
The principal law that regulates drinking water safety is the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). The SDWA provides a comprehensive set of water quality standards, enforcement authority, and reporting requirements for water systems that provide water to the public. Like other environmental laws that follow the cooperative federalism model,... Read More
October 19, 2017
Clean water is essential to our health, our communities, and our lives. Yet our water infrastructure – drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems, dams and levees – is seriously outdated. In addition, we have degraded much of our essential natural infrastructure – forests, streams, wetlands, and floodplains. Global warming... Read More
May 2, 2017
Floods & Floodplains, Protecting Rivers, Stormwater and Sewage, Urban Waters, Water Pollution
A twist on a familiar adage amongst water managers is “when it rains, it drains.” While not unique to Pennsylvania, in suburban and urban municipalities, centuries of strong growth, including recent decades of sprawl, have transformed much of the state’s natural land cover into extensive impervious surface. As a... Read More
April 19, 2017
Most Endangered Rivers, Protecting Rivers, Restoring Damaged Rivers
The majestic Colorado River cuts a 1,450-mile path through the American West before drying up well short of its natural finish line at the Gulf of California. Reservoirs once filled to the brim from the river and its tributaries are at historic lows due to an unprecedented drought and... Read More
April 3, 2017
Climate Change & Rivers, Conserving Clean Water, Protecting Rivers, Restoring Damaged Rivers, Stormwater and Sewage, Urban Waters, Water Pollution, Water Supply
Communities in the United States are being threatened by sewage overflows, flooding, polluted stormwater, leaky pipes, and at-risk water supplies. These threats are a result of our nation’s outdated water infrastructure and water management strategies, and their impacts fall disproportionately on low-wealth neighborhoods and communities of color that are... Read More
March 24, 2017
Climate Change & Rivers, Floods & Floodplains, Water Pollution, Water Supply
Bringing Federal Policy into the 21st Century Many federal policies still encourage the same backward-looking water management approaches that didn’t work in the past and are even less suited to the future. Federal funding and policies reward wasteful water use and support destructive, inflexible infrastructure projects, while important programs... Read More
March 24, 2017
Climate Change & Rivers, Floods & Floodplains, Urban Waters
A Water Preparedness Guide for State Action In recent years, a record number of extreme weather events including floods, heat waves, droughts, fires and snowstorms have wreaked havoc in the United States. As carbon pollution continues to warm the planet and fuel extreme weather, it is critical that states... Read More
