Water Technology Innovation: 10 Market Opportunities

Our nation’s water resource and sustainability issues offer market opportunities for technology and institutional innovation as well as a vehicle for economic growth. To that end, EPA’s Water Technology Innovation Blueprint identifies ten specific market opportunities.

1. Conserving and Recovering Energy
   Many of our nation’s older water systems lack the energy efficiency improvements that can save money and make our systems more sustainable.
2. Recovering Nutrients
   Nutrient pollution from industrial and agricultural operations has impacted the ecological health of surface water and ground water we depend on.
3. Improving and Greening of the Water Infrastructure
   With an aging water infrastructure, our nation could benefit from retrofitting, improving, or replacing older systems.
4. Conserving and Eventually Reusing Water
   With growing populations and increased water demands, cities and states are encouraging conservation as a way to make the finite water we have stretch further.
5. Reducing Costs and Improving Techniques for Water Monitoring
   Making smart choices about water management depends on collecting accurate and timely data. New monitoring and sensing technologies represent both an opportunity and a necessity for responsible stewardship of our water systems.
6. Improving Performance of Small Drinking Water Systems
   Over 94 percent of our nation’s public water supply systems serve fewer than 10,000 people. Many of the smallest systems (serving viewer than 500 people) struggle to meet applicable drinking water standards.
7. Reducing Water Impacts from Energy Production
   Energy generation, resource extraction, and growing feedstock all rely on significant amounts of water. As demands increase on our energy supply, so too will these demands impact our water systems.
8. Improving Resiliency of Water Infrastructure to the Impacts of Climate Change
   In a changing climate, the distribution of water in the environment will challenge water infrastructure to meet the needs of those who depend on it.
9. Improving Access to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation
   Around the world, hundreds of millions of people still lack access to clean drinking water and sanitation.
10. Improving Water Quality of Our Oceans, Estuaries, and Watersheds
    Less than half of our nation’s lakes, rivers, streams, and coastlines achieve a level of quality to safely allow for their intended uses.