State environmental leaders gathered for World Water Day, and the message was unanimous: the old playbook for managing water no longer fits the crisis.

At the Reservoir Center's World Water Day event in Washington, D.C., environmental leaders from New York, Vermont, and the District of Columbia — moderated by Ben Grumbles of the Environmental Council of the States — laid out how differently water crises are hitting their states, and how similarly they're being forced to respond.

Vermont: Flood, Then Drought, Then Flood Again

Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore described a state reeling from three consecutive summers of extremes: catastrophic flooding on the same July date in both 2023 and 2024 that knocked out a dozen wastewater facilities and 10% of public water supplies, followed by a 2025 drought so severe Vermont became the most drought-stricken region in the country. One farmer reported 2.8 million fewer pounds of apples than the year before.

"We're in the northeast. We are generally water rich, and suddenly we have hundreds of homeowners with wells going dry."

New York: Growth and Drought, at the Same Time

DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton pointed to a different pressure entirely: the state's new Micron chip fabrication plant chose New York specifically for its water access — even as much of the state sat in drought-watch conditions. The tension is driving a $3.75 billion state infrastructure investment and the nation's first cybersecurity regulations for water and wastewater systems.

"We know that we need strong regulatory programs in place in order to protect water so we can have economic development."

D.C.: A Wake-Up Call on Backup Supply

Department of Energy and Environment Director Richard Jackson connected the dots back to the Potomac Interceptor collapse, saying it underscored the urgency of building a secondary water source for the district, plus faster public water-quality alerts shared across D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

"We need to be looking at water more intelligently, instead of just assuming that it's a throwaway type of resource."

The Common Thread

Across every state, the message converged on the same solution: basin-scale collaboration, smarter funding tools, and treating water and energy planning as one interconnected system rather than separate fights.
Different states, different disasters — but the same conclusion: water security now demands regional collaboration, not isolated fixes.

00:00 – Introductions: State Environmental Leaders on World Water Day
01:53 – D.C.'s Department of Energy and Environment & the Potomac Interceptor
06:13 – New York: Chip Manufacturing, Drought, and Comprehensive Water Management
11:55 – Vermont: Three Summers of Flood and Drought Extremes
16:31 – Shifting Federal Responsibility to the States
19:33 – New York's $4.2 Billion Bond Act for Resilience
23:57 – Reimagining Environmental Governance After FEMA Cuts
30:35 – The Energy-Water Nexus: AI, Data Centers & Hydropower

waterloop is a nonprofit news outlet exploring solutions for water sustainability. Visit https://www.waterloop.org/

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