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A Conversation with NEIWPCC Chair Alicia Good
By Stephen Hochbrunn, NEIWPCC
Since January 1, 2008, Alicia Good of Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management has been serving as NEIWPCC’s chair. It is a role she comfortably assumed, given her lengthy experience with the organization; Good has represented the director of RI DEM on the Commission for the past eight years. Her qualifications for the position of NEIWPCC chair are also impeccable. Good has been in state government in Rhode Island for 25 years, and currently serves as the assistant director of the Office of Water Resources at RI DEM. She is responsible for the administration of Rhode Island’s multiple programs to protect surface water, groundwater, and freshwater wetlands. This includes permitting programs, water quality standards monitoring and assessment, and other water resource protection activities. She has a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Vermont, and is a registered professional engineer in Rhode Island.
In October, we spoke with Good about her new role at NEIWPCC.
IWR: You have been a regular at NEIWPCC Commission and Executive Committee meetings since 2000, but as chair, you have entered a new and higher level of involvement. What has it been like?
Good: It’s definitely a privilege to be the chair. I really enjoy working with my counterparts from the New England states and New York State and the whole staff at NEIWPCC. The group in general has a very close professional working relationship, which I think facilitates the open communication and encouragement of coordination that is at the heart of what NEIWPCC is all about.
IWR: But being chair means committing even more of your precious time and energy to NEIWPCC. Why do you do it?
Good: NEIWPCC provides valuable support to the states, especially right now in these unique and challenging times. The U.S. economy is struggling, and state budgets are dwindling. Yet the complexity of water issues keeps growing. Now more than ever, we need to collaborate and coordinate on interstate issues, and NEIWPCC provides the means of doing that.
The technical capacity that its staff offers the states is extremely valuable. There are so many collaborative projects that we’ve worked on, and certainly the [Northeast Regional] Mercury TMDL is a good example. Then there are the workgroups that provide state staff an opportunity to share ideas and expertise, the educational opportunities afforded through training sessions, the research on emerging issues—we just don’t have the capacity individually as states to do all of these things and to handle new and complex issues like PPCPs and climate change in the depth or with the quickness that we want to. In areas like that, NEIWPCC is a great help.
I think it’s important too that NEIWPCC keeps the states up to speed on what’s going on in Washington. That’s very helpful when your focus is on trying to deal with your own state issues. And when we as a region do have to send a message to EPA headquarters, NEIWPCC provides the opportunity to deliver a clear, concise regional message that’s far more powerful than separate communications from each state.
Even before I served on the Commission, I found it to be valuable. And I have an even greater appreciation now.
IWR: You’ve almost completed the first year of your two-year term as chair. In the year that remains, are there specific issues or goals that you would like NEIWPCC to focus on?
Good: The one thing that I think we as Commissioners, and NEIWPCC in general, have pushed for is to set priorities—and we have a pretty lengthy list at the moment [laughs]. There’s not a lack of important things to work on. Stormwater, for example, is one of the biggest challenges we have, and will likely continue to be an issue that we focus on.
I don’t foresee a major new direction for the Commission. We have worked hard over the last few years to set a good course for ourselves, and I think we should continue on that course and deal with new issues as they emerge. But when we focus on new issues, we can’t lose focus on what NEIWPCC has always done, particularly with regard to infrastructure and wastewater treatment facilities. While it is important to pay close attention to emerging concerns, it’s just as valuable to work at the core of what we’ve been doing for years.
IWR: So, not get so focused on the new things that we overlook the traditional needs?
Good: Absolutely. And I think we’ve done a good job with that balance in the past.
IWR: OK, you knew this question was coming: what does it mean to you to be the first female chair in the history of NEIWPCC?
Good: I guess I’m used to working with a lot of men, being an engineer, so I never really think about whether I’m the first woman to do something. I just feel like one of the group. But I think it’s a sign of more and more women in professional positions throughout state government. I’m actually surprised it hasn’t taken place sooner. I guess the timing was right for me.
IWR: And I think we can safely say that while you are the first, you will not be the last.
Good: Definitely. There are more to come.
IWR: Any final thoughts?
Good: I just want to highlight the importance of the work NEIWPCC does, and how valuable the staff is to states. They are all extremely professional and extremely knowledgeable in their fields. It’s so important to the states to be able to pick up the phone and call NEIWPCC, and get some good advice or get somebody to help out with an issue. And the forums the Commission organizes to bring the states together to talk out policy issues—that would be very difficult to make happen without an organization that facilitates it for you.