PureBlue

Our ultimate goal is to reduce water pollution including heavy metals (i.e. zinc and coper), petroleum and oils, nutrients (i.e. phosphorus and nitrogen), sewage, manure, and other human and animal effluent and runoff. We work to help organizations and property owners capture, treat, retain, conserve, and reuse stormwater, wastewater, and all water.

Our work is to address emerging stormwater and wastewater management challenges to ecological, economic, and human wellbeing. We do this by identifying technical needs, discovering proven and innovative solutions, and then through our partnerships we build awareness and educate end-users, and facilitate relationships and community to support implementation of solutions.

We do this by expanding and equipping the community of businesses, governments, and property owners committed to wise water practices. We equip this community with the solutions, knowledge, relationships, and inspiration to fuel their success.

We envision a connected, water-conscious ‘New World of Water’ where people, projects and intelligence co-create sustainable and resilient communities so that clean water supports all life.

The strategic model for work is to:
1. Identify polluted hotspots with the greatest impact to fish and wildlife using real water quality data. Determine who is polluting toxic heavy metals, petroleum, and chemicals into the watershed. Prioritize the need.
2. Search the world for best management practices (BMPs) and innovative technologies to capture, slow, reduce, and reuse stormwater, wastewater—all water.
3. Determine the most relevant for the target pollutants and regional or site situation.
4. Engage industrial/commercial and municipal water managers, transparently discuss pollution or sustainability status, prioritize needs, and set wise water goals (if not already done).
5. Facilitate projects; support the water manager or property owner to improve their water management practices by connecting them to BMPs, technologies, solutions teams, and allies.
6. Share results of projects by communicating to more water managers, property owners, solution providers, funders, allies, and volunteers.

We utilize our tools of partnership building, communications, education and awareness building, finding and evaluating water best management practices, and focused project facilitation.

This work involves transparency, collaboration, resourcefulness, commitment, and a lot of heart.

Our major accomplishments include:
- Secured $500,000 US EDA grant and $500,000 in-kind match to create the Clean Water Innovation Initiative.
- Created a water technology startup accelerator program and supported 10 bluetech startups in the program's first two years.
- Developed a community of more than 100 individuals and organizations committed to clean water best management practices, technologies, and solutions.
- Identified priority pollution hotspots in the Duwamish River watershed in Washington State.
- Defined a scalable and replicable model for evaluating environmental and water quality datasets to discern priority pollution sources across Washington State and other states.
- Researched more than 100 stormwater best management practices and technologies including water treatment, monitoring, pollutant sensing, retention, bioretention, and detention solutions.
- Conducted water management and technical needs assessments with about 20

WHERE WE WORK AND OUR NETWORK
Our activities are location-agnostic. We have focused implementation in the Puget Sound and Pacific Northwest. However, water quality and supply issues occur in water basins that include the Salish Sea, Columbia River, Colorado River, Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf, Great Lakes, and Bay Area. We find and work with solution teams primarily from North America and Europe. Our global contact network extends to more than 30 countries across 6 continents.
- Advised and developed strategic water recommendations for the Washington State legislature in the Green Economy Report.

WHAT'S NEXT
We want to connect with and support businesses, institutions, municipalities, property owners, and others responsible for managing their stormwater, wastewater, runoff, and effluent -- and those interested in improving their water practices beyond the standard of regulation, to become wise water leaders.

We are looking for new partners to help bring our network of solutions to their local municipal and industrial water managers. We hope to work with volunteers around the world that are also passionate about water, people, and Earth’s vitality.

We plan to build the world's largest database of water pollution hotspots, wise water practices, solutions, and projects.