Millions of Americans live and work near urban waters. Communities across the nation embrace their urban waters as a tremendous asset; however, many of our nation’s urban rivers, streams, lakes, forests and wetlands are polluted, degraded or inaccessible. In 2011, the EPA launched the Urban Waters Federal Partnership (referred to in this document as “the UW Partnership”) to help urban communities — particularly those economically distressed or burdened with environmental impacts — connect with and improve their waterways. The UW Partnership is an alliance of federal agencies that support community-led efforts to restore urban waters and the communities that surround them.
The Partnership Handbook is available here in both English and Spanish.
You may need a PDF reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA’s About PDF page to learn more.- Urban Waters Partnership Handbook (PDF)(45 pp, 6 MB, July 26, 2016)
- Flyer for the Urban Waters Partnership Handbook, Version 2 (PDF)(1 pg, 619 K)
- (Spanish) Manual de la Asociacion de Aguas Urbanas (PDF)(41 pp, 13 MB)