Description
Description: The American Water Works Association (AWWA) is Dedicated to the World’s Most Important Resource®. We provide knowledge, information and advocacy to improve the quality and supply of water in North America and beyond. AWWA advances public health, safety and welfare by uniting efforts of the full spectrum of the water community.
AWWA is offering internships for both spring semester 2025, and summer 2025. Clearly indicate on the application which term(s) you are interested in. AWWA’s Government Affairs Office is in Washington, DC and is minutes away from Capitol Hill, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White House. AWWA staff closely coordinate their many activities through the Water Utility Council (WUC) to develop action plans to initiate, evaluate, respond, and comment on legislative, regulatory, and other matters which directly affect water utilities. You can read more about AWWA’s Government Affairs Office on our website. AWWA is a non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization.
The selected internship candidate(s) will assist the government affairs team on regulatory, legislative, and other federal policy issues. Examples of such activities include:
- Complete a comprehensive water-policy related project, or a series of smaller projects (additional detail below)
- Attend and report back on congressional, agency, and other meetings on relevant issues
- Review and assist in the analysis of pending legislation, regulations, and other federal activities and develop talking points for the government affairs team
- Other activities in support of the government affairs office as needed.
There are many current opportunities for water-sector work that this internship could pursue.
To be considered for this internship, applicants must include a cover letter detailing their interest in and a plan for how they would pursue one or more of these topics or another water policy topic of interest, along with their ideas on what work could be accomplished in a project over the course of the internship.
- Regulatory or federal programmatic / policy issues impacting the water sector. Applicants can discuss a regulatory, policy, or federal programmatic issue impacting the water sector, and what they could accomplish during their internship on that issue. Any project requiring a significant amount of data analysis should identify where that data will come from. Examples of such issues can be found the “advocacy priorities” and in the “quarterly update” found on AWWA’s site at https://www.awwa.org/advocacy-priorities/. Examples of found below taking this approach include Broadmerkel 2020, Yeager 2019, and Evans 2019.
- Legislative issues impacting the water sector. Applicants can discuss a topic related to an active or expected legislative issue impacting the water sector Although interns may possibly attend Congressional briefings / hearings and shadow AWWA’s staff and/or volunteers in a variety of activities, a legislative-focused proposal should focus on the types of policy research, analysis, and other activities that they would undertake to advance the discussion of such an issue. The AWWA government affairs quarterly update at https://www.awwa.org/advocacy-priorities/ discusses active legislative issues. Papers below with a stronger focus in these areas issue (recognizing there is overlap with 1 above) include: Franco 2024, Jones 2024, and Murphy 2020.
- Other Water Policy Issues. Explore another water policy issue relevant to water utilities and develop a paper and/or other materials to benefit the sector. Proposed projects should represent new work and demonstrate awareness of prior work in the proposed area of study. Although any relevant topic can be appropriate, it must have a substantial policy perspective to qualify. There are a great many resources that discuss topics of relevance to the water sector, including both those discussed in the other topic areas and in the example papers, as well as AWWA’s Water2050 program. Examples of this approach can be found below in Li 2023, Yeager 2019, and Tran 2019.
Selected candidates will be responsible for designing and implementing a project through data collection, analysis, and writing a final report suitable for publication, with some assistance and oversight from staff.
Applicants will not advance to an interview if they fail to include a cover letter or fail to discuss one or more potential topics/projects in that cover letter.
Successful applications will clearly demonstrate a plan on what the applicant wishes to accomplish and how they plan to accomplish it.
Location: Washington, DC (hybrid schedule)
Availability: Multiple positions available: Immediate (spring semester) and summer 2025
Requirements
Qualifications:
- Graduate or undergraduate student having completed at least their sophomore year pursuing a degree in public policy, environmental science, political science, environmental engineering, economics, or a similar field.
- Recent graduates will also be considered, recognizing the limited internship term.
- Excellent communication and research skills
- Must be able to work independently with minimal supervision
Wage/Salary Information: $23 to $24 per hour. Work schedule can be full or part time to fit student’s semester or summer schedules. Internship is primarily in-person in downtown Washington, DC with some hybrid flexibility.
Deadline to Apply: Applications will be accepted until positions are filled. Please include a cover letter as referenced in the posting.
Prior Drinking Water Policy Intern Papers
Franco, S. and A.T. Carpenter. 2024. Fluid Financing of Water utility Infrastructure With WIFIA. Journal AWWA 116:6:42-49. https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2299.
Jones, J. and A.T. Carpenter. 2024. Water Assistance for Low-Income Households: Analysis of LIHWAP Performance. Journal AWWA 116:4:26-34. https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2263.
Li, S. and A.T. Carpenter. 2023. The Human Right to Water: UN Definitions, Implication, and Effects. Journal AWWA 115:10:50-55. https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.2199.
Murphy, J., and A.T. Carpenter. 2020. USDA Source Water Protection Funding: Successes and Opportunities. Journal AWWA 112:4:50-59. https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.1481.
Brodmerkel, A., A.T. Carpenter, and K. Morley. 2020. Federal financial resources for disaster mitigation and resilience in the U.S. water sector. Utilities Policy 63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2020.101015.
Tran, T., A.T. Carpenter, and P. Kenel. 2019. Doing More with Many: Case Studies of Regional Collaboration in Management and Shared Infrastructure. Journal AWWA 111:3:49-60. https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.1253.
Yeager, N. and A.T. Carpenter. 2019. State Approaches to Addressing Cyanotoxins in Drinking Water. AWWA Water Science. e1121. https://doi.org/10.1002/aws2.1121.
Evans, J. and A.T. Carpenter. 2019. Utility Approaches to Evaluating the Effectiveness of Consumer Confidence Reports. Utilities Policy 58:136-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2019.05.004.
