Insights

Ensuring access to affordable water and wastewater services is a critical challenge for many municipalities. Louisville Water and the Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District (Louisville MSD) in Kentucky and Raleigh Water in North Carolina, have taken significant steps to address this issue.

High turnover is a growing concern, which is why it is key to strengthen your finance department to ensure its long-term success. There are strategies for retaining and developing your team, creating a supportive environment, and providing the necessary resources to help your team thrive.

Water and sewer utilities are capital intensive enterprises. To serve customers across sprawling service areas and rugged terrain, they must construct, install, and maintain a vast amount of, often buried, infrastructure. As they re-invest in their systems, or as service areas continue to expand, the utility faces the burden of funding the resulting infrastructure needs.

The introduction of electric vehicles introduces substantial increases in electrical loads and introduces variability in load profiles. The diversity of EV chargers further compounds these load increases and fluctuations. Consequently, managing the impact of EV charging on the grid becomes paramount. Electric utilities must strategically evaluate infrastructure enhancements, load management tactics, and rate structures to effectively accommodate these evolving demands.

The highest priority that all water utilities share is the critical responsibility of providing safe and reliable drinking water to the residents and businesses they serve. Forecasting the expected quantity of water that will be needed over the long term is an important aspect of managing water resources responsibly, particularly for areas experiencing significant changes in customer growth and behavior. Raftelis recently partnered with Seattle Public Utilities to develop a new tool that can be used to inform the long-term projection of water use.

This webinar highlights what large communities and small towns are doing to create sustainable stormwater revenue sources.

In February 2023, the U.S. EPA finalized and released its Clean Water Act Financial Capability Assessment (FCA) Guidance, which is used to consider the economic impacts of Water Quality Standard decisions and negotiate implementation timelines for sewer permits and enforcement agreements.

Aging infrastructure, new PFAS and lead-removal rules, climate change, and cyber threats are just some of the reasons water utilities must invest in their systems. They must also consider how they can balance affordability with these substantial investments. Here we provide sources of funding and financing to consider and explore factors that determine how to pay for infrastructure updates.

The record high inflation in recent years is no secret. Water utilities have certainly not been spared, with inflationary impacts reverberating through their operating and capital budgets. To gain a better understanding of the impact of high inflation on water utilities, we dove into the AMWA INSIGHT Survey for answers.