Commentary

By John Ryan The first part of this article concluded that the most likely cause of the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan program’s dramatic decline from 2022 to 2024 was displacement by two other federally subsidized sources of U.S. water infrastructure finance,Read More

By Gilad Horn Across North America, water utilities face a difficult financial and operational reality: unplanned repairs on aging infrastructure run anywhere from two to five times the cost of scheduled maintenance. And those emergency bills keep climbing as labor and materials grow more expensive.Read More

By David Cole The challenges those of us in the drinking water sector face in 2025 are many of the same issues that have faced utility engineers and operators for years now; namely how best to deliver clean, safe drinking water using the highest qualityRead More

By Wayne Hofmann On Jan. 27 of this year, I traveled across the country to talk to strangers about federal funding, something I do occasionally. As I drank my morning coffee and prepared my remarks, a colleague sent an article titled “White House budget officeRead More

By Anne Austin Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plays a critical role in modern infrastructure and everyday life. Used safely for nearly a century, PVC provides essential benefits in applications ranging from water and sewer systems to medical devices, flooring and even automotive components, where it helpsRead More

By Mike McGill Back in 2017, I was in the middle of the GenX crisis that occurred in Cape Fear region of North Carolina. The discovery of it and other per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) generated scandalous headlines – “Toxin Taints Drinking Water” – and fearRead More

By Kathryn Sorensen & Dr. Janet Anderson The Safe Drinking Water Act turns 50 this year and it’s important to recognize that it is one of the most remarkable and successful pieces of legislation this country has ever known. The provision of clean tap waterRead More

By Anita Peterson It’s no secret that the utilities industry, including water services, is going to have to grapple with a workforce gap in the coming years. This workforce decline has the potential to severely impact the experiences of both the remaining employees in theRead More

By Andrew Ginter In 2023, 68 cyber attacks took down more than 500 sites worldwide, some of them water utilities. All modern automation includes computers, and so for the last 40 years we have been deploying more and more targets for cyber attacks. Compounding theRead More

| By Craig Butt & Prem Parmar For the past 90 years, the Orange County Water District (OCWD) has provided a safe and reliable local groundwater supply to Southern California. As regulations and requirements for water quality have changed dramatically since 1933, OCWD has continuouslyRead More