Water Finance

To assist low-income households in the United States with rising water and wastewater rates, seven leading water associations issued a guide that assesses the feasibility of rate-funded customer assistance programs (CAPs) in each state. Water and wastewater rates in the United States are increasing sharplyRead More

The agenda for the third annual Water Finance Conference, being held Aug. 28-29, 2017 at the Harley-Davidson Museum® in Milwaukee, Wis., will feature a variety of technical presentations covering current funding challenges facing water and wastewater utilities, punctuated by the growing need for new, integratedRead More

Members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Environment concluded markup recently on legislation that would make a series of minor reforms to the Safe Drinking Water Act while reauthorizing the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF). The unanimously-approved Drinking Water System Improvement Act of 2017 authorizes spending upRead More

Raftelis Financial Consultants, Inc. (Raftelis) has announced it has hired Todd Cristiano as a manager in its Denver Metro office. Cristiano has 18 years of utility finance experience, including 12 years as a consultant to utilities and six years as the manager of rates atRead More

Residential water and wastewater bills have progressively increased by 5.7 percent annually over the past five years, outpacing average annual income growth (5 percent) and inflation (1.9 percent) and magnifying the financial challenges facing municipal water utilities. Analysis of the 50 largest metropolitan areas inRead More

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation a Performance Partnership grant of $5.7 million to administer water quality programs. “The EPA is protecting the environment by engaging our state partners,” said Administrator Scott Pruitt. “This grant should helpRead More

Roundtable 2017 Editor’s Note — This issue marks the return of our popular Mayors Roundtable feature. Mayors are essential to a city’s water infrastructure agenda, involved in budgetary decisions and strategic planning, often in the face of financial challenges, economic uncertainty and regulatory constraints. TheyRead More

The Trump Administration’s FY18 budget plan for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) faced criticism from both sides of the aisle last week during an appropriations subcommittee hearing on the proposal. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said that while the administration favors “clean water and fixing our outdatedRead More

By David Clamage Historians have suggested that the concept of charging interest today for the use of money, goods or services to be repaid in the future goes back thousands of years, when a farmer could borrow a seed to grow wheat and repay thatRead More

The City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management (DWM) recently received a Certificate of Achievement for Excellence for Financial Reporting from the Government Finance Officers Association. Awarded to government agencies and their management teams, the certificate recognized the achievements highlighted in DWM’s Comprehensive Annual FinancialRead More