What’s on the Horizon for Measuring Water Utility Financial Capability?

The federal Clean Water Act (CWA) requires water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities to invest in upgrades and maintenance of critical water infrastructure to ensure the infrastructure stays within compliance. This includes replacing aging infrastructure as it approaches the end of its useful life, and meeting new requirements from the EPA. While water sector services are fundamental to ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of the consumer, these services can only be accessible if they are affordable for ratepayers. . . . In September 2020, the EPA released a draft of an updated Financial Capability Assessment (FCA) Guidance, which is intended to help communities plan for these water infrastructure improvements. But, how much change will the new guidance potentially bring to local utilities?

Alanna KinnebrewMarch 5, 2021Comment

Can your Water Utility Afford a Bill Payment Assistance Program?

Water is such a universally essential service, that many utilities seek ways to help their low-income customers with affording the service. Generally referred to as a “customer assistance program” or CAP, this help can take different forms. Some utilities assist by repairing leaks and retrofitting low-income customers’ homes with water efficient devices. But, the more common approach is to provide some sort of financial assistance. For example, a special payment plan to help customers who have arrearages may be coupled with some debt forgiveness. Many utilities also offer discounts on the bills of customers who can prove their low-income status. But, is the cost of implementing such a program prohibitive? The good news is that there has never been a better time to find out.

How the Pandemic is Affecting the Finances of Georgia Water Utilities

The pandemic may not be affecting all water utilities evenly across Georgia. While both the unemployment rate and the virus spread remain high, a few utilities have actually seen increases in rate revenues and connection fees over the last few months. Several metro utilities say they have not seen a significant drop in non-payment yet. At the national level, Standard and Poor’s (S&P), a utility credit-rating agency, reports it only downgraded 39 of the roughly 17,000 communities that the company has utility rating relations with between March and mid-December, 2020. So, with this much job loss, which utilities are suffering?

Stacey Isaac BerahzerDecember 21, 2020water finance, COVID-19, water utility, wastewaterComment

Prepaid Water and Equity - International Perspectives

Since there are not many academic publications addressing prepaid water service in the United States, we looked at some journal articles that discuss the practice in other countries. In early 2014, France, recognizing citizens right “to access drinking water under conditions that are economically acceptable to all,” introduced the Brottes Law which prohibits water service providers from shutting off any residential customer’s supply due to non-payment. Unlike the other utilities – gas and electricity – this restriction applies year-round, not only during the winter period, and applies to all consumers. While it offers some protection against economic discrimination, it does not cancel the consumer’s obligation to pay, thus allowing service providers to recover their debts by other means.

Stacey Isaac BerahzerDecember 18, 2020prepayment options, prepaid water, water finance, international, water affordabilityComment

How Septic Tanks May be Affected by the Pandemic

Georgia has about 1.5 million septic tanks, with many of them being over thirty (30) years old. This is about the timeframe when many septic tanks begin to fail. Septic tanks are no longer considered a temporary solution until public wastewater infrastructure takes over. In fact, each year, in the sixteen-county metro Atlanta area alone, at least 12,000 new septic tanks are installed. With so many Georgians spending more time in their own homes due to the pandemic, there has been more pressure on these septic systems. What are the repercussions from this, and what does it cost?

Stacey Isaac BerahzerDecember 14, 2020Septic tanks, water, wastewater, Georgia, maintenance, water financeComment

City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management – Care & Conserve Program

The Department of Watershed Management (DWM) was formed to manage the City of Atlanta’s essential utility operations: drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems. The DWM is a regional public utility covering a 650-square-mile area. The utility serves 240,780 residential customer accounts representing 1.2 million people. The water treatment capacity is over 246 million gallons per day, while wastewater treatment capacity is 170 million gallons per day. Residential customers living inside the city who consume about 4,500 gallons of water per month would have an average monthly bill of about $30.44 for water service and about $77.01 for sewer service, totaling $107.45.

Stacey Isaac BerahzerDecember 4, 2020affordability, water affordability, water finance, customer assistance programs, Georgia CAPsComment

Prepaid Water in Blakely, GA - A Case Study

The City of Blakely in southwest Georgia has a population of a little over 5,000. It is a full-service city, in that it provides electricity, water/sewer, garbage and gas utilities to its citizens. Each month the City bills approximately 2,600 customer accounts. A few years ago, the City learned from a neighboring utility about the option to have a customer pay in advance for utility services, and have those services automatically shut off if there are no funds left in that customer’s account. Blakely first investigated the pre-paid utility option mainly for the electricity side of their services. However, they realized that it could conveniently incorporate all of the utility services the City provided. Could this option of pre-paying for utility services benefit their low-income customers and reduce shutoffs?

Stacey Isaac BerahzerNovember 30, 2020prepayment options, prepaid water, shutoffs, disconnections, affordabilityComment

How Water Utilities Can Leverage Positive Exposure During a Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic we are all grappling to care for ourselves and those we are directly responsible for, yet many of us are also able to reach out to neighbors experiencing job loss and other stressors. If you work in the water industry, then you also have the benefit of knowing that your career directly addresses the pandemic. However, for most people, the water industry is coming into focus for the first time. A well-functioning water utility keeps its assets buried and usually receives little to no media attention. Traditionally, it’s when the utility messes up: falls into financial crisis, implements a huge rate increase to address that financial crisis, or has a spill or boil water advisory that the general public takes note of the water industry. But the pandemic has highlighted the important public health role that this “silent” industry plays every day. In the spirit of “let no great crisis go to waste,” how should the water industry leverage the newfound attention that the pandemic has delivered?

Stacey Isaac BerahzerOctober 30, 2020Comment

4 Ways to Drive Operational Efficiencies: Vehicles & Water Service During the Pandemic

Operating efficiently is the first line of defense against steep rate increases and water affordability issues. However, a pandemic requires physical distancing, and this can be a challenge for water utilities sending crews out to fix water infrastructure. Under normal circumstances, “efficiency” may mean that a small crew reports to the work site in the same vehicle. With the pandemic, utilities have had to become creative in order to keep their workers safe by putting them in separate vehicles. Finding inexpensive ways to do that is crucial. This is especially true in cases where the utility has forgone its planned rate increase, or is facing revenue shortfalls due to declines in sales from commercial and industrial customers. This post shares some innovative ways that several utilities have reported keeping their costs down with respect to vehicles.

Stacey Isaac BerahzerOctober 7, 2020water finance, water utility, COVID-19, water affordability, efficiencyComment

Clayton County Water Authority - Care.Connect.Conserve

Clayton County is one of Georgia’s smallest counties in terms of land size with an area of only 143 square miles, but is one of the most densely populated as the county is made up of six incorporated cities. As of April 30, 2019, the Clayton County Water Authority (CCWA) served 82,997 water customers, 67,339 sewer customers, and 80,650 stormwater customers. CCWA has a water production capacity of 42 million gallons per day (MGD), a water reclamation capacity of 38.4 MGD, and a six-city stormwater system that has 500 miles of piping. With service to so many customers, what is the average cost of service for a CCWA customer?

Alanna KinnebrewSeptember 22, 2020customer assistance programs, Georgia CAPs, clayton county water authority, ccwa, care.connect.conserveComment

To Pay, or Not to Pay (in Advance)

Prepaid metering has been around for a few decades now, but it comes in various forms depending on the location. The concept is similar to purchasing prepaid minutes for a cell phone or even fueling or charging a car. Customers pay for an allotted amount of a service in advance, depending on what they can afford or what they believe would supply them with enough service. Once paid, customers will immediately have access to said service… Many consumer advocate organizations, however, do not see prepaid metering systems as the best option for dealing with accessibility issues since this service is viewed as targeting vulnerable populations. So, that leaves one to question, can utilizing prepaid systems be an instrument to improve access and quality of water services to low-income communities, or does prepayment worsen access to water for low-income people? Can this be seen as an alternative to water shutoffs?

Alanna KinnebrewSeptember 10, 2020prepaid water, prepayment options, water finance, water affordabilityComment

Henry County Water Authority - Charitable Assistance Program

The Henry County Water Authority (HCWA) provides water service to over 61,000 residential customers and wastewater services to over 24,000 residential customers within unincorporated Henry County along with the cities of Hampton, Locust Grove, McDonough, and Stockbridge in Georgia. It has a total service area population of 240,900 people. This utility has a water treatment capacity of 40 million gallons per day and a wastewater treatment capacity of about 10.7 million gallons per day. What does the average customer pay for these services?

How Can Water Utilities Find the Money to Help Their Low-Income Customers?

Many utilities recognize that the need to continue to increase water and wastewater rates means that some customers will be unable to afford the higher rates. Throw new or increasing stormwater fees into the mix, and the problem is exacerbated. But, rate increases are usually necessary to maintain infrastructure and, in many cases, address backlogs. How can a utility find the funds to help the most vulnerable customers? Each state is a little different. But, there is one thing that has historically set Georgia apart when it comes to how water and wastewater utilities fund a customer assistance program (CAP) for low-income customers.

Stacey Isaac BerahzerAugust 5, 2020 Comment

Ways to Make Equitable Environmental Decisions with Community Input

When urban renewal made its way through Atlanta around the 1960s, it was initially viewed as a progressive policy that would give cities funding to clean up their impoverished areas and invest in affordable housing and urban infrastructure projects. Instead, there were devastating consequences for poor, minority communities who were disproportionately impacted and left with little to no alternative due to the lack of housing options. These communities were cut off from opportunity—and, it was not by choice . Government agencies, such as the Federal Housing Administration, encouraged redlining practices by promoting segregation efforts and refusing to insure mortgages in and near African American neighborhoods. The image below displays a map of Atlanta around the 1940s and shows the most “ideal” locations for white Americans to live in and around the city.

Keeping the Water on in Albany, Georgia During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Albany, Georgia is one of the hottest spots, nationally for COVID-19. Albany’s Dougherty County has less than 100,000 people, yet the per capita rate of coronavirus infection was second only to New York at the beginning of April, 2020. This rural county in Southwest Georgia has already had over 100 deaths, more deaths that any county in the Atlanta metro area. Dougherty is the only non-metro county with over one thousand positive tests for the disease at the writing of this post. How that came to be is probably a combination of two untimely funerals and a court case. But how does a municipality so small and so heavily impacted by this virus keep the water on?

Stacey Isaac BerahzerApril 27, 2020COVID-19, water affordability, pandemic Comment

H 2 Zero – How Climate Change Continues to Raise Concerns Surrounding a Lack of Water in Drought-Sensitive Regions

After spending the Christmas 2018 holiday in multiple airports traveling, with over seventeen hours of flight time, and one very long layover in Heathrow Airport, we finally touched down in Cape Town! I’ve never been so excited to get off of a plane before, and that’s saying a lot I love visiting new cities. But after a tiresome two days of travel, reaching Cape Town, South Africa sent a surge of relief as well as excitement for the adventure that awaited. A few college friends and myself made a pact to travel to a new country every 3 years and South Africa was our first destination of choice. I had done some research and knew that Cape Town had water issues, but I was in for a surprise as to how life there was affected by the water scarcity…

Alanna KinnebrewApril 20, 2020Cape Town, climate change, restrictor platesComment

Restricting the Flow of Water to Non-paying Customers, Instead of Complete Shut-offs

At IB Environmental (ibE) a big part of our work involves playing the role of connecting utilities and non-profit organizations. There is much common ground for these two groups to collaborate on, for example:

Water quality watchdogs can partner with a utility to provide education through stream cleanups and citizen workshops.
Nonprofits that act as social advocates for low-income residents and seniors often partner with the local utility to administer customer assistance programs (CAPs) for the financially vulnerable, a group that these organizations know more intimately than the utility does.

But there is one area where nonprofits and water utilities can't seem to find common ground. What to do about those customers who don't pay their water bills?

Stacey Isaac BerahzerApril 13, 2020affordability, water finance, restrictor platesComment

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