By Stacey Isaac Berahzer

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?

The City of Albany Utilities is a combined provider of water, gas, electric, etc. While it appears that they have lost two employees on the electricity side, the water staff seems to be healthy. This is a godsend when the only consistent message with COVID-19 has been to wash your hands. The water system is working hard to keep their operators safe. Operators take a truck to their homes and leave from there to go to relevant sites to perform their duties. Thus, the utility has limited one operator to a vehicle. This is a practice that is being mirrored in larger utilities too, where they are renting vehicles and borrowing them from other departments in their local governments in order to keep employees in separate vehicles. Using these adaptive practices, Albany water staff is keeping the water on for all their customers, even the customers who are not paying their bills.

Keeping the Water on Now

Like most water utilities, the City is currently not doing any water shutoffs. To combat the spread of the disease, people need water in their homes and businesses for proper hygiene. But, the freeze in disconnections also gives customers who have lost their jobs, cared for sick household members and faced
steep medical bills, somewhat of a financial break. These freezes in shutoffs are only temporary though. Even during a pandemic, water systems are still facing leak repairs, line replacement, and other maintenance needs. So, at some point, disconnections, which serve as a stick for nonpayment, will be reinstituted so that the utility can generate the money needed to run itself. The question of WHEN a utility will start disconnecting again is one that each utility is asking itself already.

Keeping the Water on Later

Where the state is not making mandates on these types of issues, each utility is on its own. When it comes to water, Georgia has been less prescriptive than other states during the pandemic. For example, while a dozen states have issued moratoriums on water disconnections, Georgia has not. Despite that, it seems most utilities have voluntarily ceased water shut offs. Beyond water, Georgia was slow to close the state via a shelter in place order. The Governor was also quick to reopen the state. On April 24, 2020, Georgia was the first state to reopen doors to gyms, bowling alleys, body art studios, estheticians, hair designers, and massage therapists to name a few. Restaurants were also given the greenlight to reopen as of April 27, 2020. For the water utilities, does this mean that they can restart shutoffs sooner rather than later? No utility is thrilled about being the first to implement this though. Imagine the newspaper headlines! Maybe Georgia water utilities will end up grouping themselves together in order to make these types of decisions regarding dates. The solidarity would mean that no one utility takes too much heat for being the first to restart shutoffs, start charging late fees again, etc. As a group, the utilities stand a better chance of analyzing and interpreting data on the disease together in order to make sound decisions. But then there are outliers like the COVID-19 hotspot in Albany. Even if Albany takes longer than other water systems in Georgia to do shutoffs, there are some ways that the utility can help its customers in the transition.

One, less conventional, way that a utility such as Albany can help its low-income customers is to restrict water flow so that bills are not as high, and therefore more manageable. More conventional practices that the City already employs are payment plans and budget billing. Essentially, these involve the customer paying the same predetermined amount per month. For customers who still can’t afford their bills after several months, can the water utility itself prop them up? This chart below is from a useful assessment tool from the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina. It shows many things, but let’s focus on the shape of the blue curve. It shows that there may not be enough people in Albany earning high enough incomes compared to the low-income folks on the left of the curve. The utility may need to look outside of its customer base for funds to assist the low-income water customers on the left side of the chart. If customers facing hardship call the customer service department at City of Albany Utilities, they may also be informed about the Neighbors in Need program that is run by a local church.

Figure 1: All Households - Affordability of Water & Wastewater Rates Assessed at 4,500 Gallons/Month and the 2018 Income Levels – Albany, GA

The federal government is currently not a source of funding to directly help low-income water customers with their water bills. Energy bills, yes, but water bills, no. This has caused some backlash for years now, and maybe this is the perfect storm to change that situation.

So, funding is not available directly from the federal government and it may not be available through the utility revenues either. But there are water assistance programs through local charitable organizations. A best practice is for a water utility to partner with local charitable and human service organizations in providing a water customer assistance program. These organizations can verify income and other eligibility criteria to ensure that the assistance goes to the customers who really need it. Fortunately, people in Albany can contact the Salvation Army or the United Way to ask for financial assistance to keep their water on in the long run.

Closing

Regardless of where you live, you too can help this small city keep the water running. When you visit the Salvation Army’s website, for example, to make a donation, specify “Albany Corps” in the comment section and maybe even include some text that your donation is for water customer assistance specifically.

Beyond altruistic reasons, why should YOU help Albany? Because your next role of toilet paper may depend on it. Albany, Georgia is home to a Procter and Gamble plant that churns out the stuff that can’t seem to stay on grocery store shelves during this pandemic.