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It’s that time of year again, and ballot initiatives are all the rage. There are bound to be several dozen all over the country, but there are two in Colorado in particular that could have a direct impact on water utilities in that state, and perhaps downstream. Although they are still under some legal scrutiny [...]
In a couple of presentations I’ve given in the past few months, I’ve talked about one of the key drivers in the water and wastewater utility industry being a pending shortfall in the labor pool. One of the leading indicators of a shortage is not the lack of employable people, but rather the lack of [...]
If you watched 60 Minutes (CBS) on Sunday 12/19 then you heard a story about how the States are in big trouble with their budget deficits that renowned Wall Street analyst Meredith Whitney says is likely to lead to a wave of municipal bond defaults. The prologue for failing municipalities looks like this: the State [...]
An ex-employee of JM Eagle files a lawsuit alleging impropriety in the manufacturing of water lines. Over 5 states have already joined this lawsuit. Does this impact your utility?
Privatization is thought by many to be a panacea for lowering costs for water and wastewater systems. Yet, here we have again another example of how a private owner/operator, in this case Indiana American (subsidiary of American Water, NYSE: AWK), seeking a very large increase in rates (click here for the news story). We have [...]
We often hear how private utility companies can achieve efficiencies in their water and sewer operations that will result in community benefits (like lower water and sewer rates). For a period of time in the US there was an active market where major cities were selling their utility concessions to private corporations. Veolia was one [...]
Intricate rate designs can be helpful in reaching certain community goals, but elected officials in particular should never underestimate the value of simplicity. In this example from Frankfort, KY (http://bit.ly/11h0OB) we see how customers can become easily confused with their utility bills and how that confusion can increase when multiple utilities are billed together. In [...]