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Great vision isn’t always attributed to leaders of the nation’s wastewater utilities. It’s an unfair reality that when great leaders of our local, state, and national water and wastewater industry are successful, the natural result is that everyone quickly forgets that there was ever a problem that required any vision to begin with. Yet, there [...]
If you’ve followed the recent history of Illinois American Water Co. on this blog, you would know that recent rate case filings at the ICC (Illinois Commerce Commission) have been met with a whole lot of public opposition. The company has been attempting to increase its rates in virtually all of its subsidiary service areas, [...]
I came across an excellent paper on utility economics the other day during some internet research. The paper stands out for its focus on regulation of natural monopoly businesses, which specifically include water and sewer utilities. Natural monopolies are defined as an industry where a single firm can produce output to supply the entire market [...]
The USEPA’s Community Water System Survey released in 2009 provides more evidence that private utilities do not provide services at a net benefit to customers. Although the survey shows that the actual cost is lower at private utilities than for public ones, those savings evaporate once private owner profits are considered. If you factor in [...]
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 [...]
For many months we have tracked the activities of private water companies in America through their requests for – most large – rate increases. We have an entire category on this blog dedicated to these activities listed under “privitization” on the right sidebar; give it a click to get some of the astounding history behind [...]
The Illinois American Water Co. (subsidiary of much larger American Water Works Co. – AWK) is seeing new scrutiny from the Illinois Commerce Commission on its proposal for 30% increases in water rates for many Chicago-area utilities that it operates. The rate case has made its way to the ICC where Illinois Attorney General Lisa [...]
The City of Indianapolis, whose privately operated water system (Veolia has been the private owner/operator for several years) was ever so recently facing a 35% increase in water rates just 6 months after an 11% increase, has even more recently decided to scrap their private ownership model. “With this agreement, I am rejecting private ownership [...]
In the continuing saga of American Water and its wide scale requests for large increases in water utility rates in its service areas nationwide, we find the latest such request for its Arizona affiliate. Water Utility Rates will go up in Sun City, AZ by 28% and wastewater rates by 40% under Arizona American’s proposal. [...]
It looks like American Water Co. is out to get back in the black on a national scale. We now have three examples, all within the last 30 days, of subsidiary companies of American Water seeking very large rate increases in different service areas. Add the Veolia case from Indianapolis, and we have four examples. [...]
City governments have long admired the money making ability of a water or sewer utility. The enterprise funds are not tax based and, after all, they are natural monopolies where the cities could charge nearly anything they wanted. Plundering enterprise funds to shore up budgets elsewhere is an old practice, and it’s one of the [...]
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 [...]
The Illinois American water company serving about 10,000 customers in the Chicago area has asked the Illinois Commerce Commission to approve a 30% increase in water rates and a 50% increase in sewer rates. What the protesters probably don’t understand, and what everyone who thinks substituting public ownership of their water/sewer utilities with private (corporate) ownership needs to know is that the private utility owner has a constitutional right to charge rates that will allow it the opportunity to earn a reasonable profit.
The following links will take you to PDF files for the 4-hour seminar on water and sewer rates. The seminar is a short course that we present from time to time with the targeted audience being elected officials and general managers. It’s not a hands-on course that teaches the ins and outs of utility rates [...]