A scan through the news from across the country will reveal that water and sewer rate increases are accelerating and are increasing in magnitude.  A closer examination of these individual situations will reveal that the increases are necessary mostly because of issues that could have been prevented with some planning.  However, some increases are headed your way soon for things that can’t be foreseen, like regulatory action.  In this sewer rate example from Missouri we see a small community’s plight when faced with a regulatory action.  In this case, the State regulator caused the the city’s residents to abandon their septic systems and to connect to the city’s sewer system.  The costs of compliance included the costs of the initial connections, but are now continuing to escalate in the form of treatment chemicals, etc.

Regulatory action is likely to increase rather than decrease during the term of the current federal administration.  If the President’s agenda from his campaign is any indicator, we can expect to see more regulatory actions on water and wastewater systems, especially in the area of energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions.