By Emily Kosmala As a student working under the Wetland Finance program at the Environmental Finance Center at UNC Chapel Hill, I spend most of my time exploring options for financing wetland protection. I’ve been studying new and creative ways to … Read more

In previous posts, we have talked about publicly available data on inflationary measures including the Consumer Price Index and the Construction Cost Index as well as on commercial energy use from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the US Census.  The US Census also has a rich set of data … Read more

During the 2014 North Carolina Water and Wastewater Finance course, the Town of Cary and Sensus Inc. presented to the class on a panel entitled “Smart Technology and Water Finance.” During the panel, Karen Mills, Cary’s Finance Director, and Leila … Read more

Restoration and protection of wetlands is one of the four core elements of a wetland program, as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  Some restoration and protection takes place through wetland regulatory activities, such as during the 401 certification … Read more

Water utilities face trying times when communicating the need to increase rates to cover the increasing costs of operating water and wastewater utilities. The issues are complex. The public is constantly bombarded with news from their phones, TVs, computers, etc., … Read more

Growing up in a country where school uniforms were mandatory, I viewed uniforms as, well …, “boring!” At least that was the way I felt in high school. One of the most engaging classes I can recall was when the … Read more