What could make the difference between a utility making it through an event like Hurricane Florence with relatively few impacts, and one that has major, lasting problems? Imagine two utilities, just over the county line from one another, with the … Read more

As of 2014, NOAA estimated that about 40 percent of the US population lives in a county on the coast and these coastal counties are responsible for 56 million jobs. As a nation, we have developed heavily along the coastlines, … Read more

Post Authored by Elizabeth Kendrick Our previous post brought you Dr. Christine Boyle, founder and CEO of Valor Water Analytics (Valor), which works with utilities worldwide to introduce technologies that drive efficiency and set a new bar for how utilities … Read more

Earlier this year, Valor Water Analytics (Valor) was acquired by Xylem Inc., a $13B water technology company that services utility and commercial clients across 150 countries. While this is big news in its own right within the water industry, it’s … Read more

Did you know there are over 250 publicly owned small water systems serving less than 1,000 connections in North Carolina? In the case of water and wastewater utilities, bigger can often mean better. The Environmental Finance Center at the University … Read more

Co-authored by Ashley Bleggi At a recent conference, we asked utility managers and operators to tell us about their everyday communication challenges. Again and again, we heard that communicating with customers about the value of the service their utility provides … Read more

Guest  post by Kara Millonzi This post was originally published to the School of Government’s Coates’ Canons Blog on June 26, 2018. In the 2017 legislative session, the General Assembly specifically authorized all local government utility providers to charge upfront … Read more

The State Revolving Fund (SRF) programs have become a well-known financing option for many water and wastewater infrastructure projects across the country. This is mainly due to the longevity of the clean water (CWSRF) and drinking water (DWSRF) programs and … Read more

At the Environmental Finance Center, we think a lot about the affordability of environmental services such as drinking water and wastewater.  Historically, many systems have measured affordability by looking at the cost of service compared to a community’s median household … Read more

In the course of conducting our statewide utility rates surveys, we here at the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examine thousands of rate structures each year. We’ve seen it all, from the especially … Read more