Post by Stephen Lapp, Omid Barr, and Elsemarie Mullins at the UNC EFC The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was signed into law on November 15, 2021. This legislation includes $50 billion for water/wastewater infrastructure, distributed over 5 years, and the allocations … Read more
The Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina (UNC EFC) is hard at work on the 2022 North Carolina water and wastewater rates dashboard. We look forward to providing residential rates early in 2022. The public dashboard displays … Read more
Water and sewer utilities have a responsibility to develop a system to serve all customers within their jurisdictional boundaries, but outside customers live outside that political jurisdiction. There is a lot of discourse concerning the justification of charging higher … Read more
The newly passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (H.R. 3684) is a significant investment in not only our nation’s infrastructure, but also our nation’s long-term sustainability. Now that the bill has been signed into law, it provides the largest federal investment … Read more
For many years, the federally–funded Low Income Household Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) has assisted customers with energy and heating bills, but no equivalent existed for water/wastewater bills until 2020. In the wake of COVID-19 and many moratoria on water and wastewater disconnections, Congress funded a Low Income … Read more
How can we build communities that are resilient to environmental disasters and other related challenges, and how can a multidisciplinary approach guide us through this process? The Disaster and Resilience Water Symposium, hosted by Duke Water Network at the … Read more
Post by Omid Barr, Project Director and Evan Kirk, Acting Senior Project Director at the UNC EFC Sea level rise and heavier rain fall events driven by climate change are causing more frequent and severe flooding events. More than ever, communities … Read more
Recent EFC tools have a new look and feel. Historically, the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina (EFC) built spreadsheet tools. EFC tools are designed to help utilities organize and analyze financial data to make sustainable … Read more
The Old EFC Affordability Tool Seven years ago, the Environmental Finance Center at the UNC School of Government (EFC) debuted its Excel-based water and wastewater rates assessment tool. The tool guided utilities to assess the relative affordability of water and … Read more
The Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) program was created over 20 years ago through amendments to the Clean Water Act. The CWSRF provides low interest loans to local government units for water quality-related projects. Each year, a portion … Read more
