Blog
Current Blog Posts
Clean Water Access Challenges in the United States
Water and sanitation access challenges are often thought of in the extremes—lack of a clean water source in a village or community or lack of indoor plumbing in homes. But the reality is that many…
Scraps to Savings: Composting in Communities
Could mandatory composting be implemented in a municipality, and if so, what could this mean for communities? To answer this, we can look to San Francisco, the first U.S. city to implement a large scale…
Hidden in Plain Sight
Guest post by Brian Dabson Mobile homes are a vital but generally unloved part of North Carolina’s affordable housing stock. They come to public attention in times of extreme weather, particularly high winds and floods….
Local Government Financial Resilience and Preparation Before a Natural Disaster
The 2017 U.S. Atlantic hurricane season is officially the most expensive ever, amounting to $202.6 billion in damages across the Atlantic basin. This record-breaking hurricane season brought some of the most catastrophic storms in recent…
How Communities Can Save Money on National Flood Insurance
Throughout 2017, there has been discussion in Congress surrounding the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which is set to expire tomorrow, Dec. 8. The program was established in 1968 as a service to at-risk communities…
Staying Up to Date with North Carolina Stormwater Utility Fees
In order to better understand the stormwater finance and governance landscape, the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently inventoried and analyzed the stormwater fees used by 74 municipalities…
Five Communication Tips for Stormwater Incentive Programs
Stormwater incentive programs are a creative tool used by some towns and cities to encourage community participation in stormwater management practices. Many of the incentive programs encourage citizens to install green stormwater infrastructure projects on…
Catawba County’s Innovative Water Service Partnership Model
It seems like almost everyone, including regulators and utility organizations, recognize the benefits and need for expanded partnerships and collaboration in the water and wastewater sector. Small towns are finding it difficult to meet their…