What is WIFIA? WIFIA stands for the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, the name of the federal act that authorized an interesting new federally managed water and wastewater infrastructure funding mechanism. WIFIA includes both direct loans and a new … Read more
Last month, as part of our Smart Management for Small Water Systems project, I traveled with Glenn Barnes, Senior Project Director at the Environmental Finance Center at UNC Chapel Hill, to visit a small water system that is in quite a … Read more
A customer calls and wants to know the water and sewer rates in his town. What do you say? Do you direct him to your website? Tell him to swing by town hall or your office and pick up a … Read more
“Are our water utility’s rates right?” This is an often difficult question that arises at our workshops and webinars for small water systems, through our direct technical assistance, and which many of our readers may be interested in. While there is no … Read more
As this blog is being written, water and community managers from across the country are talking about the water crisis that is occurring in Flint, Michigan. The City made a decision several years ago to discontinue buying Lake Huron water … Read more
How can small (and large) water systems pay for energy efficiency and renewable energy, helping cut energy costs? As energy is often the largest variable expense in a water system’s operating budget, this is a recurring question for the ongoing Smart … Read more
About 96% of the population in Puerto Rico receives water from the Puerto Rico Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA). But the other 4% of the population is supplied by about 240 very small water systems. In teaching workshops this year … Read more
* This blog was originally posted on the UNC EFC’s previous website on October 1st, 2015, and has been re-posted on our current website for our audience’s viewing. By Glenn Barnes In previous posts, we outlined how to use … Read more
What to include in the capital plan is up to the utility. However, a few external factors could influence what a utility chooses to include in its plan. Funding agencies often require submission of specific information that can/should be collected … Read more
The way that drinking water and wastewater systems pay for energy improvements in the United States is changing – including for small drinking water systems (serving 10,000 or fewer people). As has often been mentioned on the EFC’s blog, the … Read more
