The COVID-19 pandemic had suddenly and persistently disrupted many aspects of water and wastewater utility operations and finance since March 2020. In North Carolina, as in many states, utilities experienced growing amounts of payment arrears, reductions in use and revenues … Read more

  This tool guides water/wastewater utility staff in estimating the costs of implementing a program to assist low-income residential customers pay their bills. Follow the step-by-step instructions to estimate the income distribution of households in the utility service areas and … Read more

  This tool uses socioeconomic indicators from the US Census’ American Community Survey (ACS), population projections from the Michigan Bureau of Labor Market Information and Strategic Initiatives, and relies on the user to input the system’s rates to imagine what … Read more

The State Revolving Funds were created to help water and wastewater systems finance projects to protect public health and abide to other federal regulations. Each state, to an extent, designs their own criteria and process to distribute funds to applicants … Read more

While the concept of no access to clean water or sanitation likely conjures an image of a community in a developing country where residents use outhouses, and walk miles carrying buckets of water just to meet basic needs, the problem … Read more

The EFC at UNC worked with Abt Environmental Research on a Water Research Foundation funded study entitled “Customer Assistance Programs for Multi-Family Residential and other Hard to Reach Customers.” The primary objective of this project was to provide water utilities … Read more

Although historically underpriced, water and wastewater rates in some parts of the United States are increasing sharply. While the rate increases are necessary to address infrastructure funding needs and make up for lower per capita water use, higher rates also … Read more

  This 15-slide presentation, given at the AWWA/WEF Utility Management Conference, serves as an introduction to conference topics addressing the interplay between water use and conservation, rates, and revenue stability.   

This article reviews how utilities can analyze their billing data to understand about the different types of customers that they serve, and tailor communications to the different groups of customers more appropriately.

This article reviews the use of different types of debt to pay for water and wastewater infrastructure in North Carolina.