It is more crucial than ever to address the ever-growing water infrastructure challenges we are facing across the nation and in the state of Georgia. Perpetuating the cycle of underinvestment has resulted in failing infrastructure and poor water quality that disproportionately impacts communities of color and rural communities.
The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that Georgia needs to spend more than $12.5 billion over the next 20 years just to modernize its drinking water infrastructure. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is estimated that $335 billion is needed nationally over the next 20 years for infrastructure related expenses. The cost drivers and risk considerations include rising infrastructure replacement costs, increasingly stringent Safe Drinking Water Act requirements, rising costs of production and rising cybersecurity concerns.
As president of the National Association of Water Companies (NAWC), I am perplexed by the overall state of our water grid here in the U.S.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
Activists often place emphasis solely on water rates, distracting us from the deeper issues plaguing our water infrastructure in this country. Setting rates as the barometer by which water companies are judged is shortsighted and ultimately harmful to consumers. Artificially low rates, while attractive on the surface, perpetuate underinvestment in our nation’s water systems, leading to unsafe drinking water, unreliable service and the bills for crumbling infrastructure all coming due at once. After all, water that is unsafe to drink is unjust at any cost.
As a nation, we should embrace the greater goal of achieving water equity which requires a multi-pronged approach that assesses safety, reliability and affordability of water services.
There are more than 50,000 water utilities in the U.S. – compared to 3,300 electric utilities – with about half of those serving fewer than 500 customers. Without economies of scale, many small water systems are unable to invest in infrastructure, deploy new technologies, or address affordability issues. These issues often combine to cause a “death spiral” scenario for those systems.
Our most important goal is to guarantee that everyone has access to safe, reliable water at affordable rates no matter where they live despite the challenges in our way. Our highly fragmented water grid, which increases costs and often decreases water quality, is perpetuating environmental injustice and causing disproportionate harm to low-income communities.
Improved infrastructure means fewer water main breaks and less wasted water; old and leaky infrastructure results in the loss of six billion gallons of water each day across the United States. The 15 largest NAWC members invest more than $5 billion annually to improve community tap water systems across the nation.
Our members are leading the way when it comes to water equity, doing what is necessary to provide high-quality service while, at the same time, designing rate structures and assistance programs to help customers in need. To further care for low-income customers, many of our companies have created customer assistance programs and are among the strongest advocates for federal funding for low-income assistance funding.
We gathered recently with thought leaders and experts in Atlanta at our future-focused Water Summit. Our goal was to identify action-oriented solutions toward achieving safe and reliable water service.
Advocating for policies that encourage and facilitate partnerships and consolidation are critical to making sure safe, reliable water is available for all.
This is our call to action:
- To build a more sustainable water grid for generations to come.
- To consider the consequences of water inequity.
- To facilitate an industry-wide shift from judging systems solely on rates to embracing a holistic approach.
Then and only then will we be positioned to achieve complete water equity as a nation.
Robert F. Powelson is president and CEO of the National Association of Water Companies (NAWC). Powelson previously served on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and as chair of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.
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