The gendered relationship between income and bottled water consumption Bottled water was something of a novelty in the U.S. back in the 1990s when I started working in the water sector. It was perceived
Sometimes there’s a little to say about a lot of things. Welcome back to Variable Flow. i can haz clean river? Tribal ripple effects Since the late 1980s, tribal governments in the United States have
Lessons from six years of income-based water assistance in Philadelphia Six years ago, to great fanfare, Philadelphia Water launched a new approach to bill assistance for low-income water and sewer customers: the Tiered Assistance
Customer perceptions of utility quality & premise plumbing both contribute to consumer choices about drinking water trustworthy tap? A central theme that emerges from The Profits of Distrust is that the choice to drink
Opinion published in Newsweek, 3/29/2023 Everything is more expensive these days—even tap water. U.S. water utility prices have been rising faster than general inflation, driven in large part by a need to replace and update
Sometimes there’s a little to say about a lot of things. Welcome to Variable Flow.* coming for your COVID leftovers Congress giveth, Congress taketh away The debt ceiling drama that recently roiled D.C. culminated in
Strategic guidance for water sector leaders Over the past several months I’ve written a series advancing five pillars of affordability: broad principles to guide affordability policy for leaders of America’s water and sewer utilities.
The fifth pillar of affordability is Delinquency Management An epic battle of good & evil at the water meter This is the final in a series of posts outlining five pillars of affordability strategy
It’s hard to ask for help. Utilities should make it easier. Paperwork can be burdensome Water and sewer affordability is a complicated challenge that demands a multifaceted solution; to meet that challenge, I’ve developed
Initial thoughts on EPA’s proposed PFAS standards This is a perfluorooctanesulfonic acid molecule. It's kind of cute! Almost. As regular readers of this blog are likely aware, this week EPA announced proposed Maximum Contaminant
A thought experiment and back-of-envelope illustration Water/sewer utility customer assistance programs (CAPs) don’t run themselves. When utilities use rate revenue to pay for CAPs, administrative costs can quickly eat into benefits that such programs
Administratively costly assistance programs can hurt more than they help perpetually stylish. timelessly true. Water and sewer affordability is a complicated challenge that demands a multifaceted solution; to meet that challenge, I’ve developed five
How much assistance should each customer get? When things get hot, coverage matters more than fit Customer assistance programs (CAPs) form the fourth pillar of affordability strategy. Previous posts described the first three pillars
The fourth pillar of affordability is income-qualified assistance Utility bills were very affordable in Thoreau's day! But then, he also died from tuberculosis. ...in which I lay out a framework for water utilities that
Sustainable solutions for Jackson, Mississippi not a sustainable solution National attention is back on drinking water utilities, and once again for all the wrong reasons. As readers of this blog surely know by now,
The third pillar of affordability is Rate Design “Affordable” means different things in different contexts This post is the third in a series outlining five pillars of affordability strategy for water and sewer utilities.
The second pillar of affordability is Efficiency One of these matters more than the other This post is the second in a series outlining five pillars of affordability strategy for water and sewer utilities. Together,
The first pillar of affordability is Quality Gotta count the bottles and the bills So long as water and sewer services operate on a fee-for-service basis, ensuring that these critical services are affordable will
Gendered and partisan responses to proposed rate increases [An absurdly busy couple of months has kept me away from the blogosphere—sorry. Will try to get back into a regular groove now] Winning public support
The science of talking about water rate increases It’s not about the water tower—it’s about what’s inside Strictly from a value standpoint, it’s hard to imagine anything that provides more bang for the buck
Notes on the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Part III Water professionals of America, unite! Late last year Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, authorizing
Notes on the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Part II* The Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act is 1,039 pages long. That’s a lot of tea. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA, better known as
Notes on the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Part I No need for air conditioning In November President Biden signed the long-awaited $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) better known as the Bipartisan
How much consolidation is enough? you know it when you hit the sweet spot There’s a growing consensus that there are way too many water utilities in the United States. America’s 50,000 community water
Better federal water bill assistance with this one weird trick Click here to read my op-ed on this topic in Newsweek. When Congress created a new $638 million federal Low Income Household Water Assistance
How to stop taxing water It’s hard to know exactly how much money Americans are paying in taxes at the tap, but it’s a lot. Last time I described the variety of ways that
Collecting tax revenue through water bills hurts affordability & turns utilities into coercive agents of government Can you find the tax? They may not realize it, but tens of millions of Americans pay taxes
California utility regulators lead the way with comprehensive affordability assessment Wonderboy was the star of the movie, but Savoy Special won the game Between a global pandemic and a presidential election, you might have missed
What happens when governments ask the public to report water waste? Ever feel like you're being watched? Rainfall has been low, the mountain snowpack is thin, and Californians are bracing for another year of
On the limits of means-tested assistance programs for water & sewer Red Sox legend Ted Williams was the last player to bat over .400... in 1941 **Warning: sports metaphor ahead** Like hitting a baseball,
When utility regulation fails, democracy fails ​when utilities fail, democracy fails The utility failures in the Lone Star State last week cascaded into a disaster when extreme weather hit an isolated electrical grid.* But
Managing the $638 million low-income water & sewer assistance in the federal COVID relief package Now what? As frequent readers of this page likely know, the COVID relief bill that Congress passed in December
Inefficient, inequitable, and maddeningly slow, America’s fragmented administrative institutions are saving the Republic before our eyes. American elections are run by a ​jumble of local, state, and federal agencies. That’s a feature, not a
Confluence. [kän-flü-ən(t)s]. n. A coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point. ​Water is a big deal in Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania is a swing state. Am I being too subtle? More evidence that,
Why water should be the Biden Administration’s top environmental priority Manny's electoral map The Biden administration’s environmental policy priorities are likely to be quite different from the Trump administration’s, and the impending change at
