Decoupling can improve conservation, revenue stability, and affordability all i’m offering you is the truth, nothing more It’s an El Niño summer, and water systems from Utah to Iowa to Florida are responding to
Sometimes there’s a little to say about a lot of things. Welcome back to Variable Flow. u can haz assistunce A tale of two memos EPA Office of Water recently released a memorandum outlining
A new book aims to shape the national conversation Now available from Palgrave Macmillan In December 2024, the La Follette School at UW-Madison and the Water & Health Advisory Council gathered researchers, regulators, water sector executives, and community
Palgrave Macmillan Manuel P. Teodoro, Editor In this open access book, contributors explore current challenges and opportunities to improve drinking water regulation, governance, management, environmental justice, and more. In 2024, the United States marked
Sometimes there’s a little to say about a lot of things. Welcome back to Variable Flow. Don't Blame the Victim wazn't me Congress is considering PFAS liability exemptions for water and sewer systems under
In an economy awash in capital, why does water want for investment? Cryptocurrencies turn code into gold, but water is the ultimate liquid asset. America’s water and sewer utilities need trillions of dollars of
On the astonishing power of random sampling Two paintings of New York City. Mondrian abstracts the metropolis into a rhythmic grid of color and line; Colin Campbell Cooper’s panorama is blurry, but probably more
Sometimes there’s a little to say about a lot of things. Welcome back to Variable Flow. i can haz flouride? Fluoride follies Grand Rapids, Michigan began adding fluoride to its water in 1945 to
Early dispatches from the revolution It’s been a little over two months since the Wisconsin Waterworks Excellence Project (WWEP) released the first public report cards for 572 Badger State water utilities. The WWEP publishes
Report cards for 570 Wisconsin water utilities strong marks for the Badger State’s capital city Back in 2019 I did something quite foolish: thinking out loud while testifying in a public hearing. When a
Policy Studies Journal Manuel P. Teodoro and David Switzer Abstract This paper analyzes public enterprise pricing as a form of redistributive politics. Beyond regulation and public goods, governments provide goods and services on a
Sometimes there’s a little to say about a lot of things. Welcome back to Variable Flow. u needz bettur sooer purrmit Hooray? The US Supreme Court's handed sewer utilities a win last week in
The water comms test kitchen serves up a low-tech triumph *chef's kiss* A couple years ago I had the opportunity to work with Jean Smith at the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) to
A Field Experiment to Promote Low-Income Assistance Programs Public Administration Review Manuel P. Teodoro and Jean Smith ABSTRACT Limited awareness impedes take-up in low-income utility assistance programs, which often suffer from low uptake. This
Sometimes there’s a little to say about a lot of things. Welcome back to Variable Flow. dis water haz teh icky plastiks Microplastics: bottle vs. tap In a stunning development, it turns out that water
Affordability in America, 2023 | Part 3 (Featured image above by Bruno Guerrero.)little known fact: the Dollars Trilogy films were utility management allegories Higher prices don’t necessarily create affordability problems. Across the United States, water
Affordability in America, 2023 | Part 2 How you distribute the load matters. An odd thing about water compared with most other things we buy is that residential water demand represents qualitatively different uses
Affordability in America, 2023 | Part 1 Prices at Der Rathskeller are up, too It’s not your imagination—water and sewer service really are more expensive than they used to be. But figuring out how much more
The gendered pattern of water consumption among federal food assistance participants My last post showed that there’s a gendered relationship between household income and bottled water consumption in the United States. For men, there
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
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
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
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
