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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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
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
No, EPA did not propose affordability guidelines for municipal utilities Late last week the EPA published in the Federal Register some proposed new guidelines for evaluating sewer utilities’ financial strength. In press releases and
About that water affordability study in The Guardian... Water is a ZILLION PERCENT unaffordable! Also, aliens. The Guardian recently published a big story on water utility affordability in the United States. The headline was shocking:
Sovereignty isn’t what’s on paper, it’s what flows through taps and rivers Environmental sovereignty (Photo: nativenewsonline.net) America is slowly awakening to the dire state of tribal water and sewer systems. Access to drinking water
The congressional COVID cavalry isn’t coming to save the water sector "Nobody got nothing to say about a 40-degree day." The ink was barely dry on a $2 trillion coronavirus response law when Congress
for a federal low-income water bill assistance program All watery eyes are fixed on Washington The ink is barely dry on the $2 trillion coronavirus response law, but there are rumblings that a another
How the federal government might end shutoffs & keep water flowing during the COVID-19 crisis Can’t do this if your water has been shut off. The COVID-19 crisis has escalated America’s water and sewer
Understanding progressive & regressive water pricing By J. Antonio Teodoro & Manny Teodoro maybe she runs a dialysis clinic in the basement? How do utilities distribute the costs of drinking water systems to their
Playing to win not to lose in water utility management Nature's Prevent Defense Warning: strained sports metaphor coming. It’s late January, and the National Football League season soon reaches its climax with the Super
