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El Paso's Citizens Embrace the Value of Water and Reap Big Rewards
Author(s) -
Tennyson Patricia A.,
Parker Karol Walker
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.2007.tb07956.x
Subject(s) - general partnership , water supply , business , value (mathematics) , resource (disambiguation) , environmental economics , environmental planning , public–private partnership , sustainable development , engineering , economics , finance , political science , computer science , environmental science , environmental engineering , computer network , machine learning , law
The growing desert community of El Paso faced challenges in terms of identifying water supplies to meet demands and support the economy despite the fact that the community might not be able to afford the cost of infrastructure construction and repairs. This article describes how El Paso Water Utilities (EPWU) looked critically at its operations and made improvements, developed a rate structure that supported major goals such as conserving water, ensured that a safe and reliable water supply was available well into the future, and made the resource commitments necessary to involve the public and actively communicate with the community. EPWU learned that development of a sustainable water supply program requires planning and communicating about the value of water so the community will support the infrastructure investments it takes for this public‐private partnership to continue to succeed.