Premium
Keeping Pace With Water and Wastewater Rates
Author(s) -
Stratton Hannah,
Fuchs Heidi,
Chen Yuting,
Dunham Camilla,
Ni Chun Chun,
Williams Alison
Publication year - 2017
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 - 10.5942/jawwa.2017.109.0101
Subject(s) - wastewater , sewage , sewage treatment , environmental science , margin (machine learning) , index (typography) , pace , capital (architecture) , water resource management , environmental engineering , geography , computer science , geodesy , archaeology , machine learning , world wide web
Water and wastewater treatment and delivery are the most capital‐intensive of all utility services. The literature indicates that historically underpriced water and wastewater rates have exhibited steadily high growth in the past 15 years, while the consumer price index (CPI) of water and sewage maintenance has outpaced the general CPI by an increasingly wide margin. This article employs a chained analysis method to examine water and wastewater rates for a group of utilities across US Census regions between 2000 and 2014. Results demonstrate that water and wastewater prices for this sample group have consistently increased and have surpassed CPI growth since 2006. Current and upcoming challenges facing water and wastewater utilities suggest that rate increases are likely to continue in the foreseeable future.