Keeping Pace With Water and Wastewater Rates

Journal Article · Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of the American Water Works Association

DOI:https://doi.org/10.5942/jawwa.2017.109.0101· OSTI ID:1437970

Stratton, Hannah ^[1]; Fuchs, Heidi ^[1]; Chen, Yuting ^[1]; Dunham, Camilla ^[1]; Ni, Chun Chun ^[1]; Williams, Alison ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Energy Efficiency Standards Group

We present that 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. Finally, current and upcoming challenges facing water and wastewater utilities suggest that rate increases are likely to continue in the foreseeable future.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-05CH11231
• OSTI ID: 1437970
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1787351
• Journal Information: Journal of the American Water Works Association, Journal Name: Journal of the American Water Works Association Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 109; ISSN 0003-150X
• Publisher: American Water Works Association
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
CPI
Water Rates
rates
wastewater
water