TiR Toolkit: Frontline Communities Module Overview
Restoring and Reimagining Investment in Public Water
Restoring and Reimagining Investment in Public Water
As the COVID-19 pandemic acutely highlighted, water is essential to life and health. Without affordable, clean, and safe water, the ability of people to wash their hands, bathe, wash and cook food, clean clothes, prepare infant formula, stay hydrated, and do other everyday activities that keep them healthy is severely compromised, if not impossible. However, threats of aging water infrastructure in desperate need of repair, combined with declining federal funding, have contributed to a water affordability crisis across the country, especially for low-income communities and communities of color. This policy brief examines the connections between the current state of water infrastructure, the unaffordability of water, and the harms caused by privatization, with a focus on how these issues impact vulnerable communities, especially those of color.
This brief includes case studies that examine privatization issues in Atlanta, Georgia, Baltimore, Maryland, Flint, Michigan, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It also provides policy recommendations to help restore and reimagine water as a true public good—clean, safe, affordable, equitable, publicly controlled, and for all.
Click the link below to download the full issue brief.
Smart Management for Small Water Systems Project
Smart Management for Small Water Systems Project
The Smart Management for Small Water Systems Project seeks to address major issues facing the nation’s smallest drinking water systems (those serving 10,000 or fewer people). Lead by the Environmental Finance Center at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-managed by the Southwest Environmental Finance Center, the Smart Management for Small Water Systems project is a collaborative effort between the members of the Environmental Finance Center Network and its partners, the National Association of Development Organizations and the Government Finance Officers Association, and is made possible through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Small water systems can take advantage of training and resources through a variety of offerings including:
- In-Person Workshops
- One-on-one technical assistance
- Small Group sessions
- Funder forums
- Webinars
- eLearning Modules
- Water Rates Dashboards
- Blog Posts
Click the link below for more information and to access the project's resources.
Stormwater Fee Structure Design
Stormwater Fee Structure Design: Is One Fee Structure More ‘Equitable?’
By: Evan Kirk, UNC Environmental Finance Center
"Stormwater, or simply runoff, is precipitation that does not soak into the ground. Stormwater management involves controlling the quantity and quality of stormwater as it eventually enters waterways via ditches, culverts, and stormwater drains. Success stormwater management ensures public health and safety. Stormwater management programs may also be responsible for regulatory compliance, public education, and other requirements. It thus will come as no surprise that managing stormwater is expensive."
Continue reading this UNC Environmental Finance Center article outlining possible stormwater fee structures, and how these structures impact ratepayers.
City of Claremont v Golden State Water
City of Claremont v Golden State Water
On December 9, 2016, the City of Claremont, California, brought an eminent domain case against Golden State Water Company in an effort to buy back the local water system and bring it into public ownership.
Click the link below the download the complaint.
Superior Court Dismisses City of Claremont Complaint
Superior Court Dismisses City of Claremont Complaint To Condemn Golden State Water Company System
On December 9, 2016, the Honorable Richard L. Fruin, Jr. of the Superior Court of Los Angeles County dismissed the City of Claremont’s complaint to take Golden State Water Company’s (“Golden State”) Claremont Water System by eminent domain. In dismissing the complaint, Judge Fruin held that Golden State had successfully rebutted the presumptions in favor of condemnation under California’s eminent domain law.
Click the link below to read an article summarizing the case.
Transforming the East Orange Water Commission
Transforming the East Orange Water Commission
Presentation by Mayor Lester E. Taylor III East Orange, New Jersey, outlining the town's approach to keeping their water system publicly owned while bringing much needed updates to the system's governance and operation.
Click the link below to access the presentation.
Baltimore Water Billing Rates and Fees
Baltimore Water Billing Rates and Fees
Starting July 1, 2019, Baltimore City will charge water/sewer fees listed in the chart below. These charges reflect a series of 9 percent increases to the current water, wastewater and stormwater charges, and fund the enhanced customer assistance program, Baltimore H20 Assists. The 9 percent increases are effective July 1, 2019, July 1, 2020, and July 1, 2021. The water and wastewater rate increases apply to two components, fixed charges and volumetric charges. The monthly water charge is set by meter size and is assessed until a property is formally abandoned. Water consumption is charged in CCF (100 Cubic Feet). One CCF equals 748 Gallons.
Click the link below to explore further at the City of Baltimore's Public Works page.
Inside Baltimore’s Fight Over Water Privatization
Inside Baltimore's Fight Over Water Privatization
By: Sarah Holder
"Privatizing a city's water system tends to produce a dual outcome: Pipes, once rusty, get sleek; rates get steep. When water went private in Bayonne, New Jersey, local ratepayers started paying an extra 28 percent for water; and in Middletown, Pennsylvania, privatization meant an 11.5 percent surcharge (and officials are suing the utility to stop it).
This November, amid fears that their city will meet the same fate, voters in Baltimore will decide on a charter amendment that would ban water privatization preemptively. They'd be the first major city to do it."
Click the link below to read the full article.
Baltimore To Vote On Water Privatization Ban
Baltimore To Vote On Water Privatization Ban
By: Sara Jerome
In this Water Online article, the author recounts the build up to Baltimore's vote on amending its charter to prevent privatization of its water system.
Click the link below to read the full article.
