Equity and Public Infrastructure Costs

The year 2020 brought many words and phrases to the forefront of the public’s collective consciousness. The idea of equity is being considered more carefully in many communities across the country. For instance, the City of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota included Equity as one of six goals to accomplish within the next five years in the … Read more

Federal Appropriations Bill & COVID Relief Package Benefits the Water Sector

The Federal year-end Omnibus Appropriations Bill was grouped with the high profile COVID relief legislative package. Several appropriations benefit the water sector, including: Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF): $1,638,826,000 Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF): $1,126,088,000 Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA): $59.5M U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Overflow Control & Stormwater Municipal … Read more

‘Tis the Season to Set Rates for Next Year

The fourth quarter of what seems like the longest year in history is upon us.  As utility decision makers review year-end revenue projections and sign off on expenditures for the coming year, it is also the time for the discussion of the rate schedule.  Rate changes can be a complicated and difficult discussion topic.  The … Read more

Affordability Considerations

The water and wastewater industry have taken encouraging steps to update the approach to affordability over this last year. What started as some recognition from those within the industry has grown to include a large affordability framework from the U.S. Water Alliance and formal update to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) Financial Capability Assessment. … Read more

2020 Rate Survey Results for Systems Serving Less than 5,000 & Regional Systems

We appreciate all of the voluntary responses we received for the 2020 AE2S Nexus Annual Utility Rate Survey. The Survey booklets have been distributed to participants. We hope that the results are useful to systems throughout the region as budgets are finalized and 2021 rates are set, by providing a regional measure for utilities to … Read more

2020 Rate Survey Results for Systems Serving 5,000 or Greater

The 2020 AE2S Nexus Annual Utility Rate Survey has been distributed to the participants who voluntarily shared their data.  We hope that the results are useful to systems throughout the region as budgets are finalized and 2020 rates are set, by providing a regional measure for utilities to benchmark themselves against similar systems and/or the … Read more