NGA Webinar on Water Utility Consolidation Held this Week

On October 31, the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices held a webinar on “State Level Policies to Promote Water Utility Consolidation” as part of the Water Policy Learning Network. The speakers for the webinar were Gary Larimore, the Executive Director of Kentucky Rural Water Association, and Deborah Dewey, the President of Indiana and Michigan American Water. During the webinar, the speakers provided information about their efforts to consolidate water systems as well as recommendations for Governors on how to help foster water system consolidation. Some of the recommendations included:

• Encouraging rather than mandating consolidation, and providing financial and regulatory incentives.
• Developing a Water Resource Infrastructure System (WRIS) similar to Kentucky’s to help with water needs forecasting, digitized maps, water system asset inventories, asset management, and emergency response.
• Championing state policies that remove hurdles for selling water utilities and selling them at a fair market price.
• Providing rate-making mechanisms that attract investment and requiring evaluations of regional alternatives before large system investments.

View the webinar recording here.