Between November 2017 and March 2018, the North Carolina League of Municipalities (NCLM) and the Environmental Finance Center (EFC) at the University of North Carolina’s School of Government conducted a statewide survey of the drinking water and wastewater utility management and long-term planning practices and policies of North Carolina. The purpose of this survey was to examine the relationship between long-term planning and resiliency, as measured by financial stability and fewer regulation violations.
The hypothesis is that utilities that undertake more or earlier long-term planning benefit from more resilient finances and improved system performance, thereby providing better environmental services relative to other utilities. All local government-owned utilities and many not-forprofit utilities were invited to participate in the survey. These utilities serve the vast majority of residents who are connected to public water and/or wastewater systems in North Carolina.
This initial report summarizes the data collected in the water and wastewater utility management survey. A future article will discuss the results of using regression analysis to determine the correlation, if any, between long-term planning and resiliency.