Understanding the Complexities
Mary-Anna Holden is a former New Jersey Commissioner. Butch Howard is a former South Carolina Commissioner.
Affordability is an elusive term. What’s affordable for you may not be affordable for me. More accurately, what we’re really thinking (but not saying) is, “I’m having trouble paying my bills. I am being forced by finances to pick my priorities.”
Water affordability is particularly complex. The need for water is compounded by ever-increasing legal, regulatory, health, and environmental concerns which are imposed on all potable water systems, regardless of size or kind of ownership.
While many people respond that water falls from the sky, they have no idea that there are costs to collect and treat that water so it can be available for delivery to each customer’s tap. This is a very capital-intensive and unseen operation. Customers are interested in clean, healthy water. The rest is all noise.
Affordability was the focus at the February meeting of the NARUC Committee on Water. “Aggressive national contaminant standards and compliance timelines add to increasing prices,” said Committee Chair Michael Bange, a Commissioner at the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. “Supply chains are strained, construction materials cost is inflated, and demand for capable contractors is stretched. Where will the money come from?”