Social media implications, at the recent Illinois Rural Water Conference, was listed as one of the many challenges utilities currently face and will continue to face over the next 10 years. An MIT study concluded that falsehoods are 70% more likely to be shared with...
Water Solutions
Inflation Red Flags
by Sam Wade | Jun 15, 2022
Inflation has and will continue to increase operational cost for water and wastewater utilities. These challenges, seeded by the COVID pandemic, require business and utilities to undertake planning to address these immediate challenges. These challenges require...
Lead Water Service Line Replacement Poses Problem for Utilities
by Bill Eller | Jun 10, 2022
You turn on the tap and water comes out. It seems simple, but it isn’t for millions of homes across the country that have lead water service lines and lead plumbing. Lead is a neurotoxin that is especially dangerous to babies and small children, and children in...
Apprentice Scholarship Program Develops Skilled Water Workers
by Sam Wade | Jun 3, 2022
The water and wastewater industry has suffered challenges attracting employees over the past few years. The ServLine by HomeServe Apprentice Scholarship is designed to address the challenges faced by rural water systems in attracting and developing the next generation...
Workforce Shortage More Than Local
by Sam Wade | May 24, 2022
Help Wanted signs are prevalent across the United States including in the water and wastewater industry. The workforce shortage will have a far reaching impact on utilities, especially if construction and upgrades are planned. Systems should expect the shortage...
Lead Service Lines Highly Impact Low-Income, Minority Households
by Bill Eller | May 13, 2022
The lead water service lines in this country need to be replaced, but replacement programs need to keep low-income homeowners in mind in the planning stages. There are nine million homes in America that get their water through lead water service lines, and lead water...
Houston Woman Saves Nearly $7,000 to Replace Faulty Plumbing with HomeServe
by Dennis Lyon | May 3, 2022
Frances W. of Houston, Texas, is an older adult on a fixed income, so when she learned about HomeServe's emergency repair plans, she thought it was a good idea. To protect herself from an emergency repair, she enrolled in plans to protect her exterior water and sewer...
NLC Service Line Warranty Program and Orem, Utah, Celebrate Service Milestone
by Dennis Lyon | May 3, 2022
What a week it’s been – and it’s only Wednesday! This week, I had the pleasure of joining my colleague Steve Bieranowski in the City of Orem, Utah to meet with our partners. Together, we celebrated an amazing milestone we reached together: $1 million in home repair...
Bad Debt Impacts Utilities’ Plans for Capital Projects
by Bill Eller | Apr 8, 2022
Bad debt and mounting maintenance costs: Just call them the Scylla and Charybdis of public water utilities. Much of the investment into the water systems across the nation are nearly half a century in the past and the maintenance bill has come due. The American...
Lead Service Line Replacement Programs Made More Complex by Incomplete Data
by Bill Eller | Mar 14, 2022
We don’t know how many lead service lines remain in service, and estimates vary by the millions. The American Water Works Association estimated that there are more than 6 million lead service lines across the country, but other sources put the number closer to 9...
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Recent Posts
Residential Infrastructure Day Celebrated by HomeServe
Residential Infrastructure Day on May 20th is a day to highlight infrastructure’s “last mile.” It’s the electric, sewer, water, and cable lines that connect homes to utility systems, and household heating, cooling, and water heating equipment critical to everyday...
How Much Are Water Leaks Costing You and Your Customers?
Aside from wasting a tremendous amount of water, leaking water and sewer lines can result in unexpected high water bills and repair emergencies for which your customers are unprepared. Leaks are also costly to the utility, leading to lost revenue, bad debt and...
Lead lines, water loss, and leak administration – OH MY! Webinar with NRWA
In addition to public infrastructure challenges, water systems are dedicating resources to support customers with myriad private infrastructure issues. An average household in the U.S. uses about 300 gallons of water every day, 12% of which is lost to water leaks from...