Search
To: Members & Subscribers
From:National Office
Date:March 17, 1997
Subject:AMSA's 1996 FINANCIAL SURVEY
Reference:MU 97-6

AMSA today released its 1996 Financial Survey -- A National Survey of Municipal Wastewater Management Financing and Trends, which provides a national overview of municipal wastewater management financing and trends, including user charges, per capita debt, per capita needs, and operations and maintenance expenditures. The survey indicates that the nation's largest publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) are providing significantly higher levels of treatment, greater conventional pollutant removal efficiency and reduced influent metals loadings than they were three years ago. The report updates and expands upon six previous surveys and is intended to be used as a tool to guide national, state and local policy development.

Some of the findings of the 1996 AMSA Financial Survey include:

  • More than 90 percent of responding agencies provide secondary treatment or greater, and at least 90 percent of their flows are treated to at least secondary levels.
  • More than 30 percent of the agencies provide advanced secondary or tertiary treatment.
  • The loadings of nine metals surveyed show an overall reduction of 54 percent since the 1986 survey, pointing to the success of pollution prevention, pretreatment and public education programs.
  • Staffing per capita has decreased by almost 20 percent since 1990.
  • User charges have increased as a percentage of revenue from 51.9 to 60 percent since the 1993 survey.
  • User charges have increased 2.6 times the rate of inflation over the last five years.
  • Operations and maintenance expenditures have increased to more than 43 percent of total expenditures, while capital improvement and reserve expenditures have decreased to about 33 percent.
  • The median per capita debt of responding agencies has doubled since 1990.
  • Average five-year per capita needs have decreased by more than 20 percent.

In addition to providing an overall profile of financing and trends, the survey also profiles individual agency responses and includes the results of the 1996 AMSA Index, which measures year-to-year changes in residential sewer charges compared with the consumer price index.

AMSA extends its appreciation to the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility, Alaska, for contributing its staff's valuable time and resources in verifying, tabulating and compiling the survey results. Special thanks are due to the utility's Brian I. Crewdson, assistant to the general manager; Chris R. Kosinski, administrative affairs; and, Shanna Brokken, administrative secretary, for their significant contributions. AMSA also extends thanks to the AMSA Facilities Financing Committee and its chair, Jon W. Schellpfeffer, assistant director of the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, Wisc., for their support and guidance.

Additional copies of the 1996 Financial Survey can be ordered from the AMSA National Office for $25 by using the attached order form. The survey is also available to non-members for $35.

ATTACHMENTS