Member Pipeline - Fax Alerts - February 7, 2003
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February 7, 2003
AMSA Unveils Financial Survey at Winter Conference
AMSA released its 2002 Financial Survey today on the final day of the Association’s 2003 Winter Conference, The Evolving Public Utility . . . Leading the Workforce of Today, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The Winter Conference enjoyed nearly 300 registrants and offered an excellent venue for the Financial Survey’s release.Survey Shows Wastewater Utilities Continue to Improve Performance
Since 1981, AMSA has performed a financial survey of its public agency members every three years. The Survey is designed to provide AMSA members, government agencies and the public, insight into current practices in the financing and management of public wastewater treatment agencies nationwide, and contains valuable data and statistics that often provide critical support the Association’s regulatory and legislative initiatives. As the 2002 Financial Survey’s Executive Summary states, “[t]he Survey shows that in the face of long-term financial challenges, wastewater utilities continue to improve their performance, while minimizing impacts on ratepayers.”Survey’s Key Findings Include Declining Use of State Funding in 2001
As discussed in this morning’s conference session, titled “AMSA’s 2002 Financial Survey Release – an Overview of Developments & Trends,” both Jon Schellpfeffer, AMSA Board Member and Chief Engineer & Director of the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District, Madison, Wisconsin, and Mark Hoeke, the consultant on the 2002 Financial Survey, pointed out several key findings from the Survey. Among these findings was the fact that federal and state assistance in the form of grants and loans has dropped from 10.6 percent to 4.7 percent of total revenues from 1992 to 2001. Also, funding from state revolving fund (SRF) loans comprise only 3.6 percent of total revenues, while a mere 20 percent of responding agencies utilize the SRF. Despite these telling statistics, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to assert untenably that the SRF is the appropriate tool to solve a wastewater infrastructure funding gap that by its own estimates could be as high as $300 billion.Other significant findings in the Survey include an overall average residential sewer service charge increase of 7.6 percent per year from 1999 to 2002, but when compared to inflation, these rates have actually decreased by .3 percent per year during the same period. This trend, coupled with growing regulatory compliance costs, such as in the wet weather arena, and increasing municipal debt loads, could mean larger rate increases are looming. Yet, despite these enormous challenges public treatment works face, they continue to improve the levels of treatment provided to customers. The 2002 Survey indicates that the percentage of flows treated to at least secondary levels has increased from 94.4 to 96.6 percent from 1999 to 2001.
AMSA’s Financial Survey Will Be Delivered to All Members Via CD-ROM
AMSA’s 2002 Financial Survey will be forwarded to all AMSA members on CD-ROM early next week. This new format allows users to quickly navigate Survey sections using hyperlinks. The CD-ROM also features Excel spreadsheet files allowing users to analyze survey data in a variety of ways to meet their unique needs. Additionally, AMSA members will have the added benefit of easy access to over 150 different data parameters at www.amsa-surveys.org using their AMSA passwords. Data analysis within these parameters can be filtered by utility size, service type and geographic region. We are happy to provide this new valuable resource to our members.