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Clean Water Report
Copyright 2002 Gale Group Inc. All rights reserved. COPYRIGHT 2002 Business
Publishers, Inc.
Monday, September 23, 2002
ISSN: 0009-8620; Volume 40; Issue 19
User fees do not cover entire cost of running utilities, GAO report says.
(Reports).
FULL TEXT
User fees and other local sources of revenue often bring in less than
the full cost of providing drinking water and wastewater services at
utilities, said a report made public in mid-September by the General
Accounting Office.
User charges and other sources cover at least operation and
maintenance costs for nearly all utilities, but 29 percent of the
utilities deferred maintenance because of insufficient funding. The
report's intention was to give Congress utilities' financial and
planning activities amid concerns about the huge infrastructure funding
gap.
The report is important in that it acknowledges that utilities face up
to a $1 trillion gap over the next 20 years to repair or replace
existing water and wastewater systems, Adam Krantz, spokesman for the
Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA), told CWR. But it
does not take into account the challenges utilities face to provide
service, such as the loss of revenue from urban flight. The report can
be found at
www.gao.gov/new.items/d02764.pdf. Contact: Adam Krantz,
AMSA, (202) 833-4651.