Water infrastructure: comprehensive asset management has potential to help utilities better identify needs and plan future investments: report to the ... on Environment and Public Works, U.S. Senate

OCLC Number: (OCoLC)56032231 Subject: Federal aid to water quality management -- United States. Excerpt: ... Chapter 1 Introduction Chapte1r Drinking water and wastewater utilities are facing potentially significant investments over the next 20 years to upgrade an aging and deteriorated infrastructure, including underground pipelines, treatment, and storage facilities; meet new regulatory requirements; serve a growing population; and improve security. Adding to the problem is that many utilities have not been generating enough revenues from user charges and other local sources to cover their full cost of service. As a result, utilities have deferred maintenance and postponed needed capital improvements. To address these problems and help ensure that utilities can manage their needs cost-effectively, some water industry and government officials advocate the use of comprehensive asset management. Asset management is a systematic approach to managing capital assets in order to minimize costs over the useful life of the assets while maintaining adequate service to customers. While the approach is relatively new to the U.S. water industry, it has been used by water utilities in other countries for as long as 10 years. Each year, the federal government makes available billions of dollars to help local communities finance drinking water and wastewater infrastructure projects. Concerns about the condition of existing infrastructure have prompted calls to increase financial assistance and, at the same time, ensure that the federal government's investment is protected. In recent years the Congress has been considering a number of proposals that would promote the use of comprehensive asset management by requiring utilities to develop and implement plans for maintaining, rehabilitating, and replacing capital assets, often as a condition of obtaining loans or other financial assistance. Page 11 GAO-04-461 Water Utility Asset Management