Clean Water Current Archive

November 5, 2008

NACWA Seeks Member Agency Input on Impacts from Economic Downturn

NACWA has been receiving a steady stream of anecdotal information from its public member agencies regarding challenges to their utilities’ capital projects, operations & maintenance programs, as well as staffing and workforce needs, resulting from the recent financial uncertainty.   Clearly the impacts from the financial situation have profound ramifications for the Association’s advocacy agenda, as NACWA works to guarantee that clean water infrastructure projects are a significant component of any upcoming stimulus package, and as the Association seeks to make the case with the incoming Obama Administration and Congress that a full federal-state-local partnership will be critical to meeting the Nation’s 21st century clean water challenges, especially in the current economic climate.  We would like to enhance the depth and breadth of our information and ask that our Public Member Agencies provide responses via email to the five questions which follow to Adam Krantz at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by November 14, 2008. 

NACWA’s Next Steps as a Member Resource and Advocate
While your utility’s identity will remain confidential, the information provided through the brief questionnaire will be used to inform a white paper on the impacts and lessons learned thus-far from the economic downturn.  The white paper will also serve as the basis for an ongoing discussion among the clean water community as issues unfold.  Additionally, NACWA is developing a web seminar to explore the financial downturn’s impacts at the utility level and to serve as an introduction to the more in-depth analysis these issues will receive at the upcoming winter conference, Controlling Chaos: Managing Rising Capital Costs, in Atlanta, Georgia, February 3-6, 2009.

Utility Impacts from Economic Downturn

1. How has the economic downturn directly impacted your utility? (Please provide information as to these impacts on your utility’s capital programs, operations & maintenance programs, and workforce.)
2. If your utility has not been impacted, do you foresee impacts in the future should economic problems persist and how would you characterize these risks and your level of concern?
3. Please provide specific information as to how trends in the credit market, with a focus on bond-related
   issues, have impacted your utility?
4. What can NACWA do to further help utilities during this difficult economic period (in addition to the
   efforts outlined above)?
5. Are there any other implications or trends associated with the economic downturn that you would like to
   make NACWA aware of?

Thank you in advance for your responses by November 14, 2008.