Article from U.S. Conference of Mayors: ‘Western Cities Water Supply Challenges’.
Local governments in California invested $10.9 billion in 2000 and doubled that investment to $21.5 billion by 2013.
Safe drinking water and protection of water quality are costly activities for local government, and strong local balance sheets and resources are a pre-requisite for investment.
Here too, like investment in water and sewer, California local government finances tell a positive story.
Public water and sewer are financed with a combination of debt and ‘fee for services’ revenues from customers (households/rate payers).
Fees for water and sewer services are usually a component of own source revenue.
The latest local government Census data in California indicates that own source revenue increased 88% from 2000 to 2014, and local investment in public water and sewer has risen along with and above the national average at 102%.
Cities introduce resiliency by diversifying water supply sources.
Mayors and national experts participating in the Santa Barbara conference discussed a variety of city and regional projects they are investing heavily in, and the information is emerging on the cost of these various diversification options compared to traditional single-source treatment costs.
A variety of local solution sets and practices were discussed and outlined in the linked article.