From the opening session on employee engagement to the closing panel on rates, costs and demand, AMWA’s 2014 Annual Executive Management Conference in Newport Beach, California, covered a broad range of topics from the perspectives of water system top management and key industry experts.
Hannah Ubl of Bridgeworks led an interactive session on developing and supporting a multi-generational utility workforce. She looked at the four generations now working shoulder-to-shoulder for the first time in history: Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials. Drawing on both established research and fresh input from interviews with AMWA member utilities, Ubl discussed hiring and retaining qualified staff, managing and motivating entry-level personnel, ways to improve team building and other intergenerational workforce issues.
Karen Raucher of Stratus Consulting said communication is a vital part of a water utility’s sustainable strategy and drew on Water Research Foundation findings that the public has a high level of trust of water utilities, including trust in their providing timely information on climate change and issues that affect water supply. She introduced tools for communicating on climate change and associated regulatory challenges. Noting that 92 percent of the public wants their community water provider to play a leadership role in preparing their community for climate change, Raucher said this offers utilities both an opportunity and a responsibility to act. Following upon this conclusion, Doug Yoder of Miami-Dade Water & Sewer Department illustrated how Miami is using message mapping to create effective messages on its adaptive management approach to sea-level rise and how the message map is being deployed.
Rob Renner of the Water Research Foundation walked participants through key findings from the Foundation’s recent report, “National Economic and Labor Impacts of the Water Utility Sector,” which underscores the value of water and the significant impact the water utility sector and its infrastructure have on the U.S. economy.
Juliet Ellis of San Francisco Public Utilities Commission described the utility’s proactive community engagement and investment. Place-based revitalization includes delivering visible community benefits to impacted neighborhoods by upgrading their facilities, including a treatment plant campus, community facility and greenhouses. Programs also help prepare the next generation of environmental stewards by promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education and investing in future workforce through internships, apprenticeships and training programs.
Kristin Averyt from the University of Colorado drew on her studies of the implications of energy choices on water resources across the United States, with a particular focus on the Southwest, to outline trends she has observed related to water stress, the energy intensity of water supply and the use of water in generating electricity. She observed that coordinating water and energy planning and decision making to address risk is among the greatest challenges and opportunities of the water-energy nexus.
Michael Markus of Orange County Water District (OCWD) discussed the cost, technology, public acceptance and regulatory approval challenges his utility faced when planning the county’s Groundwater Replenishment System – now the world’s largest purification system for indirect potable water reuse. He said OCWD learned the public can accept indirect potable reuse projects if the need is clear, outreach is effective and ongoing, elected officials and community leaders make a commitment, water quality is higher than alternatives, regulators have ongoing oversight and there is independent scientific review.
Stan Williams from Poseidon Water looked at large-scale desalination and how communities in California, Texas and Florida – which account for 68 percent of U.S. municipal desalination facilities – are addressing inherent challenges to make this solution a viable one. He observed that overall desalination energy efficiency is improving and said membrane technology will be increasingly employed in ocean water, groundwater and recycled wastewater treatment facilities as membrane efficiencies continue to improve. The benefits of desalination center on its reliability as part of a diversified portfolio of water supply sources.
James McDaniel shared how the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has employed component analysis and the Infrastructure Leakage Index in a robust water audit to provide a better basis for decision making on ways to reduce water loss, thus increasing supply. While the audit findings were positive, work is still needed on pressure management, leak detection, meter sizing optimization, a large meter overhaul schedule, addressing database inconsistences and improving water supply meter accuracies.
Doug Owen of Arcadis looked at storm resiliency innovations in urban design as part of a larger discussion on redesigning urban communities to be vibrant and economically robust. Adaptive approaches use multiple layers of defense in the form of large, regional engineered solutions, natural solutions involving connecting transition zones, and smaller-scale, inner city solutions, such as green infrastructure. Ideas from the Rebuild by Design Program initiative of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force included multi-functional urban levees, water storage in parking facilities and water plazas. Urban resiliency has the attention of the federal government, and urban planning for flood protection is taking on a new dimension, so water agencies need to be a part of the dialogue through programs like the National Disaster Resilience Competition (www.amwa.net/resiliencecompetition).
Carrie Lewis of Milwaukee Water Works shared the utility’s experiences in battling last winter’s Polar Vortex phenomenon and the unique challenges it presented for distribution system management. Problems arose when frazil ice on surface water significantly reduced pumpage, equipment seized up in the cold, main breaks nearly doubled from the prior year, incidence of burst meters quadrupled and a billion gallons of water leaked. Hours worked by field personnel skyrocketed, and the cost of backup contractor services for main repairs, thaw services and street repair reached millions of dollars. Among the lessons relearned: cross-train, preserve expertise, test equipment under all conditions, know interdependencies and have backups to backups.
George Hawkins of DC Water discussed the agency’s landmark financing accomplishment – using taxable, green 100-year bonds to raise $350 million in July. The first municipal water/wastewater utility-issued century bonds in the U.S., they allow costs to be shared over additional generations of ratepayers and attracted the interest of insurance companies and pensions. The bonds financed a CIP project with a 100-year minimum life that received third party certification of its green label from the European firm Vigeo, making the bonds very appealing to socially responsible investors. It was critical to come to the market from a position of strength, tapping the taxable bond market where margins differ from the nontaxable market and municipalities are not well known.
A trio of utility executives from the Pacific Northwest introduced new thinking about rates, costs, consumer demand and the benefits of regional partnerships and strategies. Ray Hoffman of Seattle Public Utilities addressed the impacts of cost and consumption changes on rates and cautioned to distinguish differences between rates and customer bills. Often, headlines are all about rate increases, but it is better to focus on managing costs and keeping customer bills affordable. Reviewing the “conservation conundrum” facing Seattle, he presented costs of conservation vs. new supply, showing the big savings associated with conserving to avoid new supply development costs.
Linda McCrea of Tacoma Water described the uncertainty caused by long planning horizons, declining per capita demand and increasing costs. Cost control must be exerted to preserve access to low-interest state loan programs, protect tax-exempt revenue bond financing, effectively manage agreements (as with the Army Corps of Engineers), and apply asset management principles to maintenance, replacement and infrastructure operation. Despite uncertainty, dynamic demand management can be used for rate design, flexible supply planning, revenue maximization and flexible wholesale pricing. Conservation options should be dynamically deployed, market development strategically encouraged and efficient resource use promoted through regional planning.
Chuck Clarke of Cascade Water Alliance spoke of changes that led to a new water supply strategy, including shifts in demand trends due to plumbing efficiency and regulation, conservation and technology, densification (reducing irrigation loads) and pricing. The new strategy involves extending contracts, delaying construction of a lake water conveyance, appropriate conservation based on costs and benefits and examining the potential to become a long-term regional supply source. Benefits to regional partners include decades of added revenue, efficient use of existing resources, insurance for the future, flexibility and adaptability, and enhanced regional reliability. n
PowerPoint presentations from the conference are available at www.amwa.net/presentations.