Financial Technical Assistance and Tools for Water Infrastructure

The Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center works with on-the-ground partners to provide financial technical assistance to communities. The Center provides:

• Objective financial advice to help communities make informed decisions on funding drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure projects.
• Access to tools that help utilities make financing decisions that meet their local infrastructure needs.

The Center does not fund water infrastructure capital or predevelopment projects.

The Center provides technical assistance on:

• Financial Tools
• Affordability Programs
• Technical Assistance Partners
• WaterCARE

Financial Tools

Water and wastewater infrastructure is a crucial yet expensive investment. Effective management requires financing and pricing strategies that cover the cost of providing services, while managing debt and ensuring that services remain affordable. EPA resources include:

Water Utility COVID-19 Financial Impact Tool

Water Utility COVID-19 Financial Impact Tool can help drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater (“water”) utilities assess the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the utility’s cashflow.

This tool leads water utilities through questions that can determine how their revenues, expenses, and cashflow have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The spreadsheet automatically calculates the changes for a utility’s revenues and expenses by looking at current 2020 monthly financials versus the average monthly financials of the utility’s 2019 audited financial statement. Water utilities can use the tool each month to keep a running total of their cashflow.

Use of the spreadsheet is voluntary and its results are provided for your information only. EPA is not collecting either the data entered by utilities nor the results. EPA is planning to send a separate survey to randomly selected utilities at another time.

The tool contains the following questions:

Revenue Questions:

• Have commercial/industrial revenues been impacted?
• Have residential revenues been impacted?
• Do you sell wholesale water/wastewater treatment?
• Do you charge connection/tap fees?
• Are you suspending late fees?
• Are you suspending shutoffs?
• Does your system receive tax revenue either directly or from a parent agency?
• Do you sell byproducts (e.g., biosolids, electricity, etc.)?
• Do you generate interest income from cash on hand?
• Do you have additional revenue streams that have not been identified?

Expense Questions:

• Have your labor costs, regular and overtime, changed?
• Do you purchase water for resale?
• Do you pay another system to treat your wholesale wastewater?
• Have your chemical usages changed?
• Have your disposal costs changed?
• Have your testing expenses changed?
• Has there been a change in the system's energy bill?
• Has there been a change in the system's other utility services?
• Has there been a change in use of supplies (supply chains)?
• Has there been a change in supplying uniforms/attire?
• Has there been a change in supplying Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) or other materials, such as cloth masks?
• Do you expect a change in the system's interest expenses?
• Have you incurred new expenses as a result of COVID-19?
• Do you have additional expenses that have not been identified?

Cash Flow Questions:

• Has there been, or do you expect, a change in Accounts receivable?
• Has there been, or do you expect, a change in Accounts payable?
• Will you delay pension fund contributions?
• Are there inter-agency funds transfers that have occurred, or that will occur?
• Has there been, or do you expect, a change in the system's rate structure such as a delay in implementing a rate increase or temporary rate reductions?
• Do you have a rate stabilization fund?
• Has there been, or do you expect, a change in budgeted capital expenditures?
• Are there, or do you expect, a change in expenditures due to delayed construction projects?
• Will you attempt to restructure existing debt?
• Will you incur new debt?
• Do you have available cash on hand?
• Have you used reserve funds?

SEE ATTACHED 

SOURCE EPA

Media

Taxonomy

• Financing
• Financing