Cities With Declining Populations Feel Infrastructure Pressure

Water industry experts already know that infrastructure is crumbling in cities and towns across the country, and that investment is sorely needed. A new report by the federal government reiterated that point, and zeroed in on where the problem is particularly acute: midsize and large cities with declining populations.

Declining populations mean declining utility revenues, according to the report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent, nonpartisan agency. The report found that such cities are “struggling to replace their pipes and treatment plants.”

The report noted that Flint, MI, which suffered a lead-contamination crisis, is "not unique in the challenges it faces." That includes “drastic drops in population and corresponding revenue loss from dropping customer bases,” according to Michigan Live.

With that in mind, the GAO reviewed the infrastructure needs of 10 cities with declining populations, Michigan Live reported.

“Without improvements, these cities may be at serious risk of more frequent accidental sewage discharges and lead contamination among other things. Concerned that utility rates are increasingly unaffordable for low-income customers, some utilities are reducing water treatment capacity or decommissioning lines in vacant areas to fit current demands,” the GAO report said.

“Most of the 14 utilities GAO reviewed raised rates annually to cover declines in revenues related, in part, to decreasing water use from declining populations, or to pay for rising operating and capital expenses,” the report said.

What are utilities doing to combat these problems?

“To help address rate affordability concerns, all of the utilities reviewed had developed customer assistance programs, a strategy to make rates more affordable, for example, by developing a payment plan agreeable to the customer and the utility. In addition, most utilities were using or had plans to use one or more cost-control strategies to address needs, such as rightsizing system infrastructure to fit current demands (i.e., reducing treatment capacity or decommissioning water or sewer lines in vacant areas),” the GAO reported.

Five wastewater utilities interviewed in the report said the may use vacant areas for green infrastructure as a way to control stormwater. They considered this a part of their “rightsizing” efforts.

The GAO had a few solutions to suggest, naming government programs that could be helpful to utilities. The programs are not explicitly designed for areas facing declining populations but could nevertheless be helpful:

• Drinking Water and Clean Water SRF programs,
• HUD Community Development Block Grants,
• the Economic Development Administration Public Works program,
• FEMA Public Assistance and Hazard Mitigation grant programs.

It also named one U.S. EPA policy which could be helpful, known as the Combined Sewer Overflow Policy, described as follows in the GAO report:

The policy, adopted in 1994, allows a city or utility to extend its implementation schedule — the period of time it has to build the necessary infrastructure to control combined or sanitary sewer overflows — under consent decrees entered into with EPA or the state, or administrative orders issued by EPA or state permitting authorities … An extended implementation schedule spreads the costs of planned infrastructure projects over time and helps make wastewater rate increases required to pay for the infrastructure projects more affordable for a utility and its customers.

To read more about how utilities are dealing with infrastructure problems visit Water Online’s Asset Management Solutions Center.