Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
FIGURE 15.4
Cienega de Santa Clara in Mexico. (From U.S. Bureau of Reclamation home page for the San Juan-Chama Project
Colorado and New Mexico, http://www.usbr.gov/projects/Project.jsp?proj_Name=San%20Juan-Chama%20
Project, accessed on July 15, 2011.) (Courtesy of the US Bureau of Reclamation.)
Who regulates and/or oversees these four Ps of water provision—planning, policies,
pricing, and profits—has implications for water system decision making. Many water
providers are governed by local governing bodies, such as a city or town council. The local
elected officials who govern the city govern the municipally owned water system. Some
are districts governed by elected boards distinct from city or town councils. Then there are
water systems that are owned by private water companies. These companies are most often
regulated by a statewide body, often called a public utility commission or corporation com-
mission. These commissions typically base their decisions on factors or standards that can
be quite different from those of local jurisdictions. For example, a city or town may allow a
water company to collect fees in advance of building or using a treatment facility. A com-
mission may require a private water company's plant to be “used and useful” before allow-
ing any costs of the plant to be recovered. These approaches may pertain to infrastructure
investment or investment in new water supplies as well. This asymmetry in private versus
public water company oversight and regulation becomes more important as collaborative
approaches to securing water supplies and infrastructure increase.
15.5 Uncertainties in Water Planning
The regulatory framework, along with other economic considerations, establishes
important parameters for water planning. Yet any planning for the future is fraught with
uncertainties. Key uncertainties include the rate of population growth and regulatory
provisions, which often change over time. Consideration of alternative scenarios is
essential to water planning. Uncertainties regarding where responsibility resides for water
provision and water supply acquisition due to changing ownership over time can be impor-
tant but difficult to address in water plans. Expansion of a service area by acquisition of
other providers occurs as discrete events. The press has given much attention to the issue
of privatization of water provision but little to the trend in some areas of the United States,
such as Arizona, that, as urban areas grow, there is “municipalization” of private utilities
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