Tag: rates dashboard

What the 2019 North Carolina Rates Survey Data Can do for You

Recently, the North Carolina Water and Wastewater Rates Dashboard was updated with 2019 data and the North Carolina Water and Wastewater Rates Report 2019 was published. Are you getting all you can out of these useful resources?

As the start of the new fiscal year approaches in July, utilities across North Carolina will be preparing to enact new water and wastewater rates in their communities. Rate increases can be perceived as negative to the general public, though they are necessary for financial sustainability, and ultimately to protect the public health of the communities they serve. How can utilities convey the important decisions that go into what many just see as an increase in their bill?

That’s where the resources from our 2019 North Carolina Water and Wastewater Rates Survey can help, providing easy to understand visuals, key takeaways from aggregated, statewide data, and the numbers behind it all. Continue reading

Staying Up to Date with North Carolina Stormwater Utility Fees

In order to better understand the stormwater finance and governance landscape, the Environmental Finance Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently inventoried and analyzed the stormwater fees used by 74 municipalities and three counties charging stormwater utility fees across North Carolina . These fees are used to fund programs and activities that improve surface water quality, help meet regulatory requirements, and address a variety of critical stormwater and drainage management needs.  Before a deep dive into North Carolina stormwater fees, we’ve provided a review of some relevant terminology: Continue reading

Touching Down with Affordability of Water and Sewer Bills in Alabama

Football

It’s college football season again, and thoughts among many in the South, and elsewhere, turn to tailgating and touchdowns, hot dogs and sodas, field goals and fun. (Here in Chapel Hill, we like to remember alumnus Andy Griffith’s famous 1953 comical monologue about football, “What It Was, Was Football.”) Meanwhile, those of us at the UNC Environmental Finance Center (EFC) have completed our first-ever Alabama Residential Water and Wastewater Rates Dashboard, which, in fact, ties in with – you guessed it – football! (As well as tying in with the affordability of water and sewer bills by customers in Alabama, of course.) Continue reading