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Better Management
Highlights
Effective Utility Management: A Primer for Water and Wastewater Utilities
Memorandum from Assistant Administrator Benjamin Grumbles on the Energy-Water Nexus PDF
Energy Management Guidebook for Wastewater and Water Utilities PDF (113 pp, 2M)
Adoption of better management practices is an emerging trend among the water utility industry. Widespread adoption of better management practices offers great promise to reduce costs and direct system investments using a risk-based approach. EPA is working with water utilities to better understand what attributes are critical to their success so that their success can be shared broadly across the industry.
EPA has a number of programs that are intended to help shift the utility management model beyond compliance to sustainability and improved performance.
- Effective Water Utility Management Initiative - EPA is working collaboratively with national organizations that support drinking water and wastewater utilities to identify the attributes of sustainable utilities and to promote effective utility management.
- Asset Management can be defined as managing infrastructure capital assets to minimize the total cost of owning and operating them, while delivering the desired service levels.
- Environmental Management Systems integrates the environment into everyday business operations, and environmental stewardship becomes part of the daily responsibility for employees across an entire organization.
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- Capacity Development is a program to assist drinking water systems to improve their finances, management, infrastructure, and operations so they can provide safe drinking water consistently, reliably, and cost-effectively.
- Energy and Water use by the water sector are closely linked. Savings in one area can often translate into savings in the other, and integrating energy efficient practices into the daily management and long-term planning of the water sector will contribute to long-term sustainability and reduce impacts of climate change.
Technology Selection
- Municipal Technologies – EPA has information about direct and indirect assistance on municipal wastewater treatment technologies.
- Technology Fact Sheets – EPA has developed a number of fact sheets that provide technical and cost information to assist in the evaluation of new, innovative and sustainable technologies for wastewater systems.
- Technology Verification Centers - EPA supports programs that verify the performance of innovative technologies that have the potential to improve protection of human health and the environment. -
- Technology Transfer – Information about the latest advancements in risk management approaches and decision options is vital to the success of EPA’s research programs.