Open To Opportunities: Central Arkansas Water Consumes Nearby Utility

摘要

There are never 'down times' or 'dull moments' at utilities. Among the numerous activities, utility work is a constant state of operation, meticulous planning and executing improvements, swiftly reacting to emergencies, and keeping up effective communication and correspondences with councils, boards, and above all, customers. Therefore, the easy road for a utility when reading in a newspaper that a nearby utility is looking at close to 50% rate increases to modify its water treatment plant due to poor water quality is the say, 'not my problem.' But Central Arkansas Water (CAW) considered this an opportunity to consolidate a local water system thereby increasing efficiencies of scale for both systems. Central Arkansas Water, the water provider to the Little Rock and North Little Rock greater metropolitan areas, approached Maumelle Water Management (MWM), an improvement district providing water and wastewater services to the city of Maumelle (Maumelle) in 2015 when MWM was experiencing some significant capital costs for repair and replacement to the water system that would be particularly burdensome to their customer base. MWM operated a small water and wastewater system surrounded on three sides by CAW's water system and CAW looked at this as an opportunity to fill this void in its service territory. Despite long term disagreements between Maumelle and the adjoining city of North Little Rock, CAW convinced MWM's governing Board to allow CAW 90 days to evaluate the feasibility of consolidation of the two water systems and answer the question, 'What do we do with the wastewater system?' In less than three months, CAW evaluated the financial and operational feasibility of a consolidation plan. Additionally, CAW investigated the necessary fees to assess MWM's customers in addition to CAW's standard water rates to finance the transition costs, cost of debt, and capital projects needed to physically connect MWM's system to CAW's system. Three months later, CAW and MWM signed a consolidation agreement that became effective March 1, 2016. The session discussion will highlight the feasibility analysis, negotiation process and the 18 months of the transition. The session will include the overall benefits gained by CAW, MWM, Maumelle, and the ratepayers because of the consolidation. Additionally, CAW is open to future similar opportunities, and CAW staff will discuss lessons learned as well as the steps involved with poising the utility to be able to act quickly during future opportunities.