EPA Eyes Alternative Metrics For Revised Water Affordability Guidance

摘要

EPA is exploring at least three new metrics for measuring communities' ability to afford water infrastructure projects as it seeks to respond to congressional and other pressure to revise existing guidance to account for utilities' infrastructure needs and enforcement compliance and move beyond its current, controversial metric of median household income (MHI)."We're all in agreement that percentage of MHI is not the best," Kristyn Abhold, a financial analyst with EPA's Water Infrastructure and Resiliency Finance Center (WIRFC), said Aug. 6 at an affordability symposium sponsored by the American Water Works Association and Water Environment Federation.EPA water officials announced earlier this year that they are exploring how they should revise and likely expand the 1997 guidance that was originally developed to assess municipalities' ability to pay for infrastructure upgrades to prevent combined sewer overflows (CSOs).