AWWA ACE69009

This powerpoint presentation begins by presenting the study objective: to determine the impacts of system inefficiency and operational (in)efficiency on water rates. The study hypothesis: water utilities with a low level of operational efficiency and system efficiency are likely to charge their customers more. The approach methods included the following: data source was the Raftelis Financial Consulting, PA (RFC) 2002 Water and Wastewater Rate survey, which provides the most recent data on utility operating, financial, customer, managerial, billing, and pricing characteristics of 153 water utilities in 48 states, current as of the 2000 or 2001; and, data selection and processing consisted of 130 water utilities that shared data on water rates were selected for the next step. In accordance with geographic location, the data such as weather and economic situations are combined. Study limitations included the following: limitations of interpretation - there can be more potential factors, such as historical data, institutional pressure on water rate setting, or organizational culture; and, imitation of generalization - small size of data. Includes tables, figures.