By 2070 it’s estimated that 50 million people will call themselves Texans. They will all need water. So will the places they want to work. So will pools and golf courses. They will want to eat, too, and that requires water. There are other demands, including the environment.  More than 480 current residents already participate in our regional water planning groups. That is quite a welcoming...

Utility Directors are, as a rule, an independent group. Their main focus is on delivering quality water to their customers at an affordable cost. The only good rate increase is a planned one and that is with begrudging acceptance. Planned rate increases pay for higher operational costs. But the smaller the utility, the smaller the customer base, and the more those rate increases hurt. When there...

Texas 2036 has created a water legislative blueprint titled the Water Infrastructure Crisis. While prepared by Texas 2036, the Texas Water Foundation and the Water Finance Exchange collaborated on a series of stakeholder meetings to discuss the challenges and opportunities for the water future of Texas. Another document that guides our thinking is the 2022 State Water Plan (SWP) developed by the...

Fewer utilities can go it alone these days. Utilities find that the costs of identifying, permitting, and developing new water supplies and the new or expanded treatment and pipelines necessary to get that water to customers have grown exponentially.

The unpredictability of rainfall is a major water supply problem. When it’s raining, we must find ways to capture and store it while leaving enough to sustain natural systems. But, often, there’s more rain than we or nature can absorb, resulting in flooding. On the opposite side of that concern is experiencing drought. One thing is certain, water security is essential, and there is no time for...

In 2021, Maria Lehman, the president-elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers, said, "You can't build a healthy economy on a crumbling infrastructure." The association grades roads, internet access, rail, water, and more every four years. Grades rarely rise above a D. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) is here to help, providing more than $1 trillion in spending, $550...

THE INFRASTRUCTURE BILL & LABOR SHORTAGE The bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) will bring $550 billion of new federal investments in America’s infrastructure over the next five years. How will that affect the labor and staffing needs in the construction industry? And what does it mean for project owners? The impending construction boom and how firms in the industry respond...

Systems Big Data, machine learning, blockchain, and augmented reality are all hot topics across industries right now. In the Construction industry, discussion of digital twins, robotics, and automation of processes are talked about as if they might be just around the corner. While there is no doubt that such advancements are having and will continue to have a material impact on the construction...

The Best Approaches to Ensuring Compliance Once your organization has developed internal structure, processes, and procedures as we covered in Part I of our series, and then as it has progressed to develop a detailed plan and budget as we covered in parts 4 and 5 of our series, the next step to successfully delivering the program is to establish systems, processes, and staff dedicated to...

Budgets/Cost Management There is nothing more important in achieving the program’s objective than a comprehensive project budget. The success of a project hinges on getting the alignment of budget goals, scope, schedule, and quality right at the beginning of the project and maintaining this alignment throughout the project life cycle. As we covered in Part IV of our series, the approach to...