The Effective Water Professional: Leadership, Communication, Management, Finance, and Governance

By Water Environment Federation

There is a large demand for young professionals in the water industry and The Effective Water Professional--Leadership, Communication, Management, Finance, and Governance provides readers with all the materials they need to succeed using proven techniques written by industry leaders. Challenges for the new era associated with the water-energy nexus, infrastructure, the need for global water solutions, and increased regulatory requirements require the use of new tools and nontechnical skills. This textbook covers leadership, communication, utility management, utility governance, and finance as it relates to the water industry in extensive detail and includes class discussion points and numerous examples.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Water Environment Federation
• Release date: Aug 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781572783256

Book preview

1

Introduction

Richard Kuchenrither, Ph.D., P.E., BCEE

1.0     CHAPTER KEY POINTS

1.1     Chapter 2—Leadership

1.2     Chapter 3—Communication

1.3     Chapter 4—Management

1.4     Chapter 5—Utility Finance

1.5     Chapter 6—Governance

2.0     REFERENCES

Following the passage of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in the 1970s, the water profession entered a new era focusing on cleaning and protecting the nation’s waters. Following more than 40 years of tremendous water quality accomplishments, new and significant changes and challenges have emerged in the water profession, including the following:

•  Water–energy nexus—historically, treatment facilities were energy consumers. Now, according to Water Environment Federation’s (WEF’s) (2013) The Energy Roadmap, facilities are striving to become energy producers and water reclamation resource facilities, not just traditional treatment facilities;

•  Many senior water professionals are retiring from the water profession—a significant number of today’s senior professionals who planned, designed, built, and operated many of the water, wastewater, and reuse facilities across the United States are close to retirement. These senior water professionals have learned many important lessons throughout their careers. According to the Wall Street Journal, The uptick may be good news for some industries—notably utilities and power companies—that face disruptive skills shortages when older workers retire. These changing workplace demographics, including a large number of employees with non-engineering backgrounds, make training, succession planning, and knowledge transfer essential;

•  Water professionals face new infrastructure challenges from growing population and decaying water infrastructure—according to the recent American Water Works Association (AWWA) (2012) report, Buried No Longer: Confronting America’s Water Infrastructure Challenge, utilities face more than $1 trillion for water infrastructure for the next 25 years. In 2013, the American Society of Civil Engineers reported that, until 2020, water and wastewater infrastructure programs will require $126 billon to get the existing infrastructure from a current grade of D improved to a grade of B;

•  The demand for global water, sanitation, and hygiene projects in developing countries is now important—recently, there has been an increased demand for academic programs that train engineers to develop appropriate solutions for global water challenges (Amadei, 2014). Most projects in developing countries are small and their success requires both technical and nontechnical solutions and an understanding of managing, communication, cultural values, and norms. For students and young professionals, aspiring to solve global issues through work in developing communities is critically important and requires nontechnical solutions;

•  Increased regulatory requirements require new, innovative technologies—more stringent regulatory requirements, with an emphasis on sustainability and renewable water resources, continue to increase. The new era requires new technologies for nutrient removal, resource recovery utilization, and energy-positive facilities; and

•  Water is water—forty years ago, drinking water and wastewater professional organizations existed independently. There was little importance on, nor thought of, water reuse. Now, the importance of collaboration between drinking water, wastewater, and reuse segments is paramount. There is little difference between the organizations and acknowledging that water is water.

The new challenges clearly demonstrate that the water profession is entering a new era. The new era results in an increasing need for more water professionals equipped with the new tools. The tools have to include the lessons learned, successes, and mistakes from water professionals of the previous 40 years. The educational needs of the water profession cannot be met with traditional graduate engineering programs to sustain the water profession. Providing the new tools needed for the new era requires a paradigm shift of the traditional environmental education programs around the country. Water professionals need to acquire new tools and nontechnical skills with leadership, communication, management, finance, and governance.

Currently, both AWWA and WEF have some publications containing similar focus areas; however, none are a specific textbook for graduate students and water professionals. The Effective Water Professional is a new, unique textbook that provides details in key focus areas including leadership, communication, management, utility finance, and governance. The textbook is based on case studies and lessons learned from the previous four decades, and includes class discussion points in each chapter.

The chapters of the book address the following: leadership, communication, management, utility finance, and governance. The introduction contains an overview of the key points of each chapter. It is important to note that while many authors have written separately on leadership, management, and communication, three stand out as significant influences on all three chapters: Peter Drucker, Stephen Covey, and Jim Collins. Their work covers more than 70 years of practice and has had significant effects on individuals, companies, and corporations. Peter Drucker formed the foundation that supported Covey and Collins. All three authors have different approaches, but they share some important and interrelated principles.

Peter Drucker (1909 to 2005) emigrated from Europe before World War II. In 1943, he began working for General Motors, then the largest corporation in the United States, and started changing the traditional management rules. In 1967, he published The Effective Executive (Drucker, 1967). Managing oneself, he said, is the most important goal for effectiveness: …executives who do not manage themselves for effectiveness, cannot possibly expect to manage their associates…. Drucker also believed that effectiveness consists of simple things that are not inborn and not natural and that have to be learned.

Drucker influenced Stephen Covey (1932 to 2012), who wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey, 1989). Covey’s famous book broke down the habits as follows:

•  Independence or self-mastery (private victory)

ο  Be proactive;

ο  Begin with the end in mind; and

ο  Put first things first;

•  Interdependence, working with others (public victory)

ο  Think win-win;

ο  Seek to understand, then be understood;

ο  Synergize; and

•  Renewal

ο  Sharpen the saw.

Drucker’s ideas are also reflected in Jim Collins’ (2001) Good to Great. Collins describes the concept of Level 5 Leadership, becoming a good to great leader, as follows:

•  Level 1—the highly capable individual contributes through talent, knowledge, and good work habits;

•  Level 2—the contributing team member accomplishes group objectives and can work well with others;

•  Level 3—the competent manager organizes people and resources;

•  Level 4—the effective leader pursues a clear vision and accomplishes it through higher performance standards; and

•  Level 5—the executive uniquely combines humility and strong professional will for success.

Collins wrote in Management, Revised Edition (Drucker, 2008) that Drucker demonstrated …the very best leaders are first and foremost effective managers. In his graduate program research at Stanford University, he saw Drucker’s intellectual fingerprints on many great corporations and cited Drucker’s approach to ideas, including the following:

•  Look out the window, not in the mirror;

•  Start first with the results;

•  Ask tough questions; and

•  Work has concerns and compassion for the individual.

Both Covey and Collins have created the important tools for implementing Drucker’s principles. The following connections among the three authors are obvious:

•  Drucker’s requirement of first managing yourself is reflected in Collins’ Level 1, become a capable individual and Covey’s self-mastery, habits nos. 1, 2, and 3;

•  Collins’ Level 2 mirrors Covey’s habits nos. 4 and 5; and

•  Drucker’s philosophy that you have to include concerns and compassion for the individual is referenced in Covey’s interdependence, including habits nos. 4, 5, and 6 and Collins’ Levels 4 and 5.

Finally, on the importance of management and leadership, Drucker says, Effectiveness (is)…a prime requirement…for young people at the beginning of their working lives, fully as much as for people in mid-career.

1.0     CHAPTER KEY POINTS

1.1     Chapter 2—Leadership

This chapter describes five leadership attributes that were compiled from leadership descriptions by several successful authors, including Peter Drucker, Steven Covey, Jim Collins, and Ron Heifitz. Examples of several senior water professionals are included to demonstrate the application of these leadership attributes. The examples are as follows:

•  Seek first to understand—effective leaders take the time to listen, gather relevant data, and make informed decisions;

•  Understand your authorizing environment—leaders derive their authority from many different sources, and it is important for them to have a thorough understanding of that environment;

•  Choose your battles, and your allies, wisely—unlikely allies can enable and unexpected enemies can derail a leader. It is important to know the difference;

•  Leverage the heliotropic effect—a positive approach, based on recognizing what’s working and building on it, can be more powerful than focusing on fixing what is broken; and

•  Be authentic—the public looks to water leaders to make important decisions about protecting public health and the environment. Authentic leadership is critical for building trust.

1.2     Chapter 3—Communication

Communication skills represent one of the most important skills needed by water professionals. Successful communication in the water profession requires coverage of a broad spectrum of skills that must include technical and nontechnical audiences, the public, and workplace staffers. This includes the following:

•  What we communicate—holistic communication about water and how humans interact with it. This includes the understanding of water, the water cycle, the purpose of water utilities, and why these all are important, and successful communication with stakeholders;

•  When and why we communicate—communication efforts at all levels, internal and external, are essential for the water profession. The efforts include day-to-day operations such as customer service, board meetings, and construction and maintenance programs. Crisis, emergency, public and staff educational, change of management, and conflict resolution communication programs are also discussed;

•  Which communication channels and techniques are important for clear communication with stakeholders? In the new era, communication channels are very important. These have changed significantly over the past 40 years. Historically, the water profession focused on print, radio, and television; now, however, we have to address social media and guerilla tactics. These also include presentation, writing, listening, and verbal skills. Finally, communication is important with change management and risk communication; and

•  Who we communicate with—the most important aspect of communication is identifying and understanding who you are communicating with. The water profession has a broad list of stakeholders with diverse perspectives of stakeholders. Communications need to be directed to both these technical and nontechnical audiences and deliver the appropriate messages. These audiences include consumers, water utilities, regulators, the general public, municipal boards and councils, consultants, contractors, elected officials, and councils.

1.3     Chapter 4—Management

This chapter defines management in the water profession and discusses four foundational management topics: strategic management, planning, decision-making, and mentoring.

These are described as follows:

•  The key elements of management include organizational culture, customers, and time management;

•  Strategic management planning includes concepts, purpose, internal/external factors, goals, objectives, benchmark/indicators, scenarios, business plans, and evaluations. These include the further exploration of fundamental concepts such as goals and objectives, indicators, and evaluations;

•  Decision-making addresses executive strategy through decisions, decision environments and empowerment, critical thinking, and skill development; and

•  Mentoring people is linked to stewardship and includes the process of developing people to reach their peak potential performance. It includes employee goals and development, formal and informal employee reviews, and team performance.

1.4     Chapter 5—Utility Finance

A low percentage of water professionals understand utility finance concepts. The future challenges of the water profession are significant and require capital investments. The sustainability of a water utility requires a strong financial structure; in other words, how they will pay for the improvements and renovation of the needed infrastructure. The important tool for all water professionals, at all levels, is an understanding of the basics of utility finance. The key points of utility finance are as follows:

•  An accounting overview provides the data for operating results and retaining the economic viability of the utility. This allows utility professionals to make fully informed daily and long-term decisions. These include information on generally accepted accounting principles, basic annual financial statements, utility annual statements, and a uniform system of accounts for utilities that are governed by the state public utility commissions;

•  Budgeting annually for utilities is similar to a personal budget that has to account for revenue and expenses. This includes utility budgeting basics, the annual budgeting process, and the importance of the performance of budget estimates and actual expenses and revenue figures;

•  Strategic financial planning is crucial for long-term (5 to 10 years) sustainability of the utility. It is based on the needs from the capital improvements and how to have sufficient revenue to pay for the cash-based capital source or debt financing from bond issues. Strategic financial planning includes planning objectives, planning periods, the capital planning process, steps in strategic planning, revenue requirements, capital improvements, selecting a financial strategy, an example of a utility strategic financial plan, and revenue from rates;

•  A capital-improvement financing plan comes from the capital improvement plan and the strategic plan. After identifying and prioritizing the capital improvement needs, a decision has to be made as to how to fund the projects. This includes identifying the capital financing alternatives and assessing the utility credit-worthiness and process for utilizing external sources for issuing debt;

•  Cost-of-service and utility service rates are intended to establish fair and equitable utility rates. The process includes determining revenue requirements, evaluating cost of service, and establishing the rate structure. The rate structure includes distributing revenue requirements to the system users, regulatory and legal considerations to justifying utility rates, and charges and rate structure design for specific rate structure used to recover revenue from customer classes; and

•  Lean business practices are important to meet higher customer expectations and improve quality of service, while not significantly increasing customer water rates. Utilities are focusing on efficiency improvements while reducing wastes and improving sustainability.

1.5     Chapter 6—Governance

Governance is the relationship between the organization, stakeholders, and governing board. This includes several organizational structures in place in the water profession, such as the following:

•  The history and needs for governance in the water profession;

•  Governance types including public and privately owned systems and legal, legislative, and regulatory considerations;

•  Utility governance membership has several methods (elected, appointed, or ex officio). Also, this addresses qualifications, selection criteria, compensations, and terms;

•  There are several functioning roles within a governing board. These include chair, committee functions, orientations, transparency and freedom of information, ethics and conflict of interest, and cost of governance; and

•  Roles of the governance body address strategic planning, fiduciary responsibilities, selection of executive management customer relations, stakeholder relations, policy-setting arbiter of management decisions, appointments to special committees, and limitations.

2.0     REFERENCES

Amadei, B. (2014) Engineering for Sustainable Human Development; American Society of Civil Engineers: Reston, Virginia.

American Society of Engineers (2013) ASCE Report Card for America’s Infrastructure; American Society of Civil Engineers: Reston, Virginia.

American Water Works Association (2012) Buried No Longer: Confronting America’s Water Infrastructure Challenge: American Water Works Association: Denver, Colorado.

Collins, J. (2001) Good to Great; HarperCollins: New York.

Covey, S. (1989) The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; Simon & Schuster: New York.

Drucker, P. (1967) The Effective Executive; HarperCollins: New York.

Drucker, P. (2008) Management, Revised Edition: HarperCollins; New York.

Water Environment Federation (2013) The Energy Roadmap: A Water and Wastewater Utility Guide to More Sustainable Energy Management; Water Environment Federation: Alexandria, Virginia.

2

Leadership

Elisa M. Speranza and Kenneth W. Mirvis, Ed.D.

1.0     INTRODUCTION

2.0     SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

2.1     Will Duncan

2.2     Mary Ann Dickinson

2.3     The Atlanta Team

3.0     UNDERSTAND YOUR AUTHORIZING ENVIRONMENT

3.1     Mary Ann Dickinson

3.2     The Atlanta Team

4.0     CHOOSE YOUR BATTLES, AND YOUR ALLIES, WISELY

4.1     Julius Ciaccia

4.2     Mary Ann Dickinson

5.0     LEVERAGE THE HELIOTROPIC EFFECT

5.1     Irma Jones

5.2     Mary Ann Dickinson

5.3     The Atlanta Team

6.0     BE AUTHENTIC

6.1     The Atlanta Team

6.2     Mary Ann Dickinson

7.0     SUMMARY

8.0     REFERENCES

9.0     SUGGESTED READINGS

10.0     DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1.0     INTRODUCTION

Historically, water leaders in North America have led quietly. In fact, many water utilities have referred to themselves proudly as the silent service. Over the last several decades, however, since the passage of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, water leaders have risen to the challenge to be more public, vocal, forward-looking, and inclusive in their leadership styles. This chapter will explore a few key attributes of successful leadership in the water profession and includes some practical advice, starting with two brief anecdotes to provide a crucial framework around leadership (as distinct from management, which is covered in Chapter 4).

Hazel works as the training manager in the human resources department of an urban water utility. She brought a situation to the attention of her supervisor—a situation she could have resolved on her own without intervention. When asked if she considered herself a leader in the organization, she replied, No. That’s above my pay grade. I do not yet have a high enough rank to be a leader.

Mark works as assistant maintenance supervisor for a midsized utility. His desk sits in the middle of two related, but separate departments (one on his left and one on his right), and he serves them both. He is literally the only person in the organization who knows what both the left hand and the right hand are doing. He realizes that some of the organization’s procedures work at odds with each other and, with a small amount of work, the entire organization could be more efficient and productive. He cannot recommend changes outright himself because of organizational politics. So, he tells both department managers that he wants to host a brief working lunch with them and some of their staff to discuss procedural matters. He buys a couple of large pizzas and, over lunch, he lays out what he sees. The managers act on his observations and insights; the procedures change, and both departments function better. The next time an opportunity for a promotion comes up, Mark is the first person the managers nominate. In short, Mark understands leadership. Hazel does not.

Successful Water Leaders Often Call Upon Adaptive Leadership Skills.

Harvard Kennedy School Professor Ron Heifitz outlines seven leadership concepts many successful water leaders understand in mobilizing their organizations, teams, and communities to adopt transformative change, including:

1. Solving problems with solutions that lie outside pure technical knowledge and standard procedures.

2. Demanding constant learning of themselves and their teams, and always thinking of new ways of operating.

3. Shifting responsibility from authority figures to the stakeholders ­themselves.

4. Honoring history but not being bound by it; distinguishing between what is culturally sacred and what is expendable.

5. Experimenting and channeling conflict into innovation.

6. Understanding it takes time for people to learn new ways.

7. Clarifying values and aspirations; working towards thriving, not just coping.

Although research demonstrates that effective leadership from the top is certainly critically important and influential in any organization, everyone has the capacity to lead, regardless of title or place on the organizational chart. On the one hand, being a leader in the water industry is similar to being a leader in any other industry. On the other hand, the water industry is special. None of us can get by without water. The water industry touches all people in a community regardless of their stature, wealth, ability, commitment, or responsibility. Because water falls out of the sky or comes from the ground or surface of rivers and lakes, some people don’t understand why they have to pay for water service. Yet, water professionals know how difficult and costly it is to deliver clean, fresh drinking water to every single tap in a community every second of every day for lifetimes, then collect it, transport it away, treat it, and return it safely to the environment.

The successful delivery of water and wastewater service requires a broad array of skills, such as technical expertise, political acumen, strong communication, and sincere community outreach. Good engineers, treatment facility operators, general managers, or field technicians are critical for good management. Good leadership helps the organization thrive, serves the community, and protects public health and the environment.

Books and theories abound about good leadership. (Please refer to the list of references at the end of this chapter for suggested readings.) However, becoming a successful leader does not imply simply applying written theories. This chapter aims to share a few real world stories of leadership within the water industry in hopes of illustrating key attributes of good leaders. Some are composites or pseudonyms, and some are used by name. The highlighted leaders are not necessarily well-known leaders with important titles, although some of them are. Instead, they are diligent, committed, honest, thoughtful, collaborative communicators who strive every day to consistently walk the talk and do the best possible job, regardless of their status within their organizations. The stories in this chapter help illustrate five imperatives of successful leadership:

Seek first to understand,

Understand your authorizing environment,

Choose your battles and your allies wisely,

Leverage the heliotropic effect, and

Be authentic.

One of the stories features the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Alliance for Water Efficiency, Mary Ann Dickinson. Mary Ann has worked in the field of water efficiency and conservation for 30 years and has taken great personal risks to carve out a critical niche in the water world where none existed before.

Another story focuses on a collaborative team rather than an individual. Rob Hunter and Jack Ravan directed Atlanta, Georgia’s, Department of Watershed Management; Eric Rothstein worked with them as an independent finance consultant. Together, they helped the city and its mayor accomplish a daunting challenge to make up for years of underfunding of the city’s wastewater infrastructure.

As Commissioner of Water for the City of Cleveland, Julius Ciaccia forged a partnership with his urban utility’s suburban customers to turn the water utility into a catalyst for regional economic development. Irma Jones (a pseudonym) took a utility laid low by natural disaster from junk bond status to a thriving engine of critical infrastructure renewal in her city. Will Duncan (a pseudonym) tried, but failed, to knit a fractured multiservice utility together because the culture of resistance was stronger than his practical approach.

The theories that back up the lessons in these leaders’ stories come from a variety of sources, including academic research and business literature. References and suggested additional readings are at the end of the chapter. Tasha Eurich’s (2013) book, Bankable Leadership, provides a thorough review of empirical research to support the notion that leadership is eminently learnable. The authors’ intent in this chapter is to tell some stories about leaders in action to help readers develop their own passions and leadership skills, regardless of their education, expertise, long-term aspirations, or current position within their organizations.

2.0     SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND

Human nature is tricky, and leading even well-adjusted people can be challenging at times. Leading difficult people, or leading a boss or client, is even harder. Most people are difficult for a reason, so it helps to find out the reason and have some empathy. Stephen Covey’s (1989) The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People lists seek first to understand, then to be understood as habit no. 5.

Consider the case of Larry, the fictionalized manager of a large wastewater utility in the northwestern United States. Larry was technically very proficient, good at his job, and ran a tight ship. However, he was notoriously tough on his people, and especially tough on his consultants. A new consultant on the scene heard the stories before meeting Larry. When the time came for his first client meeting, the consultant was nervous. Before the meeting, he asked anyone he could for more information about Larry. What are his hobbies? Where did he go to school? What’s his family like? It turns out that Larry had a wonderful wife and kids, but one of his sons was disabled. The son’s medical care and living situation were all-consuming challenges for Larry and his wife. Was it any wonder Larry came to work a little cranky some days? Just knowing that story helped the new consultant have more empathy and patience in his dealings with Larry—leadership skills he used to provide better service to his client.

Leaders also need to have a thorough appreciation for what’s really going on in the field if they are going to gain credibility within their organization. Many leaders have deluded themselves into thinking everything was just fine, when, in reality, the troops were not only subverting their efforts, but either waiting things out until they were replaced or, worse, actively plotting against them.

2.1     Will Duncan

Will Duncan, a new multiservice utility director, quickly sized up the situation in his organization and realized there were many efficiencies to be gained by combining some of the operations and cross-training the workers. Will was one of a long line of utility directors who had come through the revolving door of this town. Many multiservice utilities face cultural divisions between water and wastewater units, but, in this case, there was such bad blood between the leaders of those units that the water leader took his team to a completely different building and the electric utility leader built an actual locked fence inside the public works facility just to keep those wastewater people out.

Try as he might, Will failed to overcome these longstanding and deep-seated cultural barriers. The water, wastewater, and electric leaders played along with Will’s re-engineering program for a while, but they ultimately waited him out. Will left his job and the three units went back to their inefficient, business-as-usual ways. Although Will was well-intentioned, his command-and-control approach to change management failed to take into account the underpinnings of the social, cultural, and even emotional barriers to moving the combined utility forward.

2.2     Mary Ann Dickinson

Mary Ann began her water utility career in the 1980s with the Regional Water Authority in New Haven, Connecticut. When she received a job offer to work in water conservation for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, the challenge was too enticing to refuse, so she moved away from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, from a water-rich environment to a highly populated and water-scarce environment.

Within a few years, Mary Ann moved to Sacramento, California, to become the first executive director of the still-fledgling California Urban Water Conservation Council (CUWCC). She found herself fielding calls from across the country from utilities needing help with conservation programs and from individuals who wanted to mount conservation initiatives at the state and federal levels.

The need for a national-level advocate for water conservation had become apparent, and John Flowers, a manager in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (U.S. EPA’s) Office of Wastewater Management, agreed to help. With research funding from U.S. EPA, the CUWCC launched a fact-finding mission that included meetings across the country to listen to the needs and visions of water conservation professionals, focus groups with industry representatives, and a survey that went to 750 professionals who could not attend the meetings. That effort resulted in a stakeholder-driven commitment to form a national organization, but without any additional grant funding to create the organization. These committed, passionate professionals were on their own.

Their first tasks were to determine the mission, governance structure, funding sources, and physical location for this new advocacy group. After weighing numerous options, they landed on Chicago, Illinois, as the home of the fledgling Alliance for Water Efficiency. (The organization would be serving utilities in the United States and Canada, so Chicago was a perfect central location to both countries.) They identified the mission as providing a platform to promote the efficient and sustainable use of water. They solicited interest in board membership and selected a diverse 24-person board that included representatives of industry, utilities, academia, and government. The new board asked Mary Ann to serve as the first CEO.

During the first 5 years of the organization’s existence, Mary Ann worked with the board to attract 400 members, to provide detailed technical assistance in planning conservation programs to those members, and to establish three clear platforms on which to base fundraising initiatives: water and energy, revenue stability, and promotion of water efficiency standards and codes. Revenue stability posed a daunting dilemma that tested Mary Ann and the alliance. Often called the conservation conundrum, successful conservation programs cause water sales to decrease; decreased sales, in turn, cause revenues to decline, and utilities struggle to meet fixed operations and maintenance costs. While this chain of events is logical, it does not recognize the benefits of water conservation, which are paramount to Mary Ann.

Efficiency programs may cost utilities money in the short term, but rate-setting and accounting challenges can be addressed. In fact, efficiency programs save utilities and customers tremendous sums of money in the long term, not only through reduced short-term costs, but, more importantly, through reduced capital costs (e.g., deferred [or eliminated] needs for new supplies and deferred infrastructure repair and replacement). Water utilities in New York and Boston, Massachusetts, have proven this point, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in capital costs by reducing their demand via cost-effective water conservation programs. The economic