Community Based Utility Consolidation with US Water Alliance’s Emily Simonson

Emily Simonson, the Director of Strategic Partnerships of the US Water Alliance, shares findings, insights and strategies distilled from the US Water Alliance’s recent report entitled Catalyzing Community-Driven Utility Consolidations and Partnerships. Plus, Reese Tisdale joins us for another Bluefield on Tap segment discussing The Digital Water Revolution.

In this session, you’ll learn about:

• Emily’s background and how she gravitated to the water sector
• Why the US Water Alliance chose to tackle the issue of fragmentation and consolidation in the water utility sector
• The recent report by the US Water Alliance on community based consolidations
• Why utility consolidations are so difficult
• Why consolidation opportunity for utilities are incredibly customizable
• How the US Water Alliance assembled the team of experts and stakeholders to address the consolidation issues
• What some of the roadblocks to consolidation are
• Strategies to overcome the roadblocks
• Some of the policy tools that can be deployed to achieve consolidation goals
• How political will-building for consolidation can be fostered in “Step Zero”
• Why the US Water Alliance is working toward a rate calculator to help forecast what rates might be as a result of consolidation
• How the US Water Alliance is continuing the momentum from the report

Resources and links mentioned in or relevant to this session include:

• Emily’s LinkedIn profile
• US Water Alliance’s website
• US Water Alliance’s Report: Catalyzing Community-Driven Utility Consolidations and Partnerships

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