Communities depend on safe, clean, and reliable water and wastewater services every day—to protect public health, support local economies, and maintain quality of life.
Across the country, local leaders are navigating a changing water landscape. Infrastructure built decades ago requires modernization, regulatory expectations continue to evolve, and the cost of operating and maintaining water and wastewater systems is rising faster than budgets. These realities are prompting communities to take a closer look at how essential water services are managed and sustained over the long term.
For many communities—especially small towns and underserved systems—these realities are prompting an important question: Is their current utility model always the best way to protect public health and ensure long-term water reliability?
Increasingly, local leaders are concluding that partnering with a private, regulated water provider may offer a more sustainable path forward.
What’s Changing for Local Water and Wastewater Systems
- Across the U.S., drinking water systems face $625 billion in investment needs over the next 20 years, even after historic federal funding. America’s drinking water infrastructure still earns a “C” and wastewater a “D+” in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2025 Infrastructure Report Card.
- Every year, utilities experience roughly 260,000 water main breaks, with nearly 20% of mains beyond their useful life—a clear signal that deferred renewal is catching up.
And the challenge isn’t just physical infrastructure.
- A quiet workforce crisis is underway. Many experienced operators and engineers are retiring, while fewer young workers are entering the field. Estimates suggest 30–50% of the water workforce may retire within the next decade; a problem felt most acutely by small systems with limited staffing and resources.
- Layered on top of these challenges is increasing regulatory complexity. EPA’s final PFAS drinking water rule establishes enforceable standards with monitoring by 2027 and compliance by 2029. EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule Improvements require full replacement of lead service lines within 10 years. These rules represent major public health advances—but they also require capital, expertise, and sustained operational capacity.
Moving Beyond the “Public vs. Private” Debate
The conversation facing communities today is not ideological. It’s practical.
Local leaders are increasingly looking beyond the outdated “public vs. private” binary and asking a more important question:
What solution best protects public health, affordability and long-term sustainability for the community I serve?
For many small, distressed, or legacy systems, current models are under growing financial, technical, and regulatory strain—contributing to service disruptions, compliance risks, and declining public confidence.
Why Communities Are Looking to Private Water Providers
Faced with these realities, communities are exploring partnerships with private water and wastewater companies—not as a retreat from responsibility, but as a way to strengthen it.
Private, regulated water providers bring:
- Dedicated operational and technical expertise focused solely on water
- Access to capital for long-term infrastructure investment
- Regulatory compliance capabilities across multiple jurisdictions
- Workforce depth and training programs that small systems often lack
For many communities, this means stabilizing service, restoring compliance, and rebuilding trust in water systems that residents depend on every day.
Turning Infrastructure into Opportunity and Unlocking Value
For some communities, the sale of a water or wastewater system is more than an operational decision to transfer ownership to a private, regulated provider—it’s a strategic opportunity.
- Proceeds from a system sale can be used to retire existing debt, stabilizing finances. Others invest those funds in economic development projects, public safety, neighborhood revitalization, or tax relief. Learn how leaders in Lake Station, Indiana transformed city operations by retiring the city’s debt and strategically invested additional proceeds in roads and other revitalization projects.
- At the same time, residents continue to receive water service—often with enhanced reliability, modernized infrastructure, and improved regulatory performance.
Accountability, Affordability, and Public Trust
One of the most common concerns about water service after safety and reliability is affordability. Professional water providers operate under strict regulatory oversight by state public utility commissions. Water Rates are reviewed, justified, and approved to ensure fairness and transparency.
Through efficiency gains and economies of scale, private providers can often invest more while keeping rates predictable. Many private, regulated water and wastewater providers offer customer assistance programs, payment plans, and affordability initiatives designed to help households manage their bills.
Raising the Standard for Trust in Water
At the end of the day, water is not optional. It must be safe. It must be reliable. And communities deserve solutions that are long-term, sustainable and practical that raise the standard for public trust in water—today and for generations to come.
By partnering with regulated, water and wastewater companies, communities can help ensure that this essential service is in experienced hands—delivering investment, accountability and performance. That’s how trust in water is earned.
References
American Society of Civil Engineers. (2025). 2025 Infrastructure Report Card. Retrieved January 7, 2026, from https://infrastructurereportcard.org/
Allaire et al. 2018. “National Trends in Drinking Water Quality Violations.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(10): 2078–2083. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719805115
Konisky and Teodoro. 2015. “When Governments Regulate Governments: Political Foundations of the Regulatory State.” American Journal of Political Science 59(3): 559–574. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12221
U.S. EPA. (April 2024). 2022 Clean Watersheds Needs Survey: Report to Congress (EPA 832‑R‑24‑002).
U.S. EPA (September 2023). Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment: 7th Report to Congress (EPA 810‑R‑23‑001)