Cultivating Equitable Water Access

November 18, 2024 / Blogs

A review of the role state governments play in providing technical assistance to water utilities

Executive summary

Black, Indigenous, and people of color are more likely than white people to live in municipalities with lead service lines, experience water shut-offs, reside in communities facing water affordability challenges, and miss out on the benefits of federally subsidized water infrastructure financing.

Metropolitan Planning Council research examines the role of state governments in strengthening the long-term capacity of water utilities to address these racial inequities.

To address this racial inequity, states should provide assistance directly to utilities to help them secure funding, identify infrastructure challenges, and plan for long-term operational and financial stability. We argue that Illinois should adopt two types of commonly-found assistance with the following considerations:

Preconstruction financing to create funding early in the project cycle:

Create a streamlined administrative process that is easy for utilities to apply to.
Make financing for preconstruction activities affordable through grants, deferral options, and keeping interest rates low.
Staff up at IEPA as needed to administer the program, using set-asides and leveraging the SRF as needed.

Proactive technical assistance to assess and coordinate capacity development:

Implement a water utility capacity assessment protocol that includes a policy for setting capacity standards and a process for measuring water system capacity.
Create a simple application process, supplemented with direct invitations.
Develop and coordinate a pre-qualified pool of at least three technical assistance providers with expertise in areas including municipal finance and asset management.

Our recommendations for Illinois are drawn from a national review of technical assistance commonly offered through the State Revolving Fund (SRF)* programs. In addition to preconstruction financing and proactive technical assistance, we identify two capacity development strategies common across states and active in Illinois: small system assistance and lead service line replacement assistance.

We focus on Illinois because, as a regional organization based in Chicago, Metropolitan Planning Council is interested in action that can be taken to support utilities in our state. Readers in other states may find that the recommendations offered here similarly applicable in their own contexts.

We are left with many questions and avenues for future research. We invite the feedback and collaboration of the policy community in building our collective understanding of how states and other actors support water utilities, and whether those programs promote racial equity in the drinking water sector.

Read the full report

*Technical assistance programs may entail coordination with SRF programs, but exceed the strict programmatic boundaries of the SRF.