Funding Resources and Opportunities
Background
One of the great challenges facing water infrastructure managers is finding ways to fund needed system improvements while maintaining water and sewer costs that are reasonably affordable for most customers. This gets further complicated when federal and state regulators, often driven by political pressures, demand system changes, and upgrades above and beyond what the utility deems necessary to maintain a high level of service and environmental protection.
Need for Change
MCWRS has been at the forefront in requesting legislators at the federal and state level increase available funding for water utilities, especially to support regulatory demands. MCWRS also advocates for more restraint and reasonableness from regulatory agencies so that new, costly, and burdensome requirements do not further impact ratepayer affordability. Even when federal funding is made available, as with the post-COVID ARPA and BIL infrastructure acts, the red tape and difficulty in understanding the process to access the monies is problematic, especially for smaller systems. Advocating for more funding with less funding bureaucracy continues to be a major focus of MCWRS.
MCWRS Advocacy and Resources
In June 2025, MCWRS hosted a Member Chat with the Town of Westborough DPW and Fuss & O’Neill on the Town’s MVP grant: “Aquifer Recharge for Water Resiliency” - you can view slides from this presentation here.
OpEd in the Daily Hampshire Gazette by MCWRS President, Joshua Schimmel: “Investment in water - Better now than later”
In Spring 2022, MCWRS hosted a webinar discussing this issue in more depth. Members can access a recording of this webinar free of charge by contacting info@mcwrs.org.