Volume 101, Issue 5     May 2009    ISSN 1551-8833

Utility managers are charged with providing safe and reliable water services to current and future customers. Sustainability has emerged as an influential utility strategy that guides the organization’s planning and development of approaches to serving their customers’ day-to-day and long-term needs. These sustainability strategies improve resource efficiency, direct long-term investment strategies, and reduce implementation risks.

The article describes a wide range of technologies and programs that can be considered when adapting a portfolio of strategies to include the most cost-effective and easily implemented approaches for delivering safe and reliable services to water utility customers. By considering the full water cycle and the capability of emerging technologies to cost-effectively treat marginal-quality water sources, the water manager is more likely to successfully navigate the public and political interactions that are an integral part of successful utility planning and ensure more reliable sources of water now, and in the future.—LH