Natural Outlook, August 2014 Page: 1
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A05 A
PD-020/14-05 'AUGUST 2014magine that you have a 50-year-old
home-in a booming area of town-
where a lot of major maintenance
has been deferred. Your family is
growing, but your paycheck is the same.
Now imagine you run a small public water
system. You may have similar concerns, but
on a much larger scale.
Many of these small systems, such
as those serving RV parks, housing
developments, and bedroom communities,
are dealing with rapid growth and aging
infrastructure. Some operators have the
added stress of drought to deal with. How
will they secure adequate water supplies?
Just like our imaginary homeowner, they
want to know if they can afford to make
needed repairs before a crisis occurs.
Hundreds of Texas water-system
owners and operators are in this situation.
That's why the Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality is conducting
workshops on managing assets around
the state specifically designed for small
public water systems.
The TCEQ held five of these training
sessions this spring attended by 150 public-
water-system professionals, representing
108 systems in East and Central Texas
and the Panhandle. Participants received
continuing-education credit.;#r
The TCEQ's Morgan Jansing takes participants through an inventory-development process step by
step. She uses worksheets system staffers can download to help them plan ahead.From Inventory to Budgeting
To engage in long-range planning, system
operators must first take an inventory of
assets. Morgan Jansing, with the TCEQ's
Small Business and Local Government
Assistance Section, walked participants
through the process of detailing all of their
assets using worksheets in the TCEQ's guide.
After listing assets and estimating the
life span for each one, operators can create
a prioritized inventory. This will help them
make decisions about maintenance and
replacement, and develop a budget. Like the
homeowner who knows that his 15-year-old
water heater will likely need replacement this
year while his five-year-old air conditioningsystem will not need replacing for 10-15 years,
this process projects current and future
needs and estimates replacement costs.
Once the inventory is completed and
costs are projected, a budget is developed.
The workshop showed participants how to
come up with income figures based on rates
and fees collected using a handy worksheet
in the guide. The TCEQ connects systems
with professionals who can provide financial,
managerial, and technical assistance. Together
they can determine the next steps to assess
need and conduct a study to make sure that
rates are at appropriate levels to meet needs.
Our homeowner may have parents or
other resources to help out financially and
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Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Agency Communications Division. Natural Outlook, August 2014, periodical, August 2014; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1582383/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.