PROJ02192

• Contract/PO #: 07000000049
• Contractor Name: Stratus Consulting, Inc.
• Contract Type: Grant
• Water District: 0
• Loan Projects - Doc Type: Report

Stratus Consulting

Study Purpose and Introduction

1.2.3 What were the findings for small systems?

Small community water systems, defined in the survey as those serving fewer than 3,300 people,
together serve approximately 10% of the nation's population (U.S. EPA, 1997). Most states have
hundreds of such systems that can be found in urban as well as rural areas. Like the larger
systems, many small community water systems are aging and in many cases were constructed 50
to 100 years ago (U.S. EPA, 2005). Unlike the larger systems that can distribute costs across a
large customer base, small community water systems face the challenge of rehabilitating,
upgrading, and expanding infrastructure without the benefit of economies of scale (U.S. EP A,
2005). The result is that the costs borne by customers served by small systems are significantly
higher than those of larger systems. Findings from the 1999 Needs Survey indicated that the
average 20-year need is $3,000 (1999$) per household for small systems, but only $1,250 for
households served by medium systems and $790 per household for large systems (U .S. EP A,
2001).

Small system needs, broken down by project category, are listed in Table 1.1. Findings from the
1999 Needs Survey indicate that 81 % of small systems needed upgrades to their distribution
systems (U.S. EPA, 2001). Consistent with the findings for all systems in the United States, the
greatest need (more than 50%) among small systems is for projects that fall in the distribution
and transmission category (U.S. EPA, 1997,2001,2005). Figure 1.1 illustrates the breakdown of
needs by category as reported in the 2003 Needs Survey.

Table 1.1. Total small community system needs (by project category and survey year)
1995 1999 2003
(billions 1995$) (billions 1999$) (billions 2003$)
Distribution and transmission $23.8 $17.0 $18.6
Treatment $6.7 $5.6 $6.2
Storage $4.2 $5.7 $6.3
Source $2.5 $2.6 $2.9
Other $0.04 $0.2 $0.3
Totala $37.2 $31.4 $34.2
a. Tomls listed may not equal the sum of the values listed above because of rounding errors.
Source: Adapted from U.S. EPA, 1997,2001,2005.

All three Needs Surveys report that although large and medium-sized systems account for most
of the total need, small systems have the greatest needs on a per-household basis. The largest
category of needs for small systems is distribution and transmission, which is consistent across
all categories of water system size and type.

Page 1-4
SCll199