The affordability of water service is a large and growing challenge for the sector. Utilities are facing substantial costs to upgrade infrastructure and to treat for emerging contaminants of concern, but also are grappling with how to fund these efforts without disproportionately impacting customers. So discussions around affordability at the household level are important not only in the strategic planning and day-to-day operation of water systems, but also for state and federal agencies considering new regulations. In these discussions, it's important to recognize that affordability is a complex issue, and household-level affordability and the consequences of policy changes cannot rest on a single metric like median household income.

Many stakeholders, AWWA included, have long advocated for better analysis of rulemaking to identify whether rule requirements are likely to cause affordability problems to low-income customers. Understanding impacts on fiscally challenged households is an important step to determining what can be done to address those challenges while still ensuring access to safe and reliable drinking water supplies.

Under current practice, the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) prepares an extensive economic analysis for new Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) regulations. That analysis includes determining whether—across the nation as a whole—the health benefits of a rule are greater than the costs of implementation. USEPA looks specifically at the household-level cost implications of drinking water regulations only for small systems with the question of whether a small-system variance (i.e., a less expensive but equivalently protective compliance strategy) should be available. And USEPA prepares analyses to address several executive orders, including Executive Order 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low-Income Populations.

The panel emphasized that analyzing impacts on household affordability is not meant to reduce health protections for low-income customers or anyone else. Instead, evaluating the impacts of regulatory options on household-level affordability should provide an opportunity to modify draft rule frameworks and implementation strategies to mitigate impacts on low-income households and consequently alleviate disparate impacts.

The panel's work sets the stage for improving current SDWA decision-making processes, which in turn will help lead to more informed decisions across the sector. Although work remains to fully demonstrate the recommended analyses, they nevertheless pave the way for a more informed future.

供水服务的可负担性是该部门面临的一个巨大且日益严峻的挑战。公用事业公司面临着升级基础设施和处理新出现的令人担忧的污染物的巨额成本，但也正在努力解决如何在不对客户产生不成比例影响的情况下为这些努力提供资金。因此，围绕家庭负担能力的讨论不仅在水系统的战略规划和日常运营中很重要，而且对于考虑新法规的州和联邦机构也很重要。在这些讨论中，重要的是要认识到负担能力是一个复杂的问题，家庭层面的负担能力和政策变化的后果不能依赖于家庭收入中位数等单一指标。

包括 AWWA 在内的许多利益相关者长期以来一直主张对规则制定进行更好的分析，以确定规则要求是否可能导致低收入客户的负担能力问题。了解对财政困难家庭的影响是确定可以采取哪些措施来应对这些挑战同时仍确保获得安全可靠的饮用水供应的重要一步。

在当前的实践中，美国环境保护署 (USEPA) 为新的安全饮用水法案 (SDWA) 规定准备了广泛的经济分析。该分析包括确定一项规则的健康益处是否大于整个国家的实施成本。美国环保署仅针对小型系统专门研究饮用水法规对家庭层面的成本影响，并考虑是否应提供小型系统差异（即，成本较低但具有同等保护性的合规策略）。USEPA 准备分析以解决若干行政命令，包括第 12898 号行政命令，解决少数民族和低收入人口环境正义问题的联邦行动。

该小组强调，分析对家庭负担能力的影响并不意味着减少对低收入客户或其他任何人的健康保护。相反，评估监管方案对家庭层面负担能力的影响应该为修改规则框架草案和实施策略提供机会，以减轻对低收入家庭的影响，从而减轻不同的影响。

该小组的工作为改进当前的 SDWA 决策流程奠定了基础，这反过来将有助于在整个行业做出更明智的决策。尽管要充分证明推荐的分析还有工作要做，但它们仍然为更明智的未来铺平了道路。