A national survey of municipal wastewater management financing.

Sources of revenues, operating and capital expenditures, levels of service, capacity utilization, rates and other data are reported for 110 municipal sewerage agencies that serve a population of 86 million.

The budgetary challenges faced by all levels of government continue to critically impact the area of water pollution control financing. As they deal with these significant financial challenges, national, state and local policy makers need information on questions such as:

* What user charges are the nation's major wastewater treatment facilities assessing their customers?

* What percentage of their funds are allocated to operation and maintenance?

* What level of outstanding debt service do publicly owned treatment works have?

* How have rates, operation and maintenance costs, and debt service changed in recent years?

The Survey and Respondents

The Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies (AMSA), in seeking answers to these questions, conducted a survey of its 158 member agencies, the largest publicly owned wastewater treatment agencies in the United States. The three-part survey covered general information on the sewerage agencies; financial information on revenues, expenditures and debt; and information on the rate-setting methodologies used and the rates imposed for various types of service. It follows up and expands upon five previous surveys, the most recent of which took place in 1990. This article presents an overview of the association's report, The AMSA Financial Survey 1993: A National Survey of Municipal Wastewater Management Financing.

Of the 158 survey questionnaires sent out, 110 agencies responded, serving a total population of 86 million. The largest agency serves a population of 7,322,000, and the smallest agency serves 11,500 people. Half of the agencies provide service to fewer than 378,000 people. The agencies' service areas range from 1,000 square miles to 13 square miles, with the average service area at 247 square miles.

Thirty-eight percent of the agencies have portions of their service areas served by combined sanitary and storm sewers; the combined sewer service area makes up 11 percent of the total service area. The largest combined sewer service area was 731 TABULAR DATA OMITTED square miles, and the smallest was 0.2 square miles. The average combined sewer service area was 76 square miles; the median was 26 square miles.

Exhibit 2 NUMBER OF AGENCIES USING EACH REVENUE SOURCE IN 1992 Percent of Total...