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Water Innovations
Making America's
Water Utilities Great
EDITOR'S LETTER
By Kevin Westerling
Chief Editor, editor@wateronline.com
6
T
his January, a national leader emerged with a plan to shake up the status quo,
touting a "business" approach to rectify historic "inadequacies" of our system.
And we should all be on board with the plan, because it means potentially great
things for the water and wastewater industry.
That leader, of course, is George Hawkins (who else?), general manager and CEO
of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water). And the plan is
Blue Drop.
What Is Blue Drop?
A spinoff of DC Water, Blue Drop is a nonprofit organization that markets its biosolids
soil amendment product, as well as consulting and "shared" services, to help finance
DC Water operations, thereby reducing the need for rate hikes. Meanwhile, fellow
utilities benefit from services honed through DC Water's scale of operation and its
evolution from ambitious early adopter to expert practitioner of innovative ideas — an
evolution that ratepayers financed in the first place. Blue Drop, then, is a cyclical and
symbiotic venture. As Hawkins stated:
For me, developing a "business" model for a public agency that can generate
significant revenue from the technolog y, skills, and experience that have been
developed at ratepayer expense is a critical element of a structural response to the
inadequacies of the historic public utility model. I do think we have a very special
moment to do something unique at DC Water and have the potential of providing
real relief to our ratepayers while simultaneously advancing this industry.
Hawkins also noted that DC Water isn't the first utility to do this. That distinction
belongs to Clean Water Services outside
of Portland, OR, and its nonprofit
offshoot called the Clean Water Institute,
which provides expertise in resource
recovery, watershed management, and
organization strategies. It's a model that
can and should be duplicated whenever
possible, wherever leading-edge utilities
can package their abilities to benefit
their own ratepayers, their peers in
water and wastewater management, and
the communities and environments they
look after. Blue Drop does this through
the following goods and services.
101 Gibraltar Road, Suite 100
Horsham, PA 19044
PH: (215) 675-1800
FX: (814) 899-5587
Email: info@wateronline.com
Website: www.wateronline.com
CHIEF EDITOR
Kevin Westerling
(215) 675-1800 ext. 120
kwesterling@vertmarkets.com
PUBLISHER
Travis Kennedy
(215) 675-1800 ext. 122
tkennedy@vertmarkets.com
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Patrick Gallagher
(215) 675-1800 ext. 129
pgallagher@vertmarkets.com
PRODUCT MANAGER
Bill King
(215) 675-1800 ext. 100
bking@vertmarkets.com
MANAGING EDITOR
Angel Clark
(814) 897-9000 ext. 285
aclark@vertmarkets.com
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
Lynn Netkowicz
(814) 897-9000 ext. 205
lnetkowicz@vertmarkets.com
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Susan Day
(215) 675-1800 ext. 101
sday@vertmarkets.com
DIRECTOR OF AUDIENCE
DEVELOPMENT
Martin Zapolski
(814) 897-7700 ext. 337
mzapolski@vertmarkets.com
DIRECTOR OF
ONLINE DEVELOPMENT
Art Glenn
aglenn@vertmarkets.com
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When much-needed
services can't be
adequately fulfilled by
smaller utilities with tight
budgets, shared services
can fill the gaps.