The United States faces a huge shortfall in funding for renewal of water and wastewater infrastructure — while at the same time public money is scarcer than ever. Under these conditions, how will cities, towns, villages and water authorities find the money to upgrade treatment plants and repair decaying underground piping?
Consensus is growing that part of the solution lies in public-private partnerships. Such partnerships provide municipal and utility agencies with access to private capital, operational resources, or both, so that they can accomplish their goals while investing their own limited dollars in other priorities.
The partnership concept has been widely used
