RCAP Survey Shows Impact of COVID-19 on Rural and Tribal Water and Wastewater Systems
More than 31 percent of systems surveyed who were able to estimate their financial outlook indicated they would not be able to continue to cover all costs for more than six months under these current conditions.
More than 43 percent of systems surveyed said they rely on one full-time operator or less to operate their system (many rely on part-time staff, operators or volunteers), and many respondents indicated a concern over the health of their operators in the maintenance of the system.
Based on the responses received, RCAP was able to estimate revenue loss across the country for small water systems (serving populations of 10,000 residents or fewer) of between $3.6 to $5.58 billion. RCAP was able to estimate for systems providing water or both water and wastewater using data for 33 states and Puerto Rico. This impact would be much greater if extrapolated nationally and with systems providing wastewater alone.
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