2024年水务报告

A dozen years since Black & Veatch first launchedits annual analysis of the U.S. water sector, theindustry’s complexities have grown more profoundwith challenges intensifying by the day. AboutThisReport Unsurprisingly, the industry’s aging infrastructure remainsthe preeminent headache, as it has been for decades.Regulations relating to contaminants — often so-called“forever chemicals” — and the lead-and-copper rulescontinue to evolve and stoke uncertainty. Blamed for morefrequent and severe weather events, climate change morethan ever is testing the resilience of water infrastructure —and with droughts, impacting water supply. Cyber threatsare on the rise, pressing the need for utilities to bolster theirdefensive postures. What are utilities doing in the face ofthe “silver tsunami,” the rising tide of retirements in theindustry? Get expert help foryour water needs. Contact us All of it provides the backdrop to Black & Veatch’s2024Water Report, a deep dive into many of the industry’s topissues, based on expert analyses of our survey of roughly630 U.S. water industry stakeholders. Amid all the headwinds, opportunity still abounds. Whilestill not used to its full potential in heightening resilienceand sustainability, data continues to hold great promisein helping utilities do more with less with infrastructurewell past its prime. Sustainability — what we define as theability to meet the needs of the current generation withoutcompromising the needs of future ones — is taking deeperroot as a critical strategic focus. The2024 Water Reportoffers a comprehensive overview ofwhat’s changed — and what has not — in an industry withenormous potential to accelerate innovation in strategy,operations and funding. Contents Sustainability and Decarbonization Executive Summary4 28Water Conservation, Loss Mitigation A Rising Tide of Change: U.S. WaterSector Navigating Challenges,Opportunities as Sustainability, ResilienceDrive Discussion Emerge as Top Tactics for Sustainability,Decarbonization Climate Change Cybersecurity 33 10 Climate Change: An Evolving Paradigmfor Sustainable Infrastructure Growing Concern About CyberattacksCalls for Additional Guidance Workforce Contaminants 39 16 The ‘Silver Tsunami’: Surging RetirementsStoke Workplace Challenges for U.S.Water Utilities Modular Solutions, Predictive ModellingGood Steps Toward Managing DrinkingWater Contamination Asset Management, Digital Water Environmental and Treatment 41 21Managing Current, Emerging Regulations in Wastewater As Data Maturity Levels Rise, DigitalWater Strategies are Revisited About the Authors49 Rates 25Growing Needs for Infrastructure Investment, Ratepayer Education ExecutiveSummary A Rising Tide of Change: U.S. Water SectorNavigating Challenges, Opportunities asSustainability, Resilience Drive Discussion Anyone unversed in the rapid torrent of change in the U.S. watersector needs to only appreciate what the industry’s stakeholdersconsidered their top headaches a few short years ago. Cited in2019 by eight of 10 respondents to Black & Veatch’s survey for itsassessment of the sector, aging infrastructure overwhelmingly ruledthe roost, as it has in virtually all of the 13 editions of this yearlyreport. Justifying capital improvement plans and rate requirements,managing capital costs, system resilience, and data collection andmanagement followed, none getting more than 26 percent of the vote. About the Author Mike Orthis president ofBlack & Veatch’s governmentsand communities business.Before that 2021 appointment,Orth served as executivevice president and managingdirector of Black & Veatch’swater business in theAmericas. He has guided thecompany’s growth efforts insupply, storage, treatmentand conveyance by deliveringprojects for clients throughboth traditional methods andalternative solutions such asdesign-build, performancecontracting and public-privatepartnerships. Flash forward to these times, and the tide dramatically has turned. Aging infrastructure in dire need of upgrades and investmentremains the biggest headwind among nearly 630 surveyrespondents in this Black & Veatch2024 Water Report. Then there’sthe aging workforce and the hiring of qualified staff — what’s beingdubbed an unfolding “silver tsunami” of retirements expectedto deepen over the next 10 years. Throw in the uncertainty of anevolving, shifting regulatory landscape involving contaminantssuch as “forever chemicals,” lead and copper rules, the surge ofcybersecurity threats, funding constraints, high energy costs, andthe pressures for more sustainability and resilience in the face ofgrowing climate change impacts. While the already complex U.S. water, wastewater and stormwatersectors try to muscle through a tug of war of conflicting priorities,a pipeline of opportunity exists, with the promise of digitaltechnologies and innovations leading the list of ways in whichoperators can make better decisions and get the most of theirgraying assets and lim