10 • January 2018 www.concreteproducts.com
GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS
INFRASTRUCTURE
In the wake of tightening municipal bud-
gets, environmental violations, and aging
infrastructure, private players are poised to
capitalize on struggling water and wastewa-
ter utilities. A new Bluefield Research report,
U.S. Municipal Water & Wastewater: Defining
the Addressable Market for Private Invest-
ment, estimates the total market value of
78,000-plus community water and wastewa-
ter systems across the U.S. to exceed $700
billion.
"We've been talking about this trend for
several years—municipalities and smaller
private system owners' growing inability
to keep up with deteriorating utility infra-
structure, so our analysis has been developed
as a tool to evaluate the opportunities for
investment," says Bluefield Research Presi-
dent Reese Tisdale. "There seems to be no
shortage of interest, and capital for that
matter. Rather, the challenge for new market
entrants, particularly for those looking to
secure a platform from which to grow, is
scale. Big deals are difficult to find."
Approximately 15 percent of community
water systems are already owned by private
Water, wastewater system report tracks private operator emergence
COMPLIANCE COMPELLED
Top 15 states for systems with "serious violations"
SOURCE: Bluefield Research