Water supply challenges vary across the country, with each region facing its own unique combination of infrastructure, regulatory, environmental, and growth-related pressures. Here’s a look at what our water professionals are seeing in Arizona, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
Arizona
Arizona continues to face water supply challenges related to long-term drought, growing demand, and uncertainty surrounding future Colorado River supplies. Water providers across the state are balancing the need to support growth while ensuring reliable water resources for communities and businesses.
To address these challenges, agencies and utilities are investing in conservation programs, water reuse initiatives, infrastructure improvements, groundwater management efforts, and long-term water planning. Many communities are also evaluating opportunities to diversify supplies and strengthen system resiliency through a combination of conservation, reclaimed water, new water supply development efforts, and other strategies focused on long-term sustainability.
Tennessee
In Tennessee, aging infrastructure, water loss, population growth, and evolving regulatory requirements are among the key challenges affecting water systems. Emerging contaminants such as PFAS are increasing treatment costs, while smaller utilities often face funding and staffing limitations that can lead to deferred maintenance. Limited storage and redundancy can also increase vulnerability to short-term supply disruptions.
To address these challenges, agencies and utilities are investing in infrastructure upgrades, water loss reduction efforts, enhanced monitoring, drought planning, and regional collaboration. CEC is supporting these efforts through projects including a manifold rehabilitation project in Kingston, leak detection programs for multiple communities, asset management planning, and resiliency initiatives with the City of Mount Pleasant and neighboring systems. Future planning efforts will also be influenced by updated drought management plans, water loss requirements, enhanced data collection, and potential changes related to water withdrawal regulations.
Texas
The Coastal Bend region of South Texas is currently experiencing drought conditions. Although recent rainfall increased reservoir levels to approximately 13.8% capacity, Lake Corpus Christi and Choke Canyon Reservoir fell below 8% capacity earlier this year.
State and federal agencies are supporting the development of new water supplies and efforts to diversify water portfolios. CEC’s notable projects include a proposed 100-million-gallon-per-day seawater desalination plant at Harbor Island, new groundwater well projects, and initiatives that allow industry to use treated wastewater effluent instead of drinking water for certain processes. Texas leadership has also focused on streamlining project approvals and funding new water supply and water infrastructure improvements.
West Virginia
West Virginia communities face challenges related to reliance on surface water sources, limited source redundancy in rural systems, storage constraints, and source water contamination risks. Many utilities depend on rivers or single-source systems, making them vulnerable to contamination events, storms, and supply disruptions.
Utilities and agencies are responding through regionalization efforts, bulk water expansion, new interconnections, source diversification, and increased watershed and source water protection efforts. These initiatives are helping improve reliability and provide additional resilience during shortages and outages.
Looking Ahead
While challenges differ from region to region, our professionals across the country are working with their communities to strengthen the reliability and resilience of their water systems. Through infrastructure investments, planning efforts, collaboration, and development of new water supplies, utilities and agencies continue to adapt to changing needs and local conditions. Across these efforts, CEC continues to support clients to address infrastructure needs, improve system resiliency, and prepare long-term water resource planning.
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