Tools for Effective Water and Wastewater Utility Management
Effectively managing all aspects of operations is critical for all utilities, regardless of size or location, to ensure their longevity and to keep the communities they serve strong and safe.
Learn about effective utility practices.
Effective Utility Management (EUM) Attributes
EPA works with six national organizations that support drinking water and wastewater utilities to promote effective utility management (EUM) based on a series of attributes of effectively managed water sector utilities.
- Attributes of Effectively Managed Water Sector Utilities - Targets medium and larger utilities that have seen significant benefits from using EUM to improve their operations. Additional information about this initiative is at Water Effective Utility Management.
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Effective Utility Management in Action: Austin Water Case Study - Learn how Austin Water is using Effective Utility Management to move toward effective operations and address the needs of their community.
Building on the success of this effort, EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Utilities Service (RUS) developed two tools for rural and small water and wastewater systems to help improve organization-wide performance. They focus on operations, infrastructure, customer satisfaction, community stability, natural resource stewardship, and financial viability.
- The Rural and Small Systems Guidebook - Provides rural and small systems with a series of steps for assessing their operations based on key management areas.
- Workshop in a Box and supplemental materials - Help systems and service providers conduct workshops on their own.
- Providing Effective Utility Management Strategies and Resources - View a short video that highlights the attributes of the Rural and Small Systems Guidebook and its companion material, Workshop in a Box:
Tools to Implement Effective Utility Management
Medium and Larger Systems
- Effective Utility Management Primer - Provides steps for utilities to assess their operations using the attributes and a series of suggested utility performance measures to gauge progress over time.
- An electronic resource "toolbox" and a full range of information about the EUM Initiative is available at Water Effective Utility Management .
- EPA's Resource Guide to Effective Utility Management and Lean - Provides information and case studies to help utilities use Lean techniques and tools to achieve the outcomes associated with the EUM Attributes. Lean helps identify ways to eliminate waste and improve the overall efficiency of utility operations.
- EPA webinars about EUM and Lean tools:
- Effective Utility Management and Lean at Water-Sector Utilities - Provides a brief overview describing EUM and Lean concepts and methods and described how to get started with EUM and Lean.
- Effective Utility Management and Lean/Six Sigma Initiatives, Presentation by the Pompano Bean Utilities Department - Highlights the utility’s successes using EUM concepts and Lean methods.
- Leveraging Utility Performance with Effective Utility Management and Lean/Six Sigma Initiatives, Presentation by Clean Water Services - Highlights the utility’s successes using EUM concepts and Lean methods.
Rural and Small Systems
- EPA and USDA's Rural and Small Systems Guidebook to Utility Management - Provides steps to help systems assess their operations based on key management areas that align closely with the attributes.
- EPA and USDA's Workshop in a Box. This tool contains materials and instructions to help rural and small systems and service providers market and conduct workshops based on the guidebook. Supplemental materials include sample workshop presentations, worksheets for participants, sample agendas, and other materials to help systems and service providers conduct workshops.