Assessing Government Infrastructure Programs

Infrastructure to collect, treat, and distribute drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater is critical to maintaining public health, economic vitality, and healthy well-being. Across the nation, there are numerous challenges regarding infrastructure needs. Overall, funding for water-related projects has declined, while the needs have increased. In New York, new regulations, extreme weather events, and changing demographics will continue to shape the management, planning, and policy related to sustainable water infrastructure. Maintaining and upgrading aging water infrastructure requires sizeable public and private investments, and various programs at different levels of governance are focused on different aspects of infrastructure, ranging from financing of capital projects to the management of municipal infrastructure systems. WRI is investigating the effectiveness of government infrastructure programs to determine whether intended benefits are being realized and to generate insight with respect to strategic management of public funds. This program aims to identify government programs central to the maintenance and improvement of water resource infrastructure, assess infrastructure programs for their effectiveness in delivering stated goals, and communicate these results to municipalities, resource managers, and government agencies to inform program development.

Research Goals

  • Perform technical assistance to support capacity management on infrastructure funding applications.
  • Assess and the nuances of drinking water system governance beyond the governmental and nongovernmental distinction to determine the broad types of communitas active in infrastructure program applications.
  • Identify and evaluate connections between infrastructure program applications and community socio-economic characteristics.
    • Identify and evaluate lead service line disparities in communities.
    • Assess community distrust in tap water, identify the sources of this distrust, and identify strategies to advance trust in community water infrastructure.
    • Assess the barriers to funding for communities interested in infrastructure improvement projects
    • Assess emerging approaches by utilities to implement affordable water program approaches and alternative tactics to water shutoffs related utility bill delinquency

Outreach Goals

  • Develop peer-reviewed publications that may serve as discussion starters with other academics and think tanks (e.g. Resources for the Future).
  • Generate short research summaries intended for municipal decision makers, and staff in state and federal agencies tasked with managing government infrastructure programs.
  • Develop a strategy for initiating substantive dialogue with government program managers.
  • Co-manage and co-create project tools and communications to share with municipalities, resource managers, government agencies, and community-based organizations to inform program development.
  • Include the findings on DEI/EJ into relevant outreach materials and disseminate the results to stakeholders.
  • Determine whether government infrastructure programs address DEI/EJ and assess adequacy of responsiveness.
  • Make recommendations on how to better incorporate DEI/EJ considerations into policies and programs.

Select Projects & Publications

Update on the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) (February 2020)

JUL 17, 2020

Alyssa Marcy, Cornell University Institute for Public Affairs Graduate Student. The memo explores what's new with WIFIA and highlights changes of interest to stakeholders in New York State. Additionally, see here for a case study regarding how the Indiana Finance Authority used WIFIA to enhance CWSRF capacity.

Developing a Municipal Downspout Disconnect and Green Infrastructure Program

MAY 4, 2020

One solution municipalities can use to address increasing runoff is to implement residential downspout disconnect and green infrastructure programs. The result is cost savings for wastewater utilities and decreased combined sewer overflow and stormwater runoff in neighborhoods and local waterways. This guidance lays out a step by step guide to disconnect program implementation.

Is bigger better? Driving factors of POTW performance in New York

MAY 15, 2018

Rahm, B.G.; Morse, N.; Bowen, M.; Choi, J.; Mehta, D.; Vedachalam, S.  Water Research. 2018, 135, 134-143

The Light at the End of the Culvert

MAY 1, 2018

M. Lung, A. Meyer, R. Marjerison & B.G. Rahm (2017) Talk of the Towns, Association of Towns of the State of New York. Vol. 31, May/June.

Nitrate Dynamics in Two Streams Impacted by Wastewater Treatment Plant Discharge: Point Sources or Sinks?

JUN 1, 2016

Brian G. Rahm, Nicole B. Hill, Stephen B. Shaw & Susan J. Riha, Journal of the American Water Resources Association
Volume 52,  Issue 3, pages 592–604, June 2016