Let’s face it—the earth’s temperature will sail past the 2030 target to limit the global warming threshold to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit). Our collective fates are cemented in an increasingly volatile environment shaped by droughts, flooding, and large weather events (e.g., hurricanes and winter storms) resulting from climate change. At that point, if… Continue reading Engineers to Emerge as Key Water Champions amid Threats from Climate Change
Category: Our Take
The UN Wants a Paris Agreement for Plastics – Will It Matter for Water?
Restraining the explosion of plastic pollution, which is projected to double in size globally by 2040, is the next evolution in the discussion about climate. The United Nations recently agreed to reach a global agreement to tackle plastic waste, indicating consensus on a shifting global sentiment away from plastics. The treaty has an ambitious timeline for a globally binding… Continue reading The UN Wants a Paris Agreement for Plastics – Will It Matter for Water?
Potential Regulations for Canadian Oil Sands Highlight Importance of Industrial Wastewater Treatment
It’s no secret that the Canadian economy relies heavily on oil and gas. Canada is the fourth-largest oil producer and sixth-largest gas producer in the world. Oil sand extractions in the province of Alberta produce roughly 3.3 million barrels of oil per day—equivalent to 20% of Canada’s total oil production. Mining oil sands is an environmentally… Continue reading Potential Regulations for Canadian Oil Sands Highlight Importance of Industrial Wastewater Treatment
Florida Adopts Fair Market Value Policy Impacting Water Utility Consolidation
Florida has emerged as the 13th state to adopt such fair market value (FMV) legislation, further highlighting a steady trend of state policymakers targeting consolidation of water and wastewater utilities. On 6 June 2023, Florida’s governor signed the anticipated House Bill 125 (HB 125), which establishes an alternative procedure for determining the rate base value of… Continue reading Florida Adopts Fair Market Value Policy Impacting Water Utility Consolidation
It’s All about the Data. Are Remote Monitoring and IoT Solutions the Key to Addressing Water Infrastructure Issues?
It is no secret that water utilities face mounting regulatory, financial, and environmental pressures to increase the surveillance and control of their systems. U.K. utilities, in particular, have been faced with large fines in recent years due to overflow and spill incidents. In April 2023, Anglian Water was hit with a £2.65 million fine for discharging untreated effluent… Continue reading It’s All about the Data. Are Remote Monitoring and IoT Solutions the Key to Addressing Water Infrastructure Issues?
Water Scarcity Drives New Mining Regulations: Will Chile Serve as a Blueprint for Mexico?
The mining sector uses a lot of water—in fact, it’s the world’s second most water-intense industry, when benchmarked against company revenues. Skyrocketing demand for metals like copper, lithium, and cobalt that are used in solar panels, electric vehicle batteries, and other technologies is only further straining global water supplies. Mining companies, racing to meet this demand, have… Continue reading Water Scarcity Drives New Mining Regulations: Will Chile Serve as a Blueprint for Mexico?
Induction Ovens, Heat Pumps, and Electric Vehicles: Why the Water Industry Should Care about Electricity.
Regardless of your opinion on the hotly debated topic of gas versus electric stovetops, there has certainly been an uptick in adoption of electric technologies in recent years. The prevalence of electric car chargers, heat pumps, and electric stoves is only picking up pace thanks to legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which subsidizes… Continue reading Induction Ovens, Heat Pumps, and Electric Vehicles: Why the Water Industry Should Care about Electricity.
Finding the Fit: Water Utilities Adjust to Ongoing Challenges
A mainstay in our annual event schedule, Bluefield Research keenly participated in the AWWA’s Utility Management Conference in Sacramento, California, this past 28–30 March. Well attended by a vast array of city water and wastewater officials and their engineering firm partners, it offered a window into current thinking on recurring challenges. The same multifaceted set of challenges… Continue reading Finding the Fit: Water Utilities Adjust to Ongoing Challenges
Banking Industry Anxiety? Be Water, My Friend
Here we go again. For those of my vintage, the last week has generated a not insignificant amount of 2008, Lehman Brothers anxiety with the fall of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). The risk-taking banking execs caught out when interest rates increased. An astonishing 48-hour, Twitter-accelerated run on a bank with over US$212 billion of assets. The U.S. President holding an emergency conference to… Continue reading Banking Industry Anxiety? Be Water, My Friend
Run-up to UN Water Summit: The Elusive Water Sector Financing Issue
Bluefield Research had the pleasure of attending the recent Roundtable on Financing Water organized by the UN and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Geneva, Switzerland. As a previous participant in the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s Working Party on Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), the event promised high-level thinking on how to optimize financial institutions’ approach to water sector… Continue reading Run-up to UN Water Summit: The Elusive Water Sector Financing Issue
