U.S. & Canada Municipal Utility Capital Improvement Plans: Water, Wastewater, & Stormwater Budget Outlook, 2024–2032

Companies across the water industry value chain are always seeking an edge to better position their products and solutions against their peers. They also want to understand the following: 

1. Where are potential customers located?
2. What projects match vendor products?
3. What is the available budget?

To help, Bluefield’s team of water experts has dedicated significant time and resources to supporting companies with bottom-up data collection and analysis of municipal utility capital improvement plans (CIPs) of 787 large and mid-sized water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities across the U.S. and Canada.

These utility capital improvement plans translate utility capital needs into market opportunities for technology and equipment vendors as well as engineering and construction firms. Bluefield has systematically organized and categorized tens of thousands of projects across 48 areas, categories, and subcategories.

Overview:

Leveraging a demonstrated research methodology and data management expertise, Bluefield’s team has packaged a robust set of bottom-up utility capital improvement plans data for companies that includes:

• Capital budget data and analysis for 787 water, wastewater, and stormwater utilities, each serving approximately 50,000 people or more
• Geographic coverage of 50 U.S. states, 8 Canadian provinces, and Washington, DC,serving 243.3 million people in total
• Line-item data for 44,235 utility capital projects classified across 48 distinct areas, categories, and subcategories
• Option to access data via Bluefield’s online and interactive Bluefield Data Navigator platform.
• Budget outlook spanning 2024–2032

Sample Insights:

• For the roughly 650 utilities for which Bluefield has collected data each year since 2021, total capital budgets have increased by 30% due to supply chain disruptions and inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Published utility capital improvement plans data indicates an overall decline in anticipated expenditure after 2025. This is consistent with utility budget curves, as utilities’ capital investment priorities, available funding is less certain further into the future.
• Distribution and collection pipe networks constitute the largest budget segment with US$115 billion in planned spend between 2024 and 2032, followed by water and wastewater treatment plants with US$84 billion.