The president
of the new Water Partnership Council (WPC) said a federal grant
program is not the full answer to solving the problem of upgrading
the nation's aging water and wastewater infrastructure
systems.
Mike Stark, president of USFilter Services Group, is
president of a newly created group of private water and wastewater
companies. The council is interested in being active proponents of
public-private partnerships.
The group wants to be a resource
center, among other things, that water managers can turn to in order
to determine the best public-private partnership arrangement for
their individual circumstances — and then learn how to go about it,
Stark said in a recent interview with
WaterTechOnline.
"Our objective is to make sure that
we get a very clear and concise message out into the marketplace
about what public-private partnerships in the water and wastewater
industry can do, and how much money it can save, and the best way to
apply those partnerships, and how to structure them," he
said.
In the debate about how to deal with the infrastructure
problem — characterized by the Water Infrastructure Network on one
side, favoring extensive federal assistance, and the H20 Coalition
on the other wanting to address the problem through asset
management, and limited, targeted federal government involvement —
WPC sides with the latter, Stark said.
"We don't think that
grants are absolutely necessary to fund the problem. What we believe
is that you have to look at all of the financing instruments that
are out there, and then choose the one that's best for that
particular municipality," said Stark.
He said this group will
likely not join the H20 Coalition, but may collaborate with it on
some issues.
He said the partnership council also expects to
be involved in a lobbying effort.
"We are going to have a
legislative arm to our organization, which is going to be focused on
trying to influence legislation to ensure that public-private
partnerships are able to be purchased in the proper way," he
said.
For the full text of the interview, click here.
—
R.J. DeLuke, Managing Editor
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