Learn About Water System Partnerships

Drinking water systems across the country face unique challenges to provide safe drinking water and operate often with limited resources. Specific issues with the water system’s technical, managerial, and financial (TMF) capacity could become a catalyst for beginning a water system partnership. Water system partnerships are a problem-solving and program enhancing tool to address the multi-faceted challenges water systems face. The impact of water system partnerships encompasses a broad range of issues and requires collaboration across a wide spectrum of stakeholders to address and provide solutions.  This increases the capacity and enables systems to sustainably provide safe and affordable water to their communities.    

• What are Water System Partnerships?
• Benefits of Partnerships
• Types of Partnerships
• Finding and Building Support for Partnerships
• Partnerships Resources 

What are Water System Partnerships?

A Water System Partnership is an umbrella term that is defined as any informal or formal relationship or agreement that two or more water systems engage in to overcome similar challenges through solutions that are beneficial for all. This can encompass a range of opportunities for water systems to work together to sustainably provide water services, from sharing equipment to transferring ownership of a system through consolidation. 

Water System Partnerships are a cross-program, problem solving tool for building TMF capacity and addressing unique challenges, especially those of small systems.  In addition to improving a system's capacity, partnerships can also help improve regulatory compliance and public health by providing safe, reliable, affordable, and accessible drinking water.  

Benefits of Partnerships

Partnerships can provide immediate and long-term benefits for the water system, state water programs, and water system customers.

• Water System Benefits - Water systems that engage in partnerships can experience improved economies of scale, long-term savings, improved customer service, and increased TMF capacity. In addition, when water systems are able to alleviate immediate concerns and improve public health protection, water systems are able to better understand their existing operations and maintenance (O&M) and capital improvement costs to plan for future operations.
• State Program Benefits - When water systems engage in partnerships that are designed to help overcome specific challenges, the state water program may see enhanced compliance, resource savings, and improved customer relations.
• Water Customer Benefits - Water system partnerships can help provide water customers with improved water quality, increased reliability of water service, improved customer confidence, and increased opportunities for community and economic development. 

Types of Partnerships

Water system partnerships are as unique as the individual water systems involved and as flexible as needed to address a broad range of technical, managerial, and financial challenges.  Potential partners can be systems that are close in proximity that can form cooperative agreements, share services, or join under a common management. However, systems with common needs that are geographically separated can also enter partnerships through sharing services and operations remotely, such as billing and customer services.

Water system partnerships can be categorized as one of four types:  informal cooperation, contractual assistance, joint power agency, or ownership transfer. 

• Informal Cooperation - Working with other systems, but without contractual obligation. Examples include sharing equipment, sharing bulk supply purchase, and mutual aid arrangements.
• Contractual Assistance - ​Requires contract, but contract is under system's control. Examples include O&M, engineering, and purchasing water.
• Joint Power Agency-​ Creation of a new entity by several systems that continue to exist as independent entities. Examples include shared management and shared operators.
• Ownership Transfer- ​Takeover by existing or newly created entity. Examples include acquisition with physical interconnection and/or satellite management, as well as the creation of a new public entity

Finding and Building Support for Water System Partnerships

Finding and building support is essential for a partnership to be successful. This allows for trust to be built between the water system, key stakeholders, and the communities served. Support for water system partnerships can be split into three categories:

• Champions - A champion is a trusted community member who understands the benefit of creating a water system partnership, and can help keep momentum going from start to finish. Examples of a champion could be a citizens' committee, local government official, or the owner of a water system. 
• Allies - Allies are organizations or individuals with an interest in the partnerships' success, and tend to work closely with the water system to communicate needs to the public and stakeholders. Possible allies include  regulatory agencies, technical assistance providers, and local business owners.
• Stakeholders - Stakeholders are those who may be impacted by the implementation of the partnership. Many allies will be stakeholders, but not all stakeholders will be allies. Stakeholders include customers, water system owners and staff, schools and childcare facilities. 

Partnerships Resources

• Water System Partnerships Handbook – Identifies beneficial partners and partnerships. 

• Water System Partnerships Case Studies – Provides retrospective lessons learned. 

• Water System Partnerships Implementation Tools and Resources - Find materials to help implement partnerships including Getting Started Guide, Funding Resources document, Compendium of State Policies and Programs, and more.