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Water Industry (water + industry)
Selected AbstractsProject Appraisal and Capital Investment Decision Making in the Scottish Water IndustryFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2000Paul Coleshill Restructuring the Scottish water industry has changed the way in which both project appraisal and capital investment decisions are performed. This article examines the project appraisal and subsequent capital investment decision in the case of a reed bed sewage treatment scheme which is compared with a more traditional scheme. Although the capital profiles of the schemes are similar there are major differences in the revenue costs. In addition, there are potential public benefits to the reed bed scheme. A comparison is made of management mechanisms in the pre-1996 water industry with that of restructured water authorities. In the pre-1996 water industry, local authorities had a broad remit which encouraged them to value these factors, in effect an implicit social account. The creation of water authorities with narrow remits and specific performance measures, constructed a framework that does not support the integration of social accounts into the decision making process. The paper demonstrates that investment appraisal is a product of the institutional framework in which the decisions are made. As that framework changes, mechanisms and measures of accountability shift in parallel. [source] Organization, Management and Delegation in the French Water IndustryANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2001Jihad C. Elnaboulsi The water industry is largely a natural monopoly. Water distribution and sewerage services are characterized by networks and its natural monopoly derives from the established local networks of drinking water and sewers: they are capital intensive with sunk costs and increasing returns to scale. In France, local communities have a local requirement of providing public services under optimum conditions in terms of techniques and cost-effectiveness, and subject to respect different kind of standards in terms of water quality and level of services. They are responsible for producing and distributing drinking water, and collecting and treating wastewater. Furthermore, the French water utilities are required to be financially self-sufficient. Rate-setting varies across regions and local territories due to a variety of organizational features of services and availability of water resources. The management of these local public services can be public or private: local governments have the right, by the constitution, to delegate water service management to private companies which operate under the oversight of local municipal authorities. Today, nearly 80 per cent of the French population receive private distributed water. Different reasons are responsible for the poor performance and low productivity of most French public water utilities: technical and operational, commercial and financial, human and institutional, and environmental. Thus, many water public utilities have looked for alternative ways to provide water and sanitation services more efficiently, to improve both operational and investment efficiency, and to attract private finance. The purpose of this paper is to present the French organizational system of providing drinking water services, and collecting and treating wastewater services: legal aspects, contracts of delegation, and competition. [source] Enhancement of ultrafiltration using gas sparging: a comparison of different membrane modules,JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY & BIOTECHNOLOGY, Issue 2-3 2003Zhanfeng Cui Abstract Ultrafiltration is widely used in the chemical, pharmaceutical, food and water industries. Practical difficulties arise in designing and operating the process due to concentration polarisation and membrane fouling. Enhancement of ultrafiltration is highly desirable to achieve a higher permeate flux at a fixed energy input, or a reduced energy input whilst maintaining the level of permeate flux, or an improved selectivity of the membrane. One effective, simple, and economic technique used to enhance ultrafiltration is the use of gas bubbles, ie injecting gas into the feed stream to create a gas,liquid two-phase cross-flow operation. In this paper, an attempt is made to compare the effect of ,bubbling' on the ultrafiltration performance, using different membrane modules (in particular, tubular and hollow fibre membrane modules). The difference in performance can be related to the feature of two-phase flow hydrodynamics and its respective effect on mass transfer. The advantages and drawbacks of using this technique to enhance ultrafiltration are discussed. © 2003 Society of Chemical Industry [source] Cost of compliance assessments and the water industry in England and WalesENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 5 2002Paul McMahon Environmental compliance cost assessments (CCAs) are being increasingly demanded and used in the water industry, in order to allow regulators to balance conflicting objectives. The 1999 periodic review of water company price limits concerned massive environmental expenditures, and consequently major use of CCAs. There were major differences between Ofwat (the economic regulator) and the water companies relating to the compliance costs submitted. The assumptions used by Ofwat vis-à-vis future efficiency savings and the cost of capital are notable causes of the differentials. There are a number of other reasons why this differential might have arisen, including gaming. However, the principal cause might be more a real lack of knowledge on the part of companies of future efficiencies and the actual costs of projects. The CCAs produced in the water industry have had massive impact on policy design. A number of specific improvements to CCA are identified. These changes relate to increased collaboration between industry and regulators in working groups to design/approve, inter alia, regulatory methodologies for use in the periodic review. More detailed guidance is required for preparation of a CCA. Further use of compliance cost databases is recommended. The entire process would be facilitated by increased training and awareness raising of economics for the engineers largely responsible for preparation of CCAs. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment. [source] Direct toxicity assessment of wastewater: Baroxymeter, a portable rapid toxicity device and the industry perspectiveENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY, Issue 3 2002Achilles Tzoris Abstract Direct toxicity assessment of wastewater is becoming necessary, and new legislation may render it compulsory for the water industry. At present such assessment is performed at a laboratory away from a site, at considerable cost, and results often come too late, after a toxic event has occurred and the toxin has been released into the environment. Some of the rapid toxicity tests available today require certain conditions to function properly, or their results do not always correlate with other methods. The objective of this study was to assess a portable device, the Baroxymeter, for its suitability as an instrument to test wastewater toxicity. The way the device works is based on monitoring respiration of a bacterial culture by pressure measurements and using respiration inhibition as a toxicity alert. It has been shown that it is possible to detect toxic substances such as 3,5-dichlorophenol and bronopol within 5 min from a 1-mL sample. The benefits and future applications of the Baroxymeter as a high-throughput, cost-effective alternative for toxicity screening are discussed in this article. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 17: 284,290, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/tox.10059 [source] Project Appraisal and Capital Investment Decision Making in the Scottish Water IndustryFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2000Paul Coleshill Restructuring the Scottish water industry has changed the way in which both project appraisal and capital investment decisions are performed. This article examines the project appraisal and subsequent capital investment decision in the case of a reed bed sewage treatment scheme which is compared with a more traditional scheme. Although the capital profiles of the schemes are similar there are major differences in the revenue costs. In addition, there are potential public benefits to the reed bed scheme. A comparison is made of management mechanisms in the pre-1996 water industry with that of restructured water authorities. In the pre-1996 water industry, local authorities had a broad remit which encouraged them to value these factors, in effect an implicit social account. The creation of water authorities with narrow remits and specific performance measures, constructed a framework that does not support the integration of social accounts into the decision making process. The paper demonstrates that investment appraisal is a product of the institutional framework in which the decisions are made. As that framework changes, mechanisms and measures of accountability shift in parallel. [source] Corporate greening and changing regulatory regimes: the UK water industryBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 5 2009Anja Schaefer Abstract This article looks at the relationship between economic regulation, environmental regulation, company strategy and the environment in the UK water and sewerage industry. The regulatory field in this industry, following privatization in 1989, is highly complex and interdependent. The paper presents three case studies of company interpretation of and response to changes in this regulatory field, focusing particularly on the third review by the economic regulator, in 1999, which involved a reduction of the prices companies were allowed to charge their customers. This had significant but complex repercussions for environmental strategy and management in the companies, with different impacts on mandatory and non-mandatory activities. It also showed in relief the opportunities for building coalitions between companies and the environmental regulator, both in general terms and revolving around specific, local environmental issues and schemes. Companies' strategic direction was also found to have an impact on their response to the regulatory review. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] | |||||||||||||