What if there was a free tool that allowed access instantly to a wide audience? This tool could provide important announcements, standard reports, updates, accolades and whatever else customers needed to know, and could do so without costing a dime.
Such a tool actually exists, and water and wastewater systems, regulators and nonprofit agencies are already using it, despite its stigma as a “youth only” thing.
It’s social networking, using sites like Facebook and Twitter.

What do you do when a customer reports a large water leak? Who is in charge of making sure the nightly deposits are made at the bank? What happens when a developer wants to add a subdivision that may tax your water system’s capabilities?

It’s summer, which usually means drought conditions for a few places here or there. Only this summer is different. So far, 2011 is the hottest on record for many areas of the country, and much of those same areas are experiencing moderate to severe drought. The southern half of the United States in particular is being devastated by heat and drought. Crops are livestock are dying, water bills are soaring and even roads are buckling.

Was your area burning up this summer, or were you in a place that received torrential rains? Severe weather has struck many parts of the country this year. “Climate change” is a phrase often misused by people without a basic understanding of what drives it, what affects it, and what it, in turn, affects.