Kent Portney's "Our Green Cities" Blog

Tufts' 2012 Water Conference

The "Water Systems, Science, and Society" symposium is scheduled for April 27th in Medford, MA.  This year's conference is especially impressive because it will be co-sponsored by the Water Resources Research Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.  This is part of Tufts University's commitment to water-related education and research.  Check this year's conference program.

CERES Report on Water Shortages in Large U.S. Cities

CERES has issued a 2010 report that examines serious challenges with municipal water supplies. This report, The Ripple Effect: Water Risk in the Municipal Bond Market, suggests that when municipal utilities take on bonded debt, investors might not have a full range of knowledge about the risks they incur as a result of serious water shortages. Presumably, the goal of this analysis is to get municipalities to take issues of water quality and quantity seriously lest they face increasingly high interest rates on the bonds they issue.