Exploring Water Partnership Opportunities in Surry County

<p>Rick Morse is a School of Government faculty member.</p> <p>Over the past several months Jeff Hughes and Andrew Westbrook of the Environmental Finance Center, along with my Public Intersection colleague Lydian Altman and I, have worked with Surry County public officials to explore water partnership opportunities. The project underscores the reality that significant interjurisdictional partnerships don’t “just happen” and that collaboration requires a lot of work. But when potential partners are willing to openly explore alternatives to the status quo, a shared understanding of collaborative advantage can be created, leading to the development of win-win partnerships.</p> <p></p> <p>This project, funded by Golden LEAF, has been about helping potential partners explore partnership opportunities around water provision. In Surry County there are currently five jurisdictions in the “water business” (Dobson, Elkin, Mount Airy, Pilot Mountain, and Surry County). With most large manufacturers having left the county, the water systems collectively have significant excess capacity, with several utilities struggling to keep up with the costs of operation given the reduction in customers. In prior conversations facilitated by Golden LEAF, there was a consensus around exploring partnership opportunities and a recognition that the potential partners would need assistance to move forward.</p> <p>The project team provided this assistance by first meeting with each jurisdiction’s board separately in education sessions that provided all of the partners a common understanding regarding strategic water issues in the county as well as some basic information on successful partnerships. A Water Partnership Working Group (WPWG) was then established, made up of both elected and appointed officials from each jurisdiction. [...]</p>