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Each year, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority invests tens of millions of dollars to ensure families and businesses in our community have access to safe, reliable water and wastewater services. 

Such spending, however, has impacts that reverberate beyond treatment plants, pipes, and pump stations, as detailed in a recently released report. 

Titled “Economic Impacts of Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s Water and Wastewater Services and Infrastructure Investments,” the report was presented to the CFPUA Board at its regular meeting on Wednesday, February 14. 

The report analyzes changes in employment, economic output, and other economic activity in New Hanover County resulting from spending by CFPUA on water and wastewater infrastructure and operations, as well as the loss of business revenues that would result from water service disruptions. It examines economic growth in the region that also includes Brunswick and Pender counties facilitated by CFPUA’s system investments and the water and wastewater services they support. 

Key findings from the report include: 

• Every $1 million spent by CFPUA from 2013-2022 created an average of 10.7 jobs per year in New Hanover County. 
• Over the same 10-year period, each $1 spent by CFPUA generated a total of $1.66 in economic output in the local economy as that spending rippled through various sectors.

Using planned capital and operational expenditures for fiscal years 2023 through 2027, economists predict CFPUA investments would on average generate $251 million per year in total economic output and support 1,467 jobs annually. Economists also found that CFPUA’s positive employment impacts and economic output multipliers are 8 percent and 9 percent higher, respectively, than the average for utilities serving Raleigh, Fayetteville, Greensboro, and Charlotte. 

The report highlights water-dependent industries in New Hanover County – ranging from hospitals and colleges to restaurants and breweries. In New Hanover County, water-dependent industries account for approximately 37 percent of total direct economic output and 40 percent of total employment. In the three-county region, water-dependent industries support almost 65,500 jobs and contribute more than $11.1 billion in economic output. 

To help frame the importance of CFPUA’s ongoing capital improvement plan, the report also examined the potential economic impact of a water service outage on the local economy and individual households. From the analysis, each day of total outage could result in a loss of $70.4 million to $93.2 million in economic output countywide and cost each household between $650 and $860, depending on outage duration. CFPUA’s ongoing work to maintain, improve, and build redundancy into the water system on which our community relies greatly reduces the risk of water outages, particularly extended outages. 

The report was prepared for CFPUA by Loveland, Colorado-based One Water Econ, which prepared a similar report for Charlotte Water. The CFPUA report is available online here.