2025 Water Finance Conference Focuses on Financing Water in the West
The 2025 Water Finance Conference is hosting its eleventh annual event Aug. 5-6 in Scottsdale, Arizona, at SkySong: The ASU Innovation Center. The Water Finance Conference is a two-day educational seminar for executive-level utility professionals. It has a program covering a range of topics in water utility financial management.
The conference features presentations and panel discussions from water finance experts on local issues such as rate setting and customer affordability, regionalization/consolidation, and implementing federal funding (SRFs, WIFIA, etc.). It also includes navigating regulatory mandates. This year, the Water Finance Conference is, in part, featuring a “Financing Water in the West” theme. Talks will include financing drought contingency planning, financial implications of Colorado River cutbacks, water conservation grants, water reuse, and asset management. The agenda is vetted by a Program Committee of industry experts.
Water Finance Conference Agenda
On Aug. 5, the Water Finance Conference will highlight revenue stability and implementing differential rate structures in Tucson. It will focus on effects of drought on urban water utility finances, financial implications of Colorado River cutbacks, and western water challenges. Solutions to these challenges will also be discussed.
Among the featured speakers will be Joseph Olsen, General Manager of the Metropolitan Domestic Water Improvement District (Tucson), and Chelsea McGuire, Director of the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona (WIFA).
Aug. 6 will cover hurdles to applying for and obtaining federal funding. It will address financial considerations for utility CFOs navigating change management and boosting financial resilience through technology adoption.
To check out the 2025 agenda, to register and more, visit waterfinanceconference.com.
Lunch will be provided for attendees both days of the conference. A networking reception will be held on the evening of Aug. 5.
The highly popular Water Finance Conference was established in 2015 and provides an exclusive forum for candid discussion around financing in the municipal water/wastewater utility sector. The event is hosted annually by the journal Water Finance & Management, published by Benjamin Media, Inc. It is in collaboration with founding sponsor the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) and other sponsors and supporters.
