Camden-headquartered American Water on Wednesday announced that it has officially met its comprehensive utility resilience goal five years ahead of its original 2030 target.
The milestone, achieved at the close of 2025, centers on the company’s efforts to elevate its readiness against natural disasters, emergency scenarios, and extreme weather events.
To measure its progress, American Water utilized the Utility Resilience Index (URI), a strict metric developed by the American Water Works Association. The index evaluates a utility’s structural preparedness and its capacity to rapidly restore critical services by analyzing operational capabilities, financial health, business continuity blueprints, and local social vulnerability factors.
In 2020, American Water established a long-term goal to increase its company-wide, weighted average URI score by 10% by the year 2030. Through a combination of accelerated infrastructure updates, modernized crisis planning, and intensive employee training, the utility crossed that performance threshold early.
“Reaching this goal ahead of schedule shows our deep commitment to resilience and preparedness,” Cheryl Norton, executive vice president and chief operating officer of American Water. “It means our people are ready, our systems are strong, and our communities are better protected when extreme weather events occur.”
Dr. Kevin M. Morley, senior manager of Federal Relations for the AWWA, praised the achievement, noting that embedding the URI into a risk management framework effectively mitigates the risk of sudden service disruptions for the public.
Company leadership emphasized that meeting the URI target early is only one facet of its long-term defensive strategy. Moving forward, American Water has committed to a massive $48 billion capital investment plan over the next 10 years.
This multi-billion-dollar capital allocation will be directed toward:
- Infrastructure Renewal: Replacing aging water mains and upgrading wastewater treatment facilities.
- Water Quality & Technology: Integrating smart monitoring systems to proactively protect water supplies.
- Resiliency Measures: Fortifying physical plants against severe flooding, grid failures, and climate risks.
- Strategic Acquisitions: Absorbing and modernizing smaller, struggling municipal water and wastewater systems.
Celebrating its 140th anniversary this year, American Water employs roughly 7,000 professionals. The utility provides drinking water and wastewater services to an estimated 14 million people across 14 states and 18 military installations.
