Water Management Department created from scratch

Formed in December 2025 under Director Paul Gerber, the Water Management Department is Yukon's first dedicated water utility department, stood up from scratch in five months. In its first year the department completed a 63-item engineering evaluation of the wastewater treatment plant that identified a $27 million capital improvement program, readied a $15 million project for a low-interest State Revolving Fund loan, and put $416,000 in engineering contracts under active management. It built Yukon's first real-time hydraulic model of the water distribution system and the city's first water-system cybersecurity plan, launched a regulatory compliance program covering 615 commercial accounts, and completed an emergency waterline lowering on SW 29th Street in 2 days against a 2-week estimate.

What it means: The department is operating on data now, not guesswork — real engineering evaluation replacing decades of ad hoc water management