June 2021 Vol. 76 No. 6
Newsline
Newsline
Ex-Iowa Wastewater Plant Supervisor Sentenced for Tampering
A former Iowa wastewater treatment plant official has been sentenced to three months in federal prison for manipulating water sample test results to ensure plant discharges into the Missouri River met federal requirements.
Jay Niday, 63, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Sioux City and was also ordered to pay $8,500 in fines and court costs, federal prosecutors said. Niday, who pleaded guilty in October to charges of conspiracy and falsifying or providing inaccurate information, was the second former plant official to be charged. Patrick Schwarte, a shift supervisor, pleaded guilty in January 2019 to the same two charges and was sentenced to two years of probation.
Prosecutors said Niday and Schwarte instructed other plant operators to raise chlorine levels added to wastewater on days that E. coli samples were taken. The elevated chlorine level would produce test samples showing plant discharges met federal limits for levels of fecal coliform and E. coli. Once the samples were taken, chlorine added to the city’s wastewater was reduced to levels unlikely to disinfect discharged water enough to meet those limits.
Niday told state investigators that administering the smaller levels of chlorine saved the city at least $100,000 in one year.
Idaho Eyes Sewer, Water, Broadband with Federal Rescue Money
Idaho will receive $1.1 billion in the latest round of coronavirus relief money in two separate payments, the U.S. Treasury Department announced last month, with state officials saying the money could be used to substantially bolster the state’s water, sewer and broadband infrastructure.
The $350 billion program is part of President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief package that became law in March. In addition to the money coming to the state, Idaho’s nine largest cities will get a total of $124 million, while 190 cities with populations of typically less than 50,000 will get $108 million. Counties will get another $314 million. The distribution is based on population.
Alex Adams, Republican Gov. Brad Little’s budget chief, said the federal program allows the money to be allocated by December 2024, with the projects complete by the end of 2026. Adams said the governor’s office sought the longer window.
“That’s a huge benefit for a rural state like ours where it’s going to take years for some of these large sewer, water and broadband projects to come to fruition,” Adams said.
Of the $350 billion total, state governments and the District of Columbia will receive $195.3 billion. That’s broken down to $500 million each for $25.5 billion. The remaining $170 billion is being divided with various factors in play. Idaho is getting about $594 million, accounting for the $1.1 billion coming to state government. California state government is getting $27 billion.
Also, of the $350 billion, counties are getting $65 billion, cities $45.6 billion and tribal governments and territories $24.5 billion.
The money in most cases is going from the federal government to those entities. But in the case of smaller cities, state government will act as a pass-through entity to distribute the money.
Natural Gas Terminal Plans in Oregon on Pause
A major West Coast liquified natural gas pipeline and export terminal is officially on pause after state reversals of two of its dredging permits last month.
Jordan Cove Energy Project manager and associate general counsel, Donald Sullivan, filed a letter with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission citing a list of state permit denials that prevent the project from moving ahead despite a federal approval from the agency, The Herald and News reported.
Sullivan wrote that the applicants have decided to pause the development of the project while the effect of these decisions is assessed.
Jordan Cove would be the first such LNG overseas export terminal in the lower 48 states. The proposed 230-mile feeder pipeline would begin in Malin, in southwest Oregon, and end at the city of Coos Bay on the rural Oregon coast, crossing through four southern Oregon counties.
Oregon’s Land Use Board of Appeals reversed the project’s permits to dredge in Coos Bay, issued by Coos County and the City of Coos Bay, on grounds that the company had not adequately justified why the coastal areas in question, zoned for conservation use, needed to be converted to vessel navigation zones. The board has either remanded or completely reversed eight of the company’s needed local permits in the past year.
South Dakota City to Study Pipeline Transport of Missouri River Water
Officials in a northeastern South Dakota city are looking into the possibility of constructing a 90-mile pipeline to transport water from the Missouri River.
The Aberdeen City Council has approved a study on the feasibility of the project, which would run from an intake site on Lake Oahe near Mobridge to the city’s water treatment plant. Bismarck, N.D., engineering firm Bartlett and West was selected to draft the plan.
The pipeline would stretch from the Missouri River to a point 5 miles west of Aberdeen, then 10 miles east to the city’s water treatment plant, according to the Aberdeen American News.
$67 Million Grant Program Will Help Communities Manage Stormwater
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new Sewer Overflow and Stormwater Reuse Municipal Grant program that makes $67 million in grant funding available for projects that help prevent sewer overflows that may pollute waterways.
“While utilities do an incredible job of managing wastewater and safely returning it to the environment, increased water from heavy rains and storms can challenge and even circumvent this great work,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox. “Under America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, this new grant program empowers EPA’s state, local, and utility partners to improve stormwater management and benefit communities.”
Stormwater can collect pollutants—including trash, chemicals, oils, and dirt/sediment—and convey them to nearby waterways. When mixed with domestic and industrial wastewater in combined sewers, stormwater can also contribute to combined sewer overflows (CSO) during heavy rainstorms.
U.S. states and territories can apply for the funding, which will be provided as sub-awards to municipal entities for projects that address infrastructure needs for CSOs, sanitary sewer overflows (SSO), and stormwater management.
3M Settles with Minnesota City for Water Supply Contamination
Manufacturer 3M has reached a $12.5 million settlement with the city of Bemidji, Minn., to help pay for treating contamination in the community’s water supply.
The funds will go toward building and operating a new treatment facility to remove chemicals known as PFAS, which the company manufactured for use as firefighting foam.
The city found elevated levels of PFAS in its wells in 2016 and linked the source of the contamination to firefighting foam used during training at the regional airport, which is located near the wells, Minnesota Public Radio News reported. Some PFAS have been linked to health problems.
The first phase of the $16 million treatment project is already online, city officials said. Construction on the second phase, which will allow the city to treat more water, will take about two more years to complete.
Regulators Fined Gas Utility $900K for Pipeline Violations
Indiana regulators have fined CenterPoint nearly $900,000 for natural gas pipeline violations committed in 2019 by the utility previously
known as Vectren.
The $894,000 civil penalty is part of CenterPoint’s settlement agreement with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission for failing to locate or mark its pipelines within two days of gas line excavations.
The IURC said those procedures include accurately marking those pipelines and contacting the excavator within those two working days, the Evansville Courier & Press reported.
CenterPoint said in a statement about the penalty that it is “committed to continuing to work with customers, excavators, emergency responders, peer utilities and elected officials on the importance of safe digging.”
The penalty payments go into Indiana’s general fund and CenterPoint is not allowed to recover those funds from customers, the IURC said. •
Rural Kansas Water System Hacking Highlights Risks
A former Kansas utility worker has been charged with remotely tampering with a public water system’s cleaning procedures, highlighting the difficulty smaller utilities face in protecting against hackers.
Wyatt Travnichek, 22, was charged with remotely accessing the Post Rock Rural Water District’s systems in March 2019, about two months after he quit his job with the utility. He’s accused of shutting down the facility’s cleaning and disinfecting procedures.
When he worked for the utility, he would monitor the water plant remotely by logging into its computer system, the Kansas City Star reports.
The federal indictment says Travnichek used a smart phone to commit the offense. Post Rock utility officials declined to provide further details. Travnichek’s attorney, a federal public defender, didn’t respond to the Star’s request for comment.
No centralized database of hacker attacks on utilities exists, but a 2016 report from the federal Department of Energy said the Department of Homeland Security responded to 25 water cybersecurity incidents in 2015.
The Florida city of Oldsmar, population 15,000, reported in February that a hacker attempted to poison its water supply by remotely accessing its system and changing chemical levels. An employee was able to quickly reverse the hacker’s actions.
Small utilities such as Post Rock may not have the resources to hire dedicated information technology staff. Commonly their employees juggle multiple roles, including cybersecurity.
“As far as cities having an IT person, I just don’t know of any our size,” said Bill Shroyer, assistant city administrator in Sabetha, in northern Kansas, and president of the Kansas Rural Water Association. “And if we did have an IT person, they better know how to repair pot holes, fix water leaks, pick up snow and everything else that we do.”
Security experts say the Post Rock case could be as simple as officials failing to revoke Travnichek’s electronic access after he quit. The indictment doesn’t specify how he accessed the system.
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