January 2023 Vol. 78 No. 1
Newsline
Newsline: Tennessee secures $186 million loan to modernize Chattanooga wastewater infrastructure
Tennessee secures $186 million loan to modernize Chattanooga wastewater infrastructure
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a $186 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan to Chattanooga, Tenn., to help improve its wastewater system’s energy efficiency and resilience to extreme weather.
The Wastewater Compliance and Sustainability Project will modernize the Moccasin Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant, which serves customers throughout the city of Chattanooga and adjacent communities in Hamilton County, Tennessee, and Walker County and Catoosa County, Georgia. The city of Chattanooga will improve storage and treatment capacity at the plant to provide resiliency during extreme weather events and support compliance with its consent decree.
The city of Chattanooga is helping keep rates affordable by taking advantage of the WIFIA program’s flexibility to defer principal repayment until 2032, six years after construction completion. By financing with a WIFIA loan, the City of Chattanooga will save approximately $48 million. Construction and operation of the new systems are expected to create around 3,000 jobs.
Massachusetts Fines City for Illegally Discharging Sewage into Lake
The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and the city of Worcester have reached a settlement for its unauthorized release of 6 million gallons of untreated wastewater into Lake Quinsigamond.
Under the agreement, the city will conduct a forensic evaluation of its Lake Avenue Pump Station, submit a report with a long-term plan and schedule improvements to the pump station. It must also update its response plan for notifications and coordination with stakeholders around the lake.
Under terms of the agreement, Worcester must implement the modifications on a schedule approved by the state and pay a $13,000 penalty.
The action relates to a February 2022 mechanical failure of one of four pumps that flooded a pump station in a matter of minutes. That flooding caused an electrical failure of the other three pumps at the station. With no pumps operating to send the wastewater to the treatment plant, untreated sewage flowed directly into Lake Quinsigamond, which spans Worcester and Shrewsbury and is located within a designated Environmental Justice area. The unauthorized discharge of untreated wastewater is a violation of the state Clean Water Act.
The Worcester Department of Public Works & Parks notified the state of the pump station failure and took immediate measures to return the station to service. The Worcester Lakes & Ponds Program notified the public of the sewage release and advised residents to avoid contact with the waterbody due to elevated levels of E. coli bacteria. The discharge continued until the evening of the next day. The city has since installed an emergency backup pumping system at the station and has made additional improvements.
Engineering Firm Reaches Settlement in Flint Water Case
An engineering firm accused of having some responsibility for Flint's lead-contaminated water in 2014-15 has settled a lawsuit with four families after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict in the case.
Details of the agreement between the families and Lockwood, Andrews & Newman, known as LAN, were not publicly disclosed in federal court in Ann Arbor, Mich.
"To avoid the significant costs, expenses and time of another protracted trial, the parties were able to reach a mutually agreeable resolution, subject to court approval," LAN attorney Wayne Mason told MLive.com.
The families sued LAN and another company, Veolia North America, accusing them of not doing enough to get Flint to treat the highly corrosive water or to urge a return to a regional water supplier.
The trial centered on the engineering firms and the effects of lead on four children, not all Flint residents. The case's outcome was being closely watched because there are other cases pending against Veolia and LAN.
Veolia's lawyers said the firm was briefly hired in the middle of the crisis, not before the spigot was turned on. LAN said an engineer repeatedly recommended that Flint test the river water for weeks to determine what treatments would be necessary.
Oil Spill in Kansas Creek Shuts Down Keystone Pipeline
An oil spill in a creek in northeastern Kansas led to a shutdown of TC Energy’s Keystone pipeline system in December after the operators detected a drop in pipeline pressure and moved to repair the problem.
Keystone, which carries oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, spilled oil into a creek in Washington County, Kan., about 150 miles northwest of Kansas City. The company said in a news release the pipeline segment where the spill occurred had been isolated, and the company was using booms to keep the spilled oil from moving downstream. The volume or cause of the spill were not initially available.
Randy Hubbard, the Washington County Emergency Management coordinator, said the spill occurred in an isolated area and no evacuations were necessary.
Construction of 339-Mile Underground Power Line Starts in New York City
Construction has begun on an underground electric transmission line that will deliver Canadian hydropower to New York City as part of an effort to make the Big Apple less reliant on fossil fuels, state officials announced.
Once complete, the Champlain Hudson Power Express will stretch 339 miles across the state to deliver power produced by Hydro-Québec. Construction will begin near Whitehall, an upstate New York village about 79 miles north of Albany.
The new line will have a capacity to deliver enough electricity to power more than a million homes while also cutting carbon emissions by 37 million metric tons, company and state officials said.
The transmission line, which is scheduled to be finished in 2026, would run beneath Lake Champlain and the Hudson River and along existing highways as it makes its way south.
"We're very much in support of renewable energy," said Tracy Brown, the president of environmental group Riverkeeper, "But we remain concerned about the impact on the Hudson.”
North Carolina to invest $19 million for water upgrades in Yadkin, Surry counties
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has announced water infrastructure grant funding for North Carolina’s Yadkin and Surry counties. The Yadkin Valley Sewer Authority in Elkin will receive $4 million for floodplain resiliency wastewater collection system improvements. Jonesville will receive $8.1 million for water treatment plant filter and clear well replacement and $6.9 million for meters and water line replacement.
“This funding will give families and business owners in Jonesville, Elkin and Ronda more confidence in their infrastructure so they can continue to grow,” Cooper said.
On average, North Carolina invests about $200 million annually in the state’s water infrastructure. But thanks to historic federal funding passed by Congress and signed by President Biden, North Carolina is investing $2.3 billion over two years in water and wastewater infrastructure in communities across the state.
In July, the Governor announced $789.4 million in water and wastewater infrastructure funding to help pay for 385 projects statewide, including 140 construction projects. To date, 86 counties are receiving funds from the American Rescue Plan Act funds, state reserve funds and state budget allocations to upgrade their water infrastructure.
Southland Awarded $59 Million to Build Water Pipeline in New Mexico
Southland Holdings announced that its Oscar Renda Contracting subsidiary was awarded a $59 million contract to construct a water pipeline for the Eastern New Mexico Water Utility Authority.
The scope of work includes constructing approximately 15 miles of water pipeline in Clovis, N.M. This project is a part of the 150-mile Eastern New Mexico Rural Water System, which provides water from the Ute Reservoir to several cities and a military base.
The water pipeline will connect to another phase of the system that Southland constructed for the water authority. Construction was expected to start by Jan. 1.
New Jersey Awarded $169 Million in Water Infrastructure Funding
The EPA has awarded New Jersey with nearly $169 million in funding for water infrastructure improvements that will help communities access safe drinking water, increase resilience, collect and treat wastewater, clean up pollution and safeguard vital waterways.
EPA awarded New Jersey a total of over $95 million in fiscal 2022 grants from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law through the Drinking Water SRF, which includes $31 million for supplemental drinking water projects, $48 million to identify and replace lead service lines and nearly $17 million to address emerging contaminants like PFAS.
The funding supplements approximately $12 million in regular funding to New Jersey’s Drinking Water SRF program in FY 2022. Additionally, New Jersey submitted and obtained EPA’s approval for its plans for the use of the FY 2022 funding.
The EPA said the grants will continue to be awarded, on a rolling, state-by-state basis, as more states receive approval throughout FY 2023. States will also receive awards over the course of the next four years.
Water Boil Order Issued for More Than 2 Million in Houston
More than 2 million people in the Houston metro area were under a water boil order notice for more than two days after a power outage caused low pressure at a water purification plant, officials said.
The late-November order prompted the closures of numerous public and private schools and colleges, while other campuses provided bottled water and hand sanitizer.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Twitter during the shutdown that the city believes the water is safe, but a boil order was required because water pressure dropped below the required minimum by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
The boil order could be lifted 24 hours after the city was notified the water is safe.
Mississippi Capital Hires Emergency Water Plant Workers
Local officials in Mississippi’s capital city, where a late summer water crisis upended life for 150,000 people, have approved an emergency plan to increase staffing at the city’s two water treatment plants.
Jackson city council members voted to hire four skilled contract workers from a Los Angeles-based company to staff the O.B. Curtis and J.H. Fewell water treatment plants, tanks and well facilities. Jackson has two staff operators licensed at the Class A level. City leaders said that the two operators had been working more than 80 hours a week to produce clean water at the plants.
Jackson’s water system has been beset by problems for decades, but the latest troubles began in late August after heavy rainfall exacerbated problems at the O.B. Curtis plant, leaving many customers without running water. State and federal officials surged resources to the area after emergency orders were declared by Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and President Joe Biden.
Reeves declared a state of emergency on Aug. 30 that remained in place until Nov. 22. City officials have working toward an agreement with a private firm to operate Jackson’s water system over the long term.
US Officials Say More Locations to Test Sewage for Polio
Philadelphia and Oakland County, Mich., are joining the small list of U.S. localities that are looking for signs of polio infections in sewage, U.S. health officials said Wednesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the communities will test for polio in sewage for at least four months. Communities in New York state began testing earlier this year after a man was diagnosed with paralytic polio outside New York City.
CDC officials say they have been talking with other communities about also starting polio wastewater testing. They are focused on cities and counties with low polio vaccination coverage and those in which travelers had visited the New York communities where polio was found.
Officials say identifying the virus in sewage can help a city or county accelerate and target vaccination campaigns.
Next year, health officials in Houston and Colorado plan to begin testing sewage for several other health threats, including germs with antibiotic resistance, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, norovirus and other bugs. If the pilot goes well, the wider testing will be rolled out to other parts of the country, CDC officials said.
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