Utility Infrastructure
Pipelines And Earthquakes - Bracing For "The Big One" In Oregon
By Aaron Eder, P.E Right after people started to feel safe enough to walk away from a recent summer blockbuster earthquake movie, “San Andreas,” New Yorker writer Kathryn Schulz had to go and scare the skinny pants off of Portland’s hipster crowd. Seismologists have long warned that a subduction zo..
Buffalo Grove IL Contracts RJN Group For Rehabilitation Program
RJN Group Inc. (RJN), a consulting engineering and specialty field services firm, has a new contract with the Village of Buffalo Grove (IL) for professional engineering and specialty field services to help meet short-term program requirements of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater..
Errant Excavator Blamed for Iowa Pipeline Leak
HANLONTOWN, Iowa (AP) — An Oklahoma-based company has blamed an errant excavator for damaging a pipeline in northern Iowa that spilled nearly 47,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Magellan Midstream Partners released a statement Tuesday saying the excavator apparently didn’t check with regulators about th..
Denying Pipeline Expansions Will Raise Electric Rates, Cut Jobs, Jeopardize Energy Security
A new report released in January by the Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA) found that rejecting pipeline infrastructure would remove almost one-third of U.S. electricity generation capacity by 2030, dangerously raising electric rates nationwide, especially for poverty-stricken households. The report, t..
San Antonio Desalination Plant Supplies Water to 53,000 Homes
San Antonio Water System (SAWS) introduced a truly new drinking water source: desalination. While desalination is usually associated with sea water, SAWS project pumps salty – or brackish – water from deep in the Wilcox Aquifer under south Bexar County as the source for this purified drinking wa..
Iowa Considers Dismantling Water Utilities in Three Cities
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – An overflow crowd jammed a legislative hearing to oppose a bill they argued would make it more difficult to ensure safe water. At Monday’s public hearing on a bill that would dismantle water utilities in Des Moines, West Des Moines and Urbandale, opponents criticized the pro..
EPA Invests $95 Million In California Wastewater Projects
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced $95 million in new funding to California for improvements in local wastewater infrastructure, including upgrades to the city of Holtville’s 850,000-gallon-per-day wastewater treatment plant, serving 6,954 residents, to comply with water qu..
Pennsylvania Eyes New Fees to Add Drinking Water Inspectors
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration says it wants to impose new fees on public water utilities to pay for more inspectors and resolve a federal official’s warning it isn’t adequately enforcing safe drinking water standards. Wolf’s Department of Environmental Protection says it hop..
Many Positives From Common Ground Alliance DIRT Report
The latest Damage Information Reporting Tool (DIRT) report released in October 2016 by the Common Ground Alliance (CGA) contained the good news that efforts to reduce accidental damage to the nation’s underground utility infrastructure and build awareness of the free 811 service are making significa..
Maine Utility Regulators to Consider $1.5B FairPoint Sale
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Maine utility regulators are ready to delve into details of the proposed $1.5 billion sale of FairPoint Communications, the country’s eighth-largest phone and internet company. Consolidated Communications, based in Illinois, announced in December it was buying FairPoint, assum..
West Virginia American Water Names New President
West Virginia American Water has named Brian Bruce its new president, effective March 1, 2017. Bruce replaces Jeffrey McIntyre, who has been named Senior Vice President of American Water’s Mid-Atlantic Division, encompassing Pennsylvania and West Virginia. McIntyre will also become President of Penn..
Utility Altered Water Treatment Chemicals Without Approval
PITTSBURGH (AP) — State environmental officials found that the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority altered its water treatment chemicals without approval, although there is so far no evidence that this move has caused any public health risk. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (http://bit.ly..
Illinois Community Utilizes Economical Grouting Solution
By Tom Fuszard Communities and sewage districts looking to save on repairs to leaking laterals are finding chemical grouting a great option. For pipes that are structurally sound, it is often the best method to use. Sugarloaf Township, IL, used this process and discovered that the project paid for ..
Pipe Plugs Help To Prevent Cedar Rapids Flooding
In late September 2016, rising waters of the Cedar River initiated a state of emergency in Cedar Rapids, IA. Memories were still fresh of the great flood of 2008, the worst in the city’s history. The Cedar River crested at 31 feet, which is 19 feet above flood stage, inundating more than 1,000 d..
Survey Shows Utilities' Cybersecurity Not Keeping Up with Technology
An overwhelming majority (89%) of power and utility executives say their cybersecurity function does not fully meet their organization’s needs, according to the EY Global Information Security Survey 2016-17. That number continues to rise compared with last year (86% in 2015) as companies struggle t..
Pennsylvania Township Still Deals with Industrial Water Contamination
VANPORT, Pa. (AP) — A battle is brewing among several entities over financial responsibility for water treatment, and the township municipal authority — for the time being — is stuck in the middle footing the bill. That bill — estimated by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to ..
Texas Town Changing Disinfectant to Improve Water Supply
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) – Different chlorine will be used by a South Texas city working to improve its water supply after issues including a four-day usage ban in December. Corpus Christi officials on Tuesday announced plans to temporarily change water disinfectant, starting March 6, with the ch..
Water Research Foundation Publishes Report On Infrastructure Funding
The Water Research Foundation (WRF), a leading sponsor of innovative research supporting the water community, has published a new report to help utilities assess several new and emerging capital financing alternatives. The report indicates that while new options may help, utilities still need suffic..
Trying To Gauge The Trump Bounce Effect
by Robert Carpenter Editor-in-Chief Before the November presidential and congressional elections, remember how all the so-called financial experts and talking heads kept telling America that if, by some fluke, Donald Trump was elected president, the stock market would plummet, the economy would slo..
2017 Municipal Infrastructure Survey: New Political Direction Brings Cautious Optimism
After experiencing an uptick in municipal sewer and water infrastructure spending in 2015 and budgeting for the trend to continue into 2016, America’s municipal personnel were, for the most part, sorely disappointed. But municipal personnel are anything if not resilient, and there is a strong antici..
Utility Recognizes Innovative Employees
Through its annual Innovation Awards program, Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corporation recently recognized 68 employees who implemented 41 improvement projects in 2016 that provided tangible benefits for Central Hudson and its customers. “Innovation is a core value at Central Hudson, and one our e..
New Jersey American Water Invests $5.8 Million In Water Mains
New Jersey American Water is investing more than $5.8 million in approximately 20,800 feet of new (ductile iron) pipe to replace water mains that were installed as far back as the 1920s. Construction and street restoration will be completed in the spring and summer of 2017. “With the installation o..
Utility to Pay $8.5 Million to Settle Suit Over Gas Blowout
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Southern California Gas Co. agreed Wednesday to pay $8.5 million to settle a lawsuit over a well blowout that spewed natural gas for nearly four months and drove thousands of residents from their Los Angeles homes. The utility signed an agreement with the South Coast Air Qu..
Corpus Christi Hires Water Director
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Corpus Christi has hired a new water director after supply issues including a chemical leak prompted a four-day water usage ban in December. City officials Monday announced the appointment of Clarence Wittwer as water director. Wittwer most recently served as deputy ass..
EPA Announces WIFIA Program For Financing Large Water Projects
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the new Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program that will provide long-term, low-cost credit assistance in the form of direct loans and loan guarantees to creditworthy water projects. WIFIA provides another option for ..
Sanitary District in Indiana Reaches Deal on Sewer Overflows
The district says it’s working with the town of Highland to finalize a similar agreement. “We learned lessons from other Indiana communities to make sure that we understand what projects would be required and ensure we had the maximum reasonable time possible to construct them,”..
Oklahoma Gas & Electric Named Utility Customer Champion
Market Strategies International has named Oklahoma Gas & Electric a Utility Customer Champion in its recently announced Utility Trusted Brand & Customer Engagement™ study. OG&E achieved the Utility Customer Champion designation after receiving a score of 745 on the ECR index, a score that pu..
Sentient Energy Expands Intelligent Analytics to Entire Distribution Grid
Sentient Energy, Inc. today announced its new Sentient ZM1™ zero amperage grid monitor for deployment on cellular and mesh networks. The Sentient ZM1 is the world’s first advanced line monitor that can be deployed on distribution lines even where no or very-low amperage is available to power monito..
Utilities Move to Save Merger Amid Criticism
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Missouri-based utility sought Monday to rescue its proposal to buy Kansas’ largest electric company amid strong criticism that their $12.2 billion deal is too rich and would create a larger but financially weakened firm with consumers on the hook for its problems. An attorney ..
Utility Improves Lead Testing
The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) is implementing a new streamlined process for handling lead test kit requests, which will improve the integration of lead test data gathered from the certified contract labs and enable PWSA to provide more accurate and timely feedback to customers. Eff..
- Tunnel boring machine ‘Clack-A-Mole’ nears one-third completion in Oregon outfall project
- Explosion in underground PG&E vault leaves one dead in Richmond, Calif.
- Sinkhole in Texas town accrues over $800,000 in sewer rehabilitation costs
- Water and Sewer Damage Awareness Week highlights infrastructure challenges
- Duke Energy undergrounds 48% of Florida power lines with plans to expand as hurricane season peaks
- Wisconsin proposes new PFAS drinking water standards to align with federal rules
- Elgin, Ill., joins EPA drinking water initiative to accelerate lead pipe replacement
- Dog River pipeline replacement in Oregon improves water supply with new HDPE pipe
- New Portable Welding System From Miller
- GasTracker Accurately Locates Plastic Gas Pipes