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May 21--Communities across the metro area and beyond are putting their heads together to figure out how to handle the increases in storm water that a warmer climate is expected to bring. Public works officials, hydrologists, water quality monitors and others have embarked on a study to find where vulnerabilities exist and devise new solutions in the face of increasing -- and increasingly intense -- rainfall that has been both documented and projected by climate analysts. The work is funded in part by $300,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and coordinated by the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District.
Source : Star Tribune, Minneapolis
May 20--Whether you own a two-bedroom bungalow or a big-box mega store, you pay $4.56 per month to the city of Cedar Rapids for handling the stormwater that flows off your property. Deluge or dribble, the bill is the same. That could change, if an ongoing process aimed at altering the fee structure ever trickles its way to the City Council later this year.
Source : The Gazette - Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Replacement of aging infrastructure and high capital expenditures will continue to drive growth and consolidation in the U.S. water utility sector, according to Fitch Ratings.Community water systems face significant future capital expenditures as the result of aging infrastructure and maintaining safe drinking water standards. The EPA estimated in its 2007 Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment that $320.8 billion would likely need to be spent on U.S. water system infrastructure between 2007 and 2026.
Source : Business Wire
May 13--CLAYTON -- Funding has been secured, and the $4.3 million project to update the village's 100-year-old sewer system is slated to break ground this fall. "It's going to be ugly," Mayor Norma J. Zimmer said. While village officials do not want to disrupt summer tourism or bother residents with noisy construction work, Ms. Zimmer said, the project is long overdue and Clayton must get this done to prevent further problems with the aging system.
Source : Watertown Daily Times
May 20--The job keeps getting bigger at the city sewer plant. City staff and a host of outside engineers updated the City Council on one of the most expensive municipal projects in the city�s history Thursday at the Water Protection plant. The estimated $26 million project will use ultraviolet light to disinfect St. Joseph�s wastewater as part of an effort to meet requirements from the Environmental Protection Agency, designed to keep pollutants out of waterways like the Missouri River.
Source : St. Joseph News-Press
May 20--PORT ORCHARD -- West Sound Utility District has been given approval to sell or give away its "pasteurized" sewage sludge, also known as biosolids. By the end of the month, the utility district hopes to make the biosolids available for anyone who wants to pick up a bucketful or even a truckload, said John Poppe, wastewater utility manager for the district. Keith Grellner of Kitsap Public Health District said he congratulates West Sound Utility District for achieving such a high level of treatment.
Source : Kitsap Sun, Bremerton, Wash.
May 20--WAUKESHA -- Time appears to have run out on Waukesha's landmark effort to obtain Lake Michigan water by a court-imposed deadline of June 2018 to provide residents with radium-safe drinking water. June of next year is a "drop-dead" date, Waukesha Water Utility General Manager Dan Duchniak says, to have in place all of the pieces the city needs -- approval from Wisconsin and seven other Great Lakes states, a water purchase deal from Milwaukee or another city and a host of pipeline construction contracts -- in order to have lake water flowing to Waukesha by the summer of 2018. If all of those hurdles are not cleared and work started by June 2013, Waukesha will have no choice but to select a different and more costly strategy for providing safe drinking water to its residents, Duchniak said, vowing an aggressive push for its lake water plan.
Source : The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
May 14--Construction of an assisted-living facility is on hold and other major projects from Halawa to Pearl City could be in limbo while the city works to improve sewer lines at two Central Oahu sites. Until then no sewer connections that increase the amount of flow into the system will be allowed from Halawa to Pearl City, according to a memo last month from the city Department of Environmental Services. According to the memo, dated April 20, the Pearl City pump station has reached its limit of 28.4 million gallons of wastewater per day.
Source : The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
May 14--Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County board members will explore whether converting some mechanical systems to energy-efficient hardware can save ratepayers money. The board last week hired Constellation Energy to conduct an energy audit, the precursor of a program officials believe could save the authority millions of dollars over 15 years. The company will be paid $115,000 to review operations and systems and to recommend how additional savings can be accrued by converting to energy-efficient systems.
Source : Tribune-Review
May 9--Groveport residents should prepare to pay more for water soon as the city mulls options for fixing its public water system. In a letter to Groveport officials last year, the agency detailed a number of problems, including a high amount of lost water, old meters and the need for dehumidification, filter replacements and concrete repair. Also, "there's a lot of rehab that needs to be done to the water tanks," said City Administrator Marsha Hall.
Source : The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio
April 25--The Marin Municipal Water District has been sustaining human life in the county for the past 100 years and will celebrate its birthday Wednesday. On April 25, 1912, Marin Municipal received its charter from the secretary of state, making it California's first municipal water district. Before then, water in Central and Southern Marin was provided by a number of small, private companies, many of them subsidiaries of real estate developers.
Source : Marin Independent Journal
Recently, Ethan Wolfe, a 6 year-old Phoenix boy heard that people in Haiti had to drink "dirty water" every day and asked his family what they could do about it. And in the span of about one month, more than 4,600 people filled emptied water bottles with dollar bills and change as part of the Dirty Water campaign at Palmcroft Baptist Church. "The efforts to bring clean water can be appreciated by everyone across our entire community regardless of generation, gender or grade," said Jeff Wolfe, pastor at Palmcroft Baptist Church and father of the kindergartener who inspired the challenge to make a difference.
Source : PRNewswire
May 9--The Victoria City Council made its final vote Tuesday afternoon regarding its proposed sewage treatment plant. In a 4-3 split vote, the Council approved a $175,000 transfer to cover expenses for the legal dispute over the $20 million proposed project. Mayor Will Armstrong called the special meeting in an effort to avoid a tie vote at the regular May 1 meeting, when he was out of the country.
Source : Victoria Advocate, Victoria, Texas
April 25--In a victory for Delta advocates, a bill requiring a cost-benefit analysis before a peripheral canal or tunnel can be built passed out of a legislative committee Tuesday. Assembly Bill 2421 by Bill Berryhill, R-Stockton, passed the Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee on a 10-2 vote, despite opposition from a broad coalition of water districts mostly south of the Delta. "I think the public is entitled to know if it is investing in something that is on a path toward success," committee Chair Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, said before the vote.
Source : The Record
April 24--The city of Lewiston will pay $300,000 to upgrade a sewer line as part of a Lewiston Urban Renewal Agency project to rebuild two downtown streets. A split city council voted 4-3 Monday to enter into an agreement with the urban renewal agency that would take money from an enterprise fund to pay for replacement of the approximately 600-foot sewer line from Beachey Street north to the lift station at the Lewiston Levee Bypass. Both said they wanted to study the issue and not rush into a decision.
Source : Lewiston Morning Tribune, Idaho
April 25--COLUMBUS -- Despite concerns raised by two former Republican governors, a controversial bill regulating water withdrawals from the Lake Erie basin is headed for a House vote today. Instead, the focus has been on the inland rivers and streams within the Lake Erie watershed that encompasses roughly the northern third of Ohio. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact that was approved by eight states and Congress and is supported by two Canadian provinces.
Source : The Blade
April 25--The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power gave notice Tuesday to the City Council that it will seek to raise electricity rates by 10.5 percent and water rates by almost 5 percent over the next two years. In a nearly hourlong presentation to the City Council, DWP General Manager Ron Nichols said the department has received only emergency rate hikes this year and it needs a regular schedule of increases to take care of the aging systems. "The water system is 100 years old and the power system is nearly that," Nichols said.
Source : Daily News
April 24--STAMFORD -- The General Assembly this month unanimously approved a bill requiring the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to maintain an online map illustrating the scope and effect of anticipated sewage overflows and to notify the public when unexpected spills occur. State Rep. Gerald Fox III, D-Stamford, sponsored the legislation after several of his constituents expressed concerns about the city Water Pollution Control Authority. Residents approached him with worries over the city's beaches and shellfish beds after the sewage treatment plant received a notice of violation from the DEEP for releasing 43 million gallons of partially treated water into Long Island Sound last October.
Source : The Stamford Advocate, Stamford, Conn.
The pipe that delivers fresh water from the water main in the street to a home can break or leak due to normal wear and tear. "These kinds of emergencies happen more often than people think," says Tom Rusin, Chief Executive Officer of HomeServe USA. "We're talking about American homeowners collectively bearing a two billion dollar liability.
Source : PRNewswire
JUNEAU, Alaska - The possible failure of a dam holding waste from a large-scale mine near the headwaters of one of the world's premier salmon fisheries in Alaska could wipe out or degrade rivers and streams in the region for decades, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a draft watershed assessment released Friday.EPA regional administrator Dennis McLerran said there was a fairly low risk of that occurring, however, and the more likely impact would be direct loss of habitat from the mining activity itself.The Pebble Partnership, the group behind the Pebble Mine project, has called the deposit one of the largest of its kind in the world, with the potential of producing 80.6 billion pounds of copper, 107.4 million ounces of gold and 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum over decades.
Source : Associated Press/AP Online
May 23--Traffic is being diverted around a water main break on Makakilo Drive at Aoloko Street, Honolulu police said. The Board of Water Supply said an 8-inch main broke at 94-624 Makakilo Drive near Anipeahi Street. Water is also being provided at a fire hydrant at 92-646 Makakilo Drive.
Source : The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
May 23--Some elected officials and plant managers say Fayetteville's new policy of requiring annexation as a condition to getting city water and sewer service could hurt industrial recruitment. But Fayetteville's mayor disagrees, saying the policy won't end up costing companies more money. Cumberland County Commissioner Kenneth Edge raised the concern at a recent Public Works Commission meeting.
Source : The Fayetteville Observer
May 23--BENICIA -- Work has begun on the last major piece of the city of Benicia's $13 million solar project, officials announced Tuesday. The array is expected to be completed by summer's end. Solar panels already have been installed to provide power at City Hall, the police station, the main fire station, the community center, Community Park, the public swimming pool and other facilities.
Source : Times-Herald, Vallejo, Calif.
May 23--A water main burst in the 3200 block of Arnett Street off of Glenwood Drive in Boulder this afternoon, sending water and red-hued mud spewing into the street. Immediately after the break, residents reported pink water flowing from their taps. (c)2012 the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.)
Source : Daily Camera
May 23--CORSICANA -- The Navarro Generating power plant project is buried in red tape, but it's not dead. Changes by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding Texas air emissions meant the proposed power plant had to do some new air modeling, the results of which were just recently submitted. "Nothing has changed about the project, it's just some additional analysis was required," said Chris Shugart with Navarro Generating.
Source : Corsicana Daily Sun