Whether your water utility is challenged with increasingly stringent standards, implementing new technology, or coping with aging infrastructure replacement, new project implementation concerns can be daunting. Take advantage of proven practices from experienced water industry professionals to put your project on the right track with sound evaluation of engineering assistance for your project.
Of the issues facing utilities, financing — or lack thereof — ranks at or near the top of most lists. During this Water Talk, Reese Tisdale, President of Bluefield Research, discusses the rise in operating expenses (OPEX) over the past 10 years, explains the reasons and repercussions, and forecasts where costs will go from here.
Jeff Garner, Senior Vice President with MWH Constructors, covers a lot of area in this Water Talk interview, which focuses on alternative project delivery models (particularly the construction manager at-risk (CMAR) approach), the water-energy-food nexus, and the thermal hydrolysis process (THP) for on-site energy generation.
The adoption of water reuse can be unavoidable due to water scarcity, but it may also be a choice. And when it comes to choices, cost is usually a deciding factor. Gary Hunter, Senior Wastewater Process Engineer with Black & Veatch, helps make sense of the dollars required for recycled water schemes in this Water Talk interview.
James Schlaman, Director of Water Resources at Black & Veatch, explains what community-based public-private partnerships (CBP3s) are (and what they aren't), how they work, and what makes them attractive — particularly for stormwater management improvements.
Prioritizing and funding pressing infrastructure needs can be challenging for water treatment and wastewater treatment plants (WTPs/WWTPs) of any size. The problems are particularly stressful for smaller utilities where a thin layer of upper management staff wears an inordinate number of hats. The good news is that funding assistance does exist — if you know where to look for it and take the right steps to apply for it.
Five years ago, the city of Detroit, MI, filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history at an estimated $18 to 20B. At the time, there was a lot of speculation in the water market as to how the city would continue to serve its citizens with viable water and sanitary sewer services. Ultimately Detroit reached a deal with neighboring Oakland, Wayne, and Macomb counties to create the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), a new regional water and sewer authority. Spring forward to today and despite Detroit’s population continuing to dwindle, it’s water and sewer provision under the GLWA has recovered significantly.
Over the past two decades, the trend from traditional design-bid-build (DBB) construction project-delivery practices to design-build (DB) practices has grown. Is that merely a cyclical trend or a step change that is destined to be a fixture for a long time to come?
From data to knowledge to transformation
Move from complexity to simplicity, from asset and process intelligence to operational intelligence with the PI System. Its highly scalable, open data infrastructure empowers enterprises in real time, transforming operational data into actionable knowledge and business transformation.
ABB uses digital solutions to drive outcomes. Engaging customers to demonstrate tangible results that scale.
The new generation of ABB’s total plant automation: DCS and SCADA for the power and water industries.
Reduced operational costs and downtime through seamless distributed control system integration.
Real-time control of a 360km water distribution system through an advanced distributed control system.
Improved water reliability and lifecycle costs through total control of a one hundred mile transfer system.
100% available water in the driest of deserts through highly efficient desalination.
Plant visibility and control with no downtime through a unified control system.
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) applauds the President's signing of the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act into law on January 14, 2019.
The Water Environment Federation and 90 other organizations have sent a letter to Congress urging the funding of water infrastructure.
A Lancaster-based engineering and environmental consulting company is now 100 percent employee owned, through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. The transaction was effective Jan. 2.
As part of a new framework contract with Anglian Water, Veolia is targeting savings of £1.07M through process optimisation and energy management, and reducing the water company’s carbon footprint.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) is soliciting for more Drinking Water Revolving Fund (DWRF) projects to receive below market rate loan financing in the present fiscal year (FY) 2019.
Hawaii Water Service (Hawaii Water), a subsidiary of California Water Service Group (NYSE: CWT), received approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission (Commission) to increase annual revenues by approximately $825,000, effective Jan. 1, 2019, and $34,000, effective Jan. 1, 2020, to reflect infrastructure improvements made as well as increases in operating costs in its Waikoloa Village service area.
The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) applauds Congress for its strong bipartisan action in passing the Water Infrastructure Improvement Act.
Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a $47.7M Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan to the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District in Missouri to help finance its Deer Creek Sanitary Tunnel and Sanitary Relief project.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded more than $187.3M to California for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure improvements.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded more than $20.8M to Nevada for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure improvements.
Businesses rely on process units meeting or exceeding their operational plans. To ensure that operational plans are achieved, it is important that equipment operates as designed (i.e., delivers the required performance) and continues to operate in an optimum manner (i.e., remains reliable, in a good condition). The most common causes of missing operational plan targets are equipment failure, which results in unplanned downtime, and low quality or yields from production processes.
The prime reason most industrial plants still have internal, on-site maintenance staffs is to reduce repair times and unplanned downtime, which negatively impact revenue, customer satisfaction, cost, and other key business metrics. In most plants today, contracting with the equipment manufacturer for maintenance usually results in unacceptably long periods of downtime for critical equipment while waiting for a technician to arrive – particularly with the typical two passes required for inspection and repair.
At ARC Advisory Group’s 20th Annual Industry Forum in Orlando, Florida, Shawn Anderson, Senior Research Specialist for Fisher Valves, a division of Emerson Process Management, gave a presentation on how the company is leveraging the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to help end users reduce valve-related unplanned downtime.
Wastewater service charges vary considerably across EPA regions and States. That’s one of the key findings from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies’ (NACWA) Cost of Clean Water Index. If you live in Montana, Wyoming or the Dakotas (EPA Region 8), your average service charge of $261 a year is considerably less than the $884 your fellow Americans up in New England (EPA Region 1) are paying. As you can imagine, much of the difference is to do with population size and geography.
Did you know that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had a published Contingency Plan in anticipation of the current government shutdown? I guess in hindsight, you would have expected it for an agency with 134 facilities dotted across the country. And in fact, it’s required by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under Circular A-11, Section 124 that all government agencies have plans for an orderly shutdown “in the event of an absence of appropriations.”
Did you ever have a paper route or go door-to-door selling items to your neighbors for a charitable cause in your younger years? Remember the house with the big dog? Or the overgrown yard? Maybe even the dark house at the end of the lane that the spooky old woman known to all as “the witch” lived in?
