By Kris Polly

Imagine a trenchless pipe installation with segments of steel pipe being pushed into a tunnel, one by one. Now imagine that the path of that tunnel actually curves in order to avoid an obstacle. Too good to be true? Not with Permalok’s Radial Bending Joint. In our cover story, we interview Henry Goff, the vice president and general manager of Permalok, a Northwest Pipe Company, about this innovative product.

San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency, which imports State Water Project water for customers in inland Southern California, is planning for the reliability of its water supply decades in advance. In our interview with General Manager Lance Eckhart, we learn about how the agency is investing in major water projects, including the Delta Conveyance Project and the Sites Reservoir Project.

Speaking of Southern California and water project funding, we turn next to the SoCal Water Utilities Grants Network, a newly launched platform through which regional utilities can meet, share information, and collaborate on grant applications. Rosa Castro, the research and grants manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, fills us in on the details.

The Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory in Vicksburg, Mississippi, is one of the seven labs that form the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineer Research and Development Center. We speak with Senior Scientific Technical Manager Gaurav Savant about the laboratory’s R&D in areas such as inland flows and flooding, reservoir operations, and locks and dams.

PumpPodUSA has developed the HeloPod, a mobile dip station that allows firefighting helicopters to do their jobs more quickly and effectively. Wildfires and firefighting affect water utilities in at least two ways: Fires can damage watersheds and degrade water quality, and during active fires, firefighters can put significant demand on water systems. By working with firefighting agencies to deploy or pre-position devices such as the HeloPod, water agencies can plan for both contingencies and play a role in fighting the scourge of wildfire. We hear more from Bill Ward, the vice president and co-owner of PumpPodUSA, and Gary Stephen, who does business development for the company.

Cortec Corporation has several lines of corrosion inhibitors that are both effective and environmentally sustainable. Cortec’s Julie Holmquist tells us more about their applications, including in desalination plants.

Finally, we speak with several professionals from global water leader Xylem about the VAF line of automatic self-cleaning screen filters, produced by Evoqua, a Xylem company.

From innovative products to groundbreaking research to long-term investments in major water supply projects, our industry is working to build the future of water. I hope you enjoy reading about these important efforts in this month’s Municipal Water Leader.

Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader magazine and the president and CEO of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He can be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.