Irrigation Innovation on Southern Utah University’s Campus
[siteorigin_widget class=”SiteOrigin_Widget_Headline_Widget”][/siteorigin_widget] Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah, requires a lot of water to care for its campus. On its 75 acres of mostly NCAA playing fields, 4 man-hours of labor were required every day just to maintain the secondary irrigation system’s filtering system. Tiger Funk, the university’s assistant vice president for facilities management, […]
Managing Natural Assets Alongside Engineered Ones
Asset management is a familiar concept for most local governments and water utility providers, but when they hear the term, almost everyone thinks about wastewater treatment plants, buried pipeline, and pump stations. The Municipal Natural Assets Initiative (MNAI), a Canadian nonprofit, is aiming to change that. MNAI’s core insight is that natural assets like wetlands, […]
Reducing Maintenance Risk and Expenses Through SUEZ’s Asset Management Program
For small and medium-size municipalities and water utilities, the regular maintenance of assets like water tanks, metering systems, and wells may require significant expenses of time and money—especially when these assets break down earlier than expected. To address this problem, SUEZ North America has begun providing continuous maintenance services to utilities that cover the entire […]
The Town of Cary’s Buried Infrastructure Asset Management Plan
In 2018, the Town of Cary, North Carolina, developed a buried infrastructure asset management plan. The town, which is near Raleigh in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, had relatively new water and wastewater infrastructure and had a variety of ongoing asset management practices, but they were not integrated, transparent, and fully documented. Through […]
Black & Veatch: Management for All Stages of the Asset Life Cycle
Black & Veatch is a global construction and consultancy firm with more than 100 offices worldwide. One of its many services is its asset management practice, which works with clients in the water field, including municipalities, state governments, utilities, and research organizations. Black & Veatch’s asset management services for water agencies include strategy development and […]
HDR’s Data-Driven Utility Management Services
HDR is a major architectural, engineering, and consulting firm that has worked on infrastructure projects around the world, including bridges, highways, parks, hospitals, arenas, and treatment facilities. Perhaps lesser known are its utility management services, which help water and wastewater utilities plan, manage, operate, and fund infrastructure. One of HDR’s key utility management services focuses […]
Asset Management With Drones: American Water’s UAV Program
Asset management requires precise information about the location and condition of an organization’s assets, as well as the ability to regularly inspect them and update that information. American Water is one company that has started to use drones to do this. American Water’s drones are not only used as eyes in the sky to inspect […]
Volume 6 Issue 10 November/December 2019
How does your water utility manage its assets? With aging infrastructure and limited funds for rehabilitation and replacement, the question is more important every day. In this month’s issue of Municipal Water Leader, we profile some of the water utilities and service providers that are forging new paths in asset management. In our cover […]
Howard County’s Reclaimed Water Services
Howard County, Maryland, has started a reclaimed water program over the last few years that currently provides up to 5 million gallons a day (MGD) of reclaimed water to a government client in its area. It is seeking to expand its water reclamation and reuse activity with other new commercial and industrial clients, and potentially […]
Water Sector Supports Development of National Water Reuse Action Plan
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on February 27, 2019, that it would facilitate the development of a national Water Reuse Action Plan (WRAP) to serve as a catalyst to enhance the consideration of water reuse as a tool in integrated water resources management nationally. EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Dave Ross made the […]