The Quagga Mussel Experience

T he quagga mussel is an invasive species that, over the last 30 years, has heavily colonized the Great Lakes. Its hydrodynamic, geochemical, optical, and ecological effects are so great that the species is termed an “ecosystem-revising organism” or “ecosystem engineer.” Now, quaggas are spreading to the rivers of California, Lake Mead, and other water […]

A New Agency for a Growing Region

The Santa Clarita Valley, north of Los Angeles, has grown in population by 41percent in the last 15 years, and its current population of 250,000 is expected to reach nearly half a million in the foreseeable future. To serve this growing population and deal with problems such as drought and natural disasters, the two major […]

Volume 4 Issue 9 October 2018

  Water managers deal with huge geographical areas, huge quantities of water, and huge responsibilities. In this issue of Municipal Water Leader, we take a look at the big-picture thinking that is required to successfully manage these challenges. In our cover story, we speak to Matt Stone, the general manager of the Santa Clarita Valley […]

Water Bottle Fill Stations as Public Outreach

Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) provides water, wastewater, and recycled water services to more than 816,000 people in Riverside County, California. EMWD is the sixth-largest retail water agency in the state of California. More than a decade of California water industry survey data suggest a strong correlation between the value that customers place on water […]

A Burst of Innovation

Pulsed Burst Systems is a Milwaukee-based startup that has developed a simple yet effective device called the MegaBubble that creates large air bubbles that can be used to mix large quantities of water or even pump water through a pipe. With help from The Water Council in Milwaukee and its BREW business accelerator program, Pulsed […]

Seamlessly Integrated

HDR, Inc., recently designed the Historic Fourth Ward Park in Atlanta, Georgia—a popular community gathering space that can also capture nearly 7 million gallons of storm water runoff, thus forming an important part of Atlanta’s water infrastructure. Word about the innovative park design spread all the way to Calgary, Alberta, where a local developer contacted […]

Staying on the Cutting Edge

Photo portrait of Tage Flint, Chair of the National Water Resources Association’s Municipal Caucus

From scientific discoveries about harmful algae and invasive species to technical advances in materials and machinery, the municipal water world is always changing. Yet for municipal water district managers tasked with the weighty job of providing water to hundreds of thousands of users, it is difficult to stay up-to-date on all these changes. Tage Flint, […]

Beautifying San Antonio’s San Pedro Creek

San Antonio, Texas, is famous for its urban River Walk development along the San Antonio River, which was completed in 2014. A few years ago, local authorities decided to pursue a similar revitalization project for another downtown waterway, the San Pedro Creek. As of 2018, the ambitious San Pedro Creek Improvements Project is only partly […]

WRDA Works for America’s Water Infrastructure

Photo portrait of Congressman Bill Shuster

On October 23, 2018, the president signed into law the America’s Water Infrastructure Act, a legislative package that features the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2018. The enactment of WRDA 2018 marked the third such bill signed into law since I became chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in 2013. I […]

The Water Council

Headquartered in the Global Water Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, next to the world’s largest freshwater system, The Water Council is a nonprofit organization that drives economic, technology, and talent development to support the global water industry. As the leading U.S. water technology cluster and one of the most powerful water technology hubs in the world, […]