Progress on the Integrated Pipeline Project
For nearly 100 years, the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) has been providing flood-control services along the Fort Worth floodway and water supply services to 11 counties. Dallas Water Utilities (DWU) has been providing water to its service area for over 125 years. Combined, TRWD’s and Dallas’s service populations are in the 5.75–6 million range. Population growth, climate variability, greater distance to sources, bonding capability, debt service, rates, politics, regulations, legislation, and capital and life-cycle costs are all driving state and local agencies to partner and share regional resources and conveyances, and TRWD and DWU are not exceptions. The rapid growth of both agencies’ service areas has necessitated the design…
Jerry Brown: Advancing the Sites Reservoir Project
The proposed 1.5-million-acre-foot Sites Reservoir is intended to capture storm water flows from the Sacramento River for storage and release in dry years for environmental, residential, and agricultural uses. A reservoir of this scale requires serious, long-term planning efforts that encompass funding, design, and permitting. Jerry Brown was recently hired to lead the project team. Since April 2020, he has served as the executive director of the Sites Project Authority, the joint powers authority (JPA) in charge of advancing the project, which is projected to be complete in 2030. In this interview, Mr. Brown tells Municipal Water Leader about the challenges that the authority is facing and overcoming on the…
Volume 8 Issue 3 March 2021
The history of American water resources is marked by the construction of monumental structures like Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee Dam, the Colorado River Aqueduct, and the Central Arizona Project. But such construction is not limited to the past. Around the country today, large-scale reservoir and pipeline projects as well as important municipal projects continue to be planned and executed. Perhaps one of the most impressive projects now being planned is the proposed 1.5-million-acre-foot Sites Reservoir, which will capture storm water flows from the Sacramento River for storage and release in dry years for environmental, residential, and agricultural uses. We interview Jerry Brown, the executive director of the Sites Project Authority,…
The Brown’s Creek Watershed District: Improving Water Body Health in an Urbanizing Area
The Brown’s Creek Watershed District (BCWD), located near Stillwater, Minnesota, was recently recognized by the Water Environment Federation with its Water Quality Improvement Award for reducing runoff and pollution to the trout stream it works to protect. Despite being located in a quickly urbanizing area, the BCWD has managed to improve the biological health of local water bodies with the result that native species are returning in a sustainable manner. In this interview, BCWD Administrator Karen Kill tells Municipal Water Leader about the agency’s activities and the successes it is seeing.
How the City of Pueblo’s Ntensify Nutrient Removal System Is Saving Money on Chemicals and Energy
The City of Pueblo, Colorado, recently undertook a renovation of its James R. DiIorio Wastewater Reclamation Facility, installing an Ntensify nutrient removal system that has made its treatment process significantly more efficient and has reduced chemical and energy expenses so much that the improvement will pay for itself within 2 years. In this interview, Pueblo’s director of wastewater, Nancy Keller, tells Municipal Water Leader about the benefits of the Ntensify system and about the Pueblo Wastewater Department’s other top issues.
Northwest Pipe’s Precision Design Aids Middlesex Water’s Plant Upgrade
Middlesex Water Company (MWC), which owns and operates several water and wastewater systems across the mid-Atlantic region, recently built an ozone treatment facility as part of a $70 million upgrade to its largest treatment plant in New Jersey. This improvement was challenging from a design and construction perspective: it required the rapid relocation and reconnection of an existing 72- inch reinforced concrete pipeline with a custom-designed steel pipe and elbow fitting manufactured by Northwest Pipe Company. To avoid disrupting service to MWC’s customers, Northeast Remsco Construction had to remove the existing pipe and install the new pipe in just 8 hours. In this interview, Michael J. Barnes, MWC’s director of…
Eastern Municipal Water District: Planning for Future Development Through Septic-to-Sewer Conversions
The Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) provides water, wastewater, and recycled water service to more than 825,000 people living and working within a 555‑square mile service area in western Riverside County, California. To ensure that it can provide these essential services far into the future despite the challenges of drought, population growth, and development, it carries out a variety of master planning and strategic planning activities. One significant area of wastewater planning relates to septic-to-sewer conversions, which must be accomplished with future decades of growth and development in mind so that the infrastructure that is planned and built is adequate to handle all the flows an area could potentially generate.…
Charlotte Water’s McAlpine Creek Water Facility Rehabilitation
Charlotte Water in North Carolina is working on a major refurbishment program to improve its McAlpine Creek Wastewater Facility and address the aging of the infrastructure, some of which dates back to the 1960s. The project aims to rehab the heart of the plant, and will involve refurbishing or replacing aeration systems, blowers, and clarifiers and performing recoating of selected elements. In this interview, Charlotte Water’s deputy utilities director for operations, Ron Hargrove, tells Municipal Water Leader more about this major undertaking and about the utility as a whole.
Volume 8 Issue 2 February 2021
With growing cities, ever-tightening regulations, and constantly advancing treatment technology, wastewater planning is a process that never ends. In this month’s Municipal Water Leader, we bring you several stories of major wastewater planning processes that are in motion around the nation. In our cover story, Ron Hargrove of Charlotte Water tells us about a major, ongoing rehabilitation project that the agency is carrying out on its 64‑million-gallon-a-day McAlpine Creek Wastewater Facility. The project involves the rehabilitation or replacement of aeration systems, blowers, and clarifiers as well as targeted recoatings. Meanwhile, in California’s Riverside County, east of Los Angeles, the Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) is planning to ensure that its…
How Auckland’s Safeswim Program Keeps Beachgoers Safe
The municipal government of the city of Auckland, New Zealand, has created a program to easily present up-to-date information on water quality and hazards at local beaches to the public. The Safeswim program uses regular testing, real-time data on the performance of wastewater and storm water infrastructure, and data modeling to generate its recommendations. Meanwhile, Auckland Council and its water utility are 3 years into a 10‑year infrastructure program to reduce the occurrence of wastewater overflows. In this interview, Safeswim Program Manager Nick Vigar tells Municipal Water Leader about how the program functions and the benefits it brings Aucklanders.
