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 systems can accommodate several decades of future residential growth. EMWD’s Joe Mouawad tells us about one part of this process: replacing septic systems with sewer extensions large enough to serve potential future flows. 

Middlesex Water Company of Edison, New Jersey, is building an ozone treatment plant, which required the construction of a custom pipe section. We speak with Ron Payne, the senior project manager at Northwest Pipe’s Saginaw, Texas, plant, where the pipe was fabricated, and with Michael Barnes, Middlesex Water’s director of project delivery for the project. 

We also speak with Nancy Keller, director of wastewater for the City of Pueblo, Colorado, which just installed a new Ntensify nutrient removal system that promises to eliminate sizable chemical and energy expenses. 

Finally, we speak with Karen Kill of the Brown’s Creek Watershed District, based in Stillwater, Minnesota, which has significantly reduced runoff and pollution to the trout stream it works to protect, resulting in the sustainable return of native species. 

Wastewater planning requires long-range thinking, careful forecasting, and an openness to new technologies. Thanks to their efforts in these fields, our nation’s wastewater service providers will be providing reliable services far into the future 

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.