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Feb. 03--Gov. Chris Gregoire's proposed budget update would eliminate state funding for stormwater-cleaning projects in the Lake Whatcom watershed and the Padden Creek Estuary, according to the state Department of Ecology. Funding also would be cut for a project to catch rainwater from roofs at the Bellingham Public Works operations building so crews could reuse it later. "I'm still hopeful that when they have to go through the state budget slashing things that, perhaps, this won't be slashed," said Bill Reilly, manager of the storm and surface water utility for Public Works.
Source : The Bellingham Herald, Wash.
Feb. 02--PORTLAND -- City workers are replacing 250 feet of antique sewer line after a section of Munjoy Street collapsed this morning. A two- by four-foot hole, 12 feet deep, opened up in the street, between Moody and Wilson streets, after a city truck rolled over it while sanding the street, a city spokeswoman said. The 18-inch diameter cement pipe was installed in 1860, said Nicole Clegg.
Source : Portland Press Herald
Feb. 01--A new ordinance will require Sedalia developers to take measures to protect the city's water system. The ordinance regulates storm water runoff into the storm sewer system to meet federal Environmental Protection Agency and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System guidelines. Tony Stanton, with Olsson Associates, of Overland Park, Kan., explained the ordinance in a public forum Tuesday, which was a part of the ordinance's mandatory public review and input period.
Source : The Sedalia Democrat (Sedalia, Mo.)
Feb. 01--A $1 billion price tag threatens to sink a proposed reservoir unless more Broward and Palm Beach County utilities agree to help pay, project backers said Tuesday. Newly released estimates show it would cost $700 million to $1 billion -- more than twice the cost once expected -- to build a reservoir in Palm Beach County that could boost drinking water supplies as far away as Broward and Miami-Dade counties. South Florida utilities are being asked to approve agreements endorsing the project, which would be followed by commitments to help pay it.
Source : South Florida Sun-Sentinel
SPICEWOOD, Texas - Tanker trucks loaded with water have become the lifeline for a Texas lakefront village that came precariously close to becoming the state's first community to run out of drinking water during a historic drought.Spicewood got its first delivery of water Monday under dark clouds and rain. The 8,000-gallon water delivery arrived after it became clear the village's wells could no longer produce enough water to meet the needs of the Lake Travis community's 1,100 residents and elementary school, said Clara Tuma, spokeswoman of the Lower Colorado River Authority.
Source : Associated Press/AP Online
HARARE, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwean authorities say they are making sure poor townships get uninterrupted water supplies after a typhoid outbreak, leaving wealthy areas with reduced supplies.He said "the wealthy can afford to buy water" and cope with outages.At least 900 cases of the bacterial disease have been treated this year in poor western suburbs of Harare, many having had no piped water for months and even years.
Source : Associated Press/AP Online
Jan. 31--Federal stimulus money has kept Lynchburg's sewer construction program going strong for two years, but state funds are needed to keep the work on pace, the city's legislators say. If state money doesn't come through, the city may have to raise its sewer rates, which already are among the highest in the state. State Sen. Steve Newman and Del. Scott Garrett are asking the General Assembly to provide at least $2.5 million for the next two years to help the Hill City deal with the most costly project in its history.
Source : The News & Advance
Jan. 30--KOKOMO -- A city sewer project needed to comply with federal Clean Water Act mandates is expected to cost upwards of $9 million, and prevent millions of gallons of raw sewage from flowing into Wildcat Creek, Kokomo city officials announced. Wednesday, the city Board of Public Works & Safety approved a preliminary engineering contract with the Indianapolis-based American Structurepoint engineering firm, the first step in what is expected to be a multi-year project. It's all part of the city's 20-year plan to comply with environmental standards set forth in the Clean Water Act.
Source : Kokomo Tribune
Jan. 30--TO GET YOUR coupon for the Buffalo Wild Wings fundraiser, email chodgkin@mix.wvu.edu. Twenty-year-old Chelsea Hodgkins is preparing for a trip to Ghana to bring one village in the African country potable water. She is part of a fellowship through the Medfield, Mass.-based nonprofit Community Water Solutions.
Source : The Dominion Post (Morgantown, W.Va.)
ALEXANDRIA, Va., Jan. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Water Environment Research Foundation seeks proposals for research to generate the science and engineering to improve and/or evaluate promising innovative technologies and techniques to reduce the cost and improve the effectiveness of operation, maintenance, management, and replacement of aging and failing wastewater and stormwater conveyance and treatment infrastructure. Aging and deteriorating water infrastructure is a priority issue for EPA. According to a 2008 Clean Water Needs Survey estimates, capital investment needs of greater than $298 billion over the next 20 years were documented.
Source : PRNewswire
Jan. 26--MOULTRIE -- The City of Moultrie has secured two multi-million-dollar loans to begin the next phase of renovation at the city's wastewater treatment plant. The Georgia Environmental Finance Authority announced Tuesday that Moultrie has been awarded a pair of Clean Water State Revolving Fund loans, one of $2.75 million and the other of $6.1 million. The smaller loan will finance the replacement of aging water meters with remote-read water meters and the installation of energy-efficient wastewater pumps at the treatment plant, according to GEFA Executive Director Kevin Clark.
Source : The Moultrie Observer
Jan. 26--Cal Poly and the city of San Luis Obispo on Monday unveiled a pilot project to test the viability of using algae to treat wastewater. The project at San Luis Obispo's sewage treatment plant on Prado Road has been under construction for the past year and a half. This results in cleaner water and an increased volume of oil-rich algae that can be converted to products such as liquid biofuel or fertilizer, said Tryg Lundquist, Cal Poly professor in charge of the project.
Source : The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
HARRISBURG, Pa., Jan. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Tom Corbett today announced the investment of $98 million in 23 non-point source, drinking water, and wastewater projects in 19 counties.The awards include a $28 million grant/loan combination to upgrade a sewage treatment plant in Clinton County that will allow the plant to eliminate the discharge of partially treated sewage into a local stream as well as come into compliance with its Chesapeake Bay nutrient discharge requirements.Washington CountyCarroll Township Authority received a $940,000 loan to rehabilitate three and a half miles of sanitary sewer lines in order to eliminate the wet weather discharge of untreated waste into Pigeon Creek, a tributary of the Monongahela River.
Source : PRNewswire
Jan. 25--A judge on Monday gave Sacramento's sewage treatment agency another six months to meet stricter filtration rules for the effluent it discharges into the Sacramento River. The district is challenging a new waste discharge permit imposed in December 2010 by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. Both parties supported the extension to allow time for the State Water Resources Control Board to hear a separate administrative appeal.
Source : The Sacramento Bee
Jan. 24--Every year, winter rains like the recent storms that have soaked the Bay Area help fill reservoirs and perk up lawns. But they also carry an ugly downside, causing aging sewage systems to back up, overflow and malfunction, endangering human health and polluting San Francisco Bay. Last year, a staggering 17.5 million gallons of raw or partially treated sewage spilled in the nine Bay Area counties -- enough to fill 26 Olympic-size swimming pools -- and 95 percent of it flowed to the bay, lakes or streams.
Source : San Jose Mercury News
Jan. 22--Greater Hazleton Joint Sewer Authority is on pace to finishing a large-scale sewer line replacement project in Hazleton and West Hazleton at about $1 million under estimates from its engineer. With excavation and line replacement completed, Director of Operations Chris Carsia recently reported to the authority board of directors that the project will finish about $1 million below an estimated $2.6 million work scope prepared by its engineer. "By the time we're done with paving, we'll get to around $1.5 million," Carsia reported.
Source : Standard-Speaker
SAN FRANCISCO -Ground-water levels have dropped in many places across the globe over the last nine years, a pair of gravity- monitoring satellites finds. The decline is especially pronounced in parts of California, India, the Middle East and China where expanding agriculture has increased water demand."Groundwater is being depleted at a rapid clip in virtually of all of the major aquifers in the world's arid and semiarid regions," says Jay Famiglietti, a hydrologist at the University of California Center for Hydrologie Modeling in Irvine, whose team presented the trends December 6 at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
Source : Science News
Jan. 20--Three local communities are among those sharing in $19 million in federal funding to address infrastructure needs. Gov. Pat Quinn said this week that 59 small and rural communities throughout Illinois will be awarded the money through the Community Development Assistance Program. Locally grants are going to:
Source : The Telegraph (Alton, Ill.)
Jan. 19--Many areas of New Bern flooded during hurricane Irene in August will likely flood again during a storm that strong. But officials are looking at ways to update the ancient drainage system in the city to better handle storm water. Jordan Hughes, city engineer, presented a plan to New Bern aldermen Tuesday night.
Source : Sun Journal
Seven decades after scientists came here during World War II to create plutonium for the first atomic bomb, a new generation is struggling with an even more daunting task: cleaning up the radioactive mess.The U.S. government is building a treatment plant to stabilize and contain 56million gallons of waste left from a half-century of nuclear weapons production.In exclusive interviews, several senior engineers cited design problems that could bring the plant's operations to a halt before much of the waste is treated.
Source : USA TODAY
Much of England remains under the threat of drought with bans looming on washing cars, watering gardens and filling swimming pools, officials said.The area involved includes parts of the Midlands, East Anglia and southeastern England."Groundwater recovery is very slow and soil moisture deficits increased this week, meaning soils are still dry for the time of year," the agency said Friday in its January Drought Management briefing.
Source : United Press International
Drinking wastewater? The idea may sound distasteful, but new federally funded research says more Americans are doing so -- whether they know it or not -- and this reuse will be increasingly necessary as the U.S. population expands."We believe water reuse is a viable option" to deal with growing water scarcity, especially in coastal areas, says Jrg Drewes, an engineering professor at the Colorado School of Mines who contributed to the report.Of the 32 billion gallons of wastewater discharged every day in the USA, the report says 12 billion -- equal to 6% of total U.S. water use -- is sent to an ocean or estuary and is thus a lost resource.
Source : USA TODAY
Jan. 11--BRICEVILLE -- A coal-washing operation in Anderson County's remote Devonia community -- closed last week after a large discharge of rock and shale shavings into the New River -- will remain shuttered for now, an official said Tuesday. Before it can resume operations, the Baldwin Coal Preparatory Plant will have to assure federal and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation officials it can meet water quality standards, TDEC spokeswoman Tisha Calabrese-Benton said. Once operations are again permitted, the facility will have to do water sampling daily instead of twice a month, she said.
Source : The Knoxville News-Sentinel
Jan. 09--TRINITY Â-- Depending on the final result of a feasibility study, Trinity officials, along with Archdale and Randolph County, will determine whether they should continue sending their wastewater to other cities or build their own plant in the future. Engineering associates met with city officials Thursday morning to discuss the preliminary findings for the wastewater treatment plant feasibility study. In 2009, Archdale and Trinity city councils decided to allocated $25,000 toward a feasibility study, with the Randolph County commissioners approval and matching money.
Source : High Point Enterprise
Jan. 11--MEXICO -- Selectmen on Tuesday night moved a step closer toward applying for a Community Development Block Grant to pay for new water and sewer lines along Alder and South Main streets. Town Manager John Madigan said the money would be used in conjunction with road improvements on those streets. Work on the sewer and water lines are needed before road construction can begin, he said this past fall.
Source : Sun Journal, Lewiston, Maine