Features
February
2013, Vol.
25, No.2
Los Angeles Environmental Learning Center
Demonstrating and teaching sustainable water resources management
Ron Mayuyu, Michael Sarullo, and Heather Boyle VanMeter
Recognizing the need to educate
children and adults about sustainable water and solid resources management as a
catalyst to change behavior, the City of Los Angeles Department of Public
Works’ bureaus of Sanitation and Engineering developed the Los Angeles
Environmental Learning Center (ELC). It is ELC’s vision to become the leading
center for environmental learning, inspiring future generations to protect
public health and the environment through sustainable practices.
ELC, which has been designated by the U.S. Green Building Council (Washington, D.C.) as a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold facility, demonstrates sustainable water management through its design and operation, and provides space to teach sustainable water management with interactive learning exhibits. Read full article (login required)
Indianapolis built a technical consensus and amended a
consent decree for CSO controls
Chris Ranck, Mark Jacob, and Steve Nielsen
Within 2
years of entering into a consent decree to implement combined sewer overflow
(CSO) control measures, the City of Indianapolis returned with proposed
modifications that would capture overflow earlier and reduce escalating program
costs. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 and the Indiana
Department of Environmental Management recognized these revisions as mutually
beneficial: The city would lower its expenditures while the community would
reap the rewards of controlling additional CSO discharge. Read full article (open access)
Starting over
Moving closer to energy independence in water reclamation
Graham J.G. Juby
In 2015, the 16,000 or so water
resource recovery facilities in the U.S. will consume about 25 billion kWh of
electricity, according to predictions in Water
& Sustainability: U.S. Electricity Consumption for Water Supply and
Treatment — The Next Half Century, a 2002 report by the Electric Power
Research Institute (Palo Alto, Calif.). The report further predicts that
electricity use will reach 30 billion kWh by 2050.
At the same time, water utilities
are recognizing the benefits of water reclamation for reuse, wherein
larger-scale projects are more cost-effective than smaller ones.
One solution to reducing energy
consumption while simultaneously gaining reclaimed-water resources is to take
the treatment processes back to the drawing board. By examining the energy
needs and sources within different treatment schemes, utilities can move closer
to energy independence even when producing high-quality reverse-osmosis product
water. Read full article (login required)
Operations Forum Features
What to do when the bubble has burst
A Georgia water utility has to respond quickly to historic personnel loss
Kendall M. Jacob
In 2010, the Cobb County (Ga.)
Water System (CCWS) lost 8% of its work force, representing 38% of total
employee tenure.
From a local standpoint, a few key
factors were at play and led to this exodus. First, there was the inordinately
large number of personnel eligible for retirement. Second, Cobb County found
itself deeply affected by the 2008–2009 recession. Third, the CCWS budget also
was negatively affected by lost revenue from declining residential water use,
which began its decline in 2001 due in part to the advent of high-efficiency
plumbing fixtures and CCWS customer water conservation education programs. This
was followed by mandated extreme conservation measures that were the result of
a multiyear statewide drought and long-simmering contention with two
neighboring states about water rights.
Responding to both local and
national impacts, CCWS developed several countermeasures that were varied but
interconnected. Read full article (login required)
Michigan stormwater
utility woes not over
The City of Jackson, Mich., created a stormwater utility
using court guidelines and awaits results of lawsuits to see how well it did
Vic Cooperwasser and Jon Dowling
The
creation of new stormwater utilities in Michigan came to a halt in 1998 when
the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that the Lansing, Mich., stormwater utility
did not meet the three-part test for establishing a valid user fee. The City of
Jackson is the first community in Michigan to implement a new stormwater
utility since the legal challenge to Lansing. Jackson’s stormwater utility was
designed in 2011 to comply with the guidance given in that court opinion. Read full article (login required)
Motors matter
When it comes to motors for pumps, one size definitely does
not fit all
Tim Albers
When selecting a motor for a water or wastewater
application, it’s not as simple as saying, “A big pump needs a big motor.” In
fact, many factors should be considered when choosing a pump motor. And the
work doesn’t end with the decision: Proper maintenance and the age-old debate
of “repair versus replace” also are important factors. Read full article (login required)