Saving U.S. water and sewer systems would be costly
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 15, 2010 at 6:56 amFrom the New York Times:
“One recent morning, George S. Hawkins, a long-haired environmentalist who now leads one of the largest and most prominent water and sewer systems, trudged to a street corner here where water was gushing into the air.
A cold snap had ruptured a major pipe installed the same year the light bulb was invented. Homes near the fashionable Dupont Circle neighborhood were quickly going dry, and Mr. Hawkins, who had recently taken over the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority despite having no experience running a major utility, was responsible for fixing the problem.
As city employees searched for underground valves, a growing crowd started asking angry questions. Pipes were breaking across town, and fire hydrants weren’t working, they complained. Why couldn’t the city deliver water, one man yelled at Mr. Hawkins.
Such questions are becoming common across the nation as water and sewer systems break down. Today, a significant water line bursts on average every two minutes somewhere in the country, according to a New York Times analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data. … “
Continue reading this article from the New York Times by clicking here.
No mere pipe dream: UCI engineers are working on robotic technology to rehabilitate the nation’s aging water infrastructure
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 9, 2010 at 8:02 am
From PhysOrg:
“The growing U.S. infrastructure crisis involves more than crumbling roads and bridges. Underground and out of sight looms a worsening problem every bit as critical.
Thousands of miles of aging water pipes are breaking down. Each day, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers — which periodically grades the country’s infrastructure — 6 billion gallons of clean, treated drinking water disappears, mostly due to old, leaky pipes and mains. That’s enough water to supply California for a year, according to Maria Feng, civil & environmental engineering professor at UC Irvine.
“This is a nationwide emergency,” she says. “Some pipelines are nearly 100 years old, and the problem is very serious, especially in urban areas, where it’s difficult to access leaking and burst pipes.”
A UCI engineering research team led by Feng is working with two companies to build a prototype robot that could repair and retrofit aging water pipes by applying a tough reinforcement material around their interiors – eliminating the need for costly excavation or replacement. … “
Read more from PhysOrg by clicking here.
Utility infrastructure: Addressing the aging electric and water systems
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 5, 2010 at 7:49 amFrom NASDAQ:
“While the U.S. population in general continues to be enamored by the constant stream of new technology “toys” being offered on a daily basis, they pay little attention to the technology that powers the gadgets—the nation’s electric grid.
And while they spend untold millions of dollars a year on bottled water to drink—which, science is now showing, is often no safer than tap water and thousands of times more expensive, not to mention the ecological disaster of the discarded plastic bottles—they pay little attention to the water that comes into their homes for cooking, showering, and washing clothes and dishes.
In sum, people take the electric grid and the water infrastructure for granted. There is a serious problem with this thinking. These infrastructures were designed for lives of 40 to 50 years, but are both now 100 years old in certain parts of the country. The electric grid is collapsing over our heads, and the water infrastructure is disintegrating below our feet. … “
Read more from NASDAQ by clicking here.
Smart water meters struggle for foothold
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 16, 2010 at 8:03 amFrom the New York Times:
“With many states projecting that they’ll face water shortages in the coming years, smart water meters that provide real-time data on water use can help conserve dwindling supplies.
Traditionally, consumers receive monthly or quarterly water bills, long after the resource has disappeared down the drain. If a smart meter could give real-time information on water use through an in-home video display, the hope is that consumers will curb their consumption when they see, for example, just how many gallons that long shower squanders.
Water districts, on the other hand, can tap such information to detect leaks and other problems and quickly make repairs.
And yet, 64 percent of 300 water districts surveyed in Canada and the United States have no plans to roll out a smart meter program, according to a study by Oracle, the business software company. … “
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
McCarthy: Fighting for critical infrastructure in our small and rural communities
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 7, 2010 at 8:10 am
From the Office of Congressman Kevin McCarthy:
“RIDGECREST, CA – Today, Congressman McCarthy unveiled the Small and Rural Communities Wastewater Infrastructure Act (H.R. 4352) to help address the challenges our small and rural communities are facing. This legislation is designed to help ensure small and rural communities have access to financial resources for critical infrastructure projects.
Congressman Kevin McCarthy (CA-22) issued the following statement:
“These common-sense reforms are designed to help ensure our small and rural communities have the critical infrastructure needed to grow and prosper. I disagree with those in Washington who believe we should only focus on large cities to help grow our way out of our economic challenges. I believe we also need to help ensure America’s hardworking small and rural towns have the resources they need to continue to support our nation’s jobs and families. Our small towns are growing our nation’s crops, producing our nation’s energy, providing for our nation’s defense, and creating new jobs.” … “
Continue reading at Congressman Kevin McCarthy’s website by clicking here.
Robot corps to repair nation’s water mains
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 21, 2009 at 5:38 amFrom Clean Technica:
“With over two million miles of aging water mains to maintain, the U.S. is on the brink of a water supply precipice. A modest project seeded with just a few thousand dollars could go a long way to resolving the crisis, by developing robotic water main repair devices that can work much faster than human crews.
The real kicker is the ability of small robotic devices to reach inside small pipes as well as the larger human-sized water mains. Water supply robots are already in use for inspection purposes. It’s a more sustainable approach that would practically eliminate the need to excavate thousands of miles of water mains for repair or replacement. In turn, that would make a significant dent in carbon emissions from earth-moving machines and other utility streetwork. … “
Read more from Clean Technica by clicking here.
Now is exactly the time for government spending in California, says commentary
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 19, 2009 at 4:01 pmFrom Inside the Bay Area, this guest commentary by Oakland resident John Gliss:
“Despite the insistence to the contrary of conservative pundits, now is precisely the time to increase government spending.
Aggressive investment in California’s infrastructure during a down economy stimulates the economy, creates jobs, fosters optimism and, most importantly, provides for much more infrastructure per dollar as work-hungry contractors are bidding significantly lower prices.
In the 1950s and ’60s, Californians spent about 20 percent of the state budget on capital projects including highways, canals, water treatment plants, dams, parks, and University of California and California State University campuses.
Today, infrastructure spending is less than 2 percent of the state budget. In 2006, the American Society of Engineers developed an Infrastructure Report Card for California, and awarded our crumbling infrastructure an average grade of “C-minus.”
Not only does well-designed, well-constructed and well-maintained infrastructure improve our quality of life, but it is essential to our economic competitiveness. Maritime ports, airports, rail and highway systems are critical for fast and efficient goods movement and state-of-the-art universities attract the best and the brightest to our state. … “
Read more of this commentary by clicking here.
Water woes a product of inadequate funding for infrastructure upgrades
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 9, 2009 at 8:27 amFrom Food & Water Watch:
“Washington, D.C.—“Today’s New York Times article on violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act underscores the profound challenges facing municipalities around the country in delivering safe, clean water to residents. Yet, it should not be taken as a reason to condemn the public ownership of local water systems, nor should it erode public faith in government’s ability to safeguard this essential resource. If anything, it highlights a need for government to be more responsive to the water crisis facing many municipalities across the country.
“It comes as little surprise that much of the data cited in the article came from a time when our nation’s water systems were under the so-called protection of the Bush administration, which maintained a notoriously poor track record for upholding public health standards. Eighty-two percent of the violations mentioned in the article were in systems that serve fewer than 3,300 people. Fining communities that fail to meet clean water standards is no way of making sure that water quality issues are addressed, or that standards of quality are reached. In fact, doing so would only worsen the financial capacity of small towns to improve their water systems. … “
Read more from the Food & Water Watch by clicking here.
Recipe for 700,000 new, green American jobs? Just add water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 15, 2009 at 8:24 amFrom the National Hydropower Association:
“The U.S. hydropower industry is ready to lead the country in the creation of 700,000 family-supporting jobs by 2025 as it helps steer the United States toward energy security and a clean, renewable energy future.
Hydropower can add 60,000MW of clean, renewable energy to the nation’s electric grid by 2025. That’s enough to serve 17 million households – the equivalent of all the homes in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago combined.
The findings prompted Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell to call on policymakers to support development of hydropower, America’s largest renewable energy resource. “It’s time to invest in renewable energy resources that generate electricity in this country and that provide jobs for Americans. Hydropower presents elected officials across the country an opportunity to bring thousands of long-term, family-wage jobs to our states.”
Voith Hydro CEO Mark Garner agreed. “This study confirms what our experience at Voith Hydro has already shown – investments in hydropower lead directly to good-paying, long-lasting American jobs. We have seen 27 percent growth in permanent employees in the past two years, and as the hydropower industry continues to grow, we have a huge potential to create additional clean, family-wage jobs across the United States.” …”
Read more of this press release by clicking here.
California waterloo – Tide of debt may shift from General Fund to water users
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 6, 2009 at 7:03 amFrom IndyBay.org, this commentary by Patrick Porgans, Solutionist, of Porgans & Associates, Inc.:
“On October 1, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer released the 2009 Debt Affordability Report. The report finds that, “further increasing the General Fund’s debt burden, especially in the next three difficult budgets, would require cutting even deeper into crucial services already reeling from billions of dollars in reductions.” The Treasurer therefore found that water infrastructure should be paid for by users, not the General Fund.
Have “we the people” been laboring under a misapprehension or can it be that someone in political office has finally come to his senses. For almost a decade Porgans & Associates (P&A) have voiced concerns about the rising General Fund debt being incurred by Californians to bailout State Water Project (SWP) and other water users. P&A diligently reminded Californians and the “leadership” of the fact that the SWP was sold on the premise that it would pay-for-itself; the beneficiaries, water and power users would pay.
Furthermore, the SWP was also promoted on the premise it would unify the State. The record shows it has done neither. Conversely, the SWP is at the core of the Delta Collapse and the State’s never-ending water wars.
Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s recent epiphany that water infrastructure should be paid by users is a far-flung cry from his support and position on General Fund/General Obligation Bond funding for water users when he was Senate Pro Tem, back in the 1990s. It was at that time, Proposition 204, the first of a series of General Obligation Bonds, ultimately totaling more than $18 billion were launched. Repayment of GO Bonds comes out of the General Fund. …”
Read more from IndyBay.org by clicking here.
Dollars and sense: How we pay for water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 5, 2009 at 6:46 am
The Water Education Foundation’s latest issue of Western Water examines financing of water infrastructure, both at the local level and from the statewide perspective, and some of the factors that influence how people receive their water, the price they pay for it and how much they might have to pay in the future:
“It’s no secret that providing water in a state with the size and climate of California costs money. The gamut of water-related infrastructure – from reservoirs like Lake Oroville to the pumps and pipes that deliver water to homes, businesses and farms – incurs initial and ongoing expenses. Throw in a new spate of possible mega-projects, such as those designed to rescue the ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and the dollar amount grows exponentially to billion-dollar amounts that rival the entire gross national product of a small country.
Who pays for this? Everyone does, individually and collectively. From the urban centers to the most remote farmlands, water comes at a cost, and as long as people have needed access to a clean, reliable source of water, there has been virtually no hurdle too large to ensure the viability of cities and farms, no matter how dry the climate. The reliability of water causes people to think it will always be there, like the air we breathe.
“We are spoiled,” said University of Arizona law Professor Robert Glennon, author of the book, Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What to Do About It, in an interview with Arizona radio station KJZZ July 15. “We get up in the morning and turn on the tap and there is a limitless supply of fresh water for less than we pay for cell phone service or cable television.”
Today, the question of who pays for water is much more complex than years past. Several factors affect the price, starting with the basics of what it takes to bring water from its source to the tap. In some areas the distance is minimal; in others water travels hundreds of miles through a vast network. Many people receive their water at a metered rate, with some paying significantly more if their water use goes beyond designated levels. Others pay a flat fee no matter how much they use. Ultimately, Glennon said, water itself is as free as the air we breathe.
“The reality now is we pay zero for water,” he said. “What we pay for is the delivery and treatment. There is no cost for the commodity itself.” …”
Continue reading this excerpt at the Water Education Foundation website by clicking here.
Friday’s top of the scroll: Old American dams quietly become a multibillion-dollar threat
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 28, 2009 at 8:32 am
From Wired Science:
“Last week, a Siberian hydroelectric dam failed when an explosion rocked the site’s turbine room, killing dozens and taking 6,000 megawatts of electricity offline.
While the tragedy’s ultimate causes are unclear, Russian media has been questioning the state of the aging Soviet-made infrastructure. Dams are getting older in the United States, too. The average age of America’s 80,000 dams is 51 years. More than 2,000 dams near population centers are in need of repair, according to statistics released this month by the Association of State Dam Safety Officials.
Last year, 140 dams were fixed, but inspectors discovered 368 more that need help. That’s why the American Society of Civil Engineers gave our dams a grade of “D” in its 2009 report on the nation’s infrastructure. There are just too many aging dams and too few safety inspectors.
“With the huge number of dams getting older every day, it’s becoming a bigger and bigger problem,” said Larry Roth, deputy executive director of the ASCE. “The policing of maintenance and filing of inspection records is relatively haphazard, not because of lack of focus or knowledge of significance, but they just don’t have the monetary resources to do it.”
The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimate that $16 billion would be needed to fix all high-hazard dams. The total for all state dam-safety budgets is less than $60 million. The current maintenance budget doesn’t match the scale of America’s long-term modifications of its watersheds. …”
Read more from Wired Science by clicking here.
Community Commentary: Flushing maintains quality in water system
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 22, 2009 at 9:22 amFrom the Glendale News Press, this commentary by Vasken Yardemian, president of the Crescenta Valley Water District Board of Directors:
“Regarding the Aug. 21 letter by Bruce Gibson, “Water district not exactly conserving,” he wrote that he observed Crescenta Valley Water District servicemen flushing the water main at a fire hydrant near his home.
Your first thought may be that we are ignoring our own philosophy of conserving water. However, it is necessary to flush water mains in the system, particularly ones that are not “looped” or connected in such a way that water continually flows through these pipes.
Although it may appear to waste water, fire hydrants flushing is a routine preventive maintenance program required to remove sediments that may have accumulated inside the distribution system. This is one of the methods used by the water districts to maintain a high water quality throughout the distribution system. …”
Read more from the Glendale News Press by clicking here.
UCI engineers watch over the water system; New sensors are designed to monitor pipes after earthquakes and other disasters
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 20, 2009 at 8:13 am
From U.C. Irvine:
“After a big earthquake, it’s key to keep the water system afloat. Water is necessary for life, and it fights the fires that often accompany such disasters.
UC Irvine engineers plan to outfit the local water system with sensors that will alert officials when and where pipes crack or break, hastening repair – thanks to nearly $5.7 million over three years from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and several local water groups.
“When an earthquake occurs and infrastructure systems fail, continued service of the water network is most critical,” said Masanobu Shinozuka, lead project investigator and civil & environmental engineering chair. “Before anything happens, I’d like to have a pipe monitoring system in place to let us know when and where damage occurs. It could minimize misery and save lives.” …”
Read more from U. C. Irvine by clicking here. Hat tip to the Sisweb!
Pay for it if you drink it, says editorial: Users should pay, but management benefits us all
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 17, 2009 at 8:36 amFrom Stockton’s Record, this editorial:
“The state is pushing forward with studies and on-the-ground surveys that indicate – or at least give the impression – that a peripheral canal is in our future.
The question is how to pay for such a canal or, for that matter, any other project to protect the estuary. The state is broke. We’ve passed bond after bond that must be paid back with ever increasing amounts of money from the state general fund. And the federal government is an unreliable tooth fairy at best.
But there is a way to get the money, a new study by the Public Policy Institute of California says. In a nutshell: He who benefits pays.
You want Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water Southern California, buy it. By the thimble full. Same with you folks in the Bay Area and you farmers in the parched southern San Joaquin Valley. …”
Read more of this editorial from the Record by clicking here.
Water management in California: Are our state’s communities sustainable?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 4, 2009 at 8:29 amFrom YubaNet.com:
“”If we don’t change the direction we’re going, we’ll end up where we’re headed.” For anyone concerned about sustainability in California, this axiom holds significant meaning for our state’s economic, environmental, and social future.
Recently, a group of civil engineers came together in Sacramento with statewide community leaders, water experts, flood protection managers, elected officials, regulators and environmental advocates to discuss and debate the issue of how to balance competing needs for California’s most valuable resource: water.
Organized by the Environmental & Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers (EWRI/ASCE), the ASCE Committee on Sustainability, and the Floodplain Management Association, the symposium served as a forum for exploring the potential for sustainability in California’s communities and ecosystems.
“We want new ideas as a first step toward change,” EWRI Vice Chair Robert Shibatani challenged those present. “With these, we will be preparing a white paper to put on the Governor’s desk.” Offering up the first comment on challenges to sustainability, Shibatani suggested that California is not devoting enough attention to population growth, especially over the next 50 years. …”
Read more from YubaNet.com by clicking here.
USC faculty, experts discuss infrastructure strategies
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 4, 2009 at 7:48 amFrom USC News:
“More than 160 leading experts – ranging from USC faculty to government officials and business executives – gathered at the Davidson Conference Center to address pressing infrastructure challenges facing the Southwest Megaregion, which encompasses Southern California as well as portions of Nevada and Northern Baja, Mexico.
The event, held on June 19, was part of an America 2050 forum sponsored by the Regional Plan Association, the USC Bedrosian Center on Governance and the Public Enterprise, and the USC Keston Institute for Infrastructure and Public Finance.
America 2050 is a national initiative focused on developing an investment strategy that will support sustainable growth and keep America competitive in the 21st century.
According to America 2050 director Petra Todorovich, the initiative was launched in response to key challenges facing the country, which include infrastructure shortages, over-dependence on foreign oil, a need to reduce carbon dioxide discharges, an expected population growth of 40 percent by 2050 and changing land use habits. …”
Read more from USC News by clicking here.
Aspen Institute dialogue identifies a sustainable path toward improving nation’s water infrastructure
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 31, 2009 at 8:40 amFrom the Aspen Institute, this press release:
A milestone report published by the Aspen Institute’s Energy and Environment Program outlines how this country’s aging and ailing water infrastructure can be restored and managed in a way that is economically sustainable, that protects the nation’s natural watershed, and that will meet the challenges associated with climate change, such as droughts, heavy storms, and flooding events.
The report, Sustainable Water Systems: Step One – Redefining the Nation’s Infrastructure Challenge, published in early July 2009, is a result of the year-long Aspen Institute Dialogue on Sustainable Water Infrastructure in the United States, which examined the challenges that America’s drinking water and wastewater systems are now facing in maintaining and replacing their pipes, treatment plants, and other critical infrastructure in the context of a changing climate. By offering ten policy recommendations, three key principles of sustainable water infrastructure, and 20 guiding elements of water management, the report creates a sustainable path forward for the nation in delivering clean and safe drinking water for American communities while protecting the environment and the nation’s natural watershed.
Aspen Institute report: A bold new idea could change how we manage water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 31, 2009 at 8:35 amFrom Nancy Stoner at the NRDC Switchboard blog:
“This week the Aspen Institute released a groundbreaking report that should help transform the way America looks at our water system.
When most people hear the term “water infrastructure,” they tend to think of pipes, drains, and maybe a water main or two. But thanks to this new report, additional images may soon leap to mind: the wetlands, grassy plains, and other natural systems that are now being recognized as the most cost-effective way to recycle and filter our water.
This is a bold new idea, and that was the goal of the Aspen Institute’s Dialogue on Sustainable Water Infrastructure–to look at the big picture, long-term needs of our water resources and envision new ways of managing them.
I was fortunate to be a member of the dialogue, along with about 25 other people from various sewer authorities, private water companies, and other environmental groups. We gathered for four workshops and had the chance to rethink traditional approaches to water. …”
Read more of Nancy’s post at the NRDC Switchboard blog by clicking here.
Proposed solutions to improving infrastructure
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 22, 2009 at 7:30 amFrom ThomasNet’s Industrial Newsroom:
While much of the government’s $787 billion stimulus package is allocated to infrastructure projects and transportation, more is needed for U.S. networks – and not only in terms of funding.
Many systems of the United States infrastructure network require rebuilding and reinvention. The influx of funding provided by the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), which sets aside more than $132 billion for a wide range of infrastructure projects, is a good start.
Yet the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimates the cost of improving the nation’s infrastructure to acceptable levels is $2.2 trillion over five years. Clearly more is needed — and not only in terms of funding — to adequately address these problems.
A new report from Ernst & Young and the Urban Land Institute warns that short-term stimulus funding for various road, transit, rail and water projects is no substitute for a coordinated, long-range U.S effort to “maintain national prosperity in a rapidly evolving and more competitive global marketplace.”
Read more from ThomasNet’s Industrial Newsroom by clicking here.
AWWA To Congress: Water infrastructure bank concept holds water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 17, 2009 at 7:10 amFrom Water Online:
The American Water Works Association (AWWA) recently urged members of Congress to create a federal water infrastructure bank to help America invest in its aging water systems.
In testimony before the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, Chips Barry, a former member of AWWA’s Water Utility Council and current manager of Denver Water, told the committee that the United States is best served by water systems that sustain themselves through consumer rates and other local financing. However, the federal government can help by providing access to low-interest loans.
“The federal water infrastructure bank would provide direct low interest financing or loan guarantees for projects of regional or national significance, or which were simply too large for the state to accommodate,” Barry said in delivering AWWA’s testimony.
Read more from Water Online by clicking here.
Funds awarded for water infrastructure projects
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 10, 2009 at 6:26 amFrom the Kern Valley Sun:
In a move that stands to create jobs, boost local economies, improve aging water and wastewater infrastructure and protect human health and the environment for the people in the State of California, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $440 million to California. This new infusion of money provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will help the state and local governments finance many of the overdue improvements to water projects that are essential to protecting public health and the environment across the state.
“This remarkable opportunity to provide much-needed support for sustainable water and energy-efficient drinking water and wastewater systems throughout the U.S. is unprecedented,” said Laura Yoshii, acting Regional Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Pacific Southwest. “This funding will allow California to identify its highest infrastructure priorities, protect human health and surface water quality, address climate change, and create critical green jobs as a foundation for a sustainable future.”
Read more from the Kern Valley Sun by clicking here.
Structural aluminum roof for water reservoir in California
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 1, 2009 at 6:31 amFrom Water & Wastewater.com:
A common problem facing cities across the U.S. in the first part of the 21st century is the deterioration of water and wastewater infrastructure. Specifically, potable and non-potable water tanks all over the country are in dire need of rehabilitation. In 2007, the City of San Diego along with consulting engineering firm, Simon Wong Engineering, concluded that the existing concrete roof on the Rancho Bernardo Reservoir was in need of replacement.
Temcor was subcontracted to design, fabricate and erect a maintenance-free aluminum roof cover. The massive aluminum roof, 250′ x 320′, covering nearly two acres, is supported by 72 stainless steel columns (provided by Temcor). The roof stands at a mere 6ft from the top of tank to the top of the roof ridge. A permanent non-glare (sandblast) finish was also incorporated into the aesthetic aspect of the design. The cover fits in well within the surrounding environment.
More from Water & Wastewater.com by clicking here.
Ground broken on state’s largest ultraviolet water plant
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 15, 2009 at 7:57 amFrom Stockton’s Record:
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom climbed onto the rubber-tired backhoe and fiddled with the levers. Before the machine roared to life, he turned to San Joaquin County Supervisor Leroy Ornellas and said: “For the record, supervisor, I have OSHA-approved hair. My old hard hat is right here,” pointing to his famously-slicked mane.
And with that bit of self-deprecating humor, Newsom turned earth on a $112 million water treatment plant which – combined with a larger-scale upgrade of San Francisco’s water supply infrastructure – will create an estimated 2,300 construction jobs in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties.
A liberal, big-city mayor and would-be governor might have little in common with a right-of-center county supervisor and dairyman, but for one day at least Newsom and Ornellas were allies. They sat arm-to-arm during Thursday’s groundbreaking ceremony on golden fields south of Tracy, and, when it was over, shared a laugh or two.
“We’re buds now,” Ornellas said with a smile, linking two fingers. “We’re like this.”
Many people don’t realize that San Francisco’s waterworks run through the southwestern portion of the county, part of a complicated linkage of canals and tunnels bringing Sierra Nevada water to the Bay Area.
The treatment plant – the largest in the state to use advanced ultraviolet technology – will clean that water before it flows to the taps of 2.4 million people.
Read more from The Record by clicking here.
U.S. water infrastructure needs seen as urgent
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 10, 2009 at 7:19 amFrom Reuters News:
The crumbling U.S. infrastructure is routinely in plain sight, from potholes strewn across interstate highways built during the Eisenhower administration to rusting Depression-era bridges connecting those old highways. At its most extreme, neglect can turn catastrophic: Experts had long expressed concern that New Orleans’ aging levees could fail in the face of a major hurricane and they did dramatically in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
By contrast, the condition of the nation’s water infrastructure is often hidden from view. Drinking water and efficient sewage disposal is taken for granted along with the safety of the buried pipes, but was much on the minds of several guests at this week’s Reuters Infrastructure Summit.
Out of sight, water infrastructure remained largely out of mind for U.S. policymakers in the federal economic stimulus effort. The $787 billion program allotted less than $10 billion for drinking and wastewater projects. State and local officials will not turn the cash away but they say much more is needed to fix and add capacity to the nation’s water systems.
“It’s something that concerns me, because we pay so much attention to things we see and this is something we don’t see — until it’s too late,” Maryland State Treasurer Nancy Kopp told Reuters in a recent interview. “In Maryland and other eastern states there have been repeated episodes in which pipes carrying clean water or sewage have collapsed,” Kopp said. “Over the next 20 or 30 years, water systems are likely to hit obsolescence.”
Read more from Reuters News by clicking here.
Aging of water mains is becoming hard to ignore
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 19, 2009 at 6:32 amFrom the New York Times:
It has been 2,000 years since the Romans built their aqueducts, and 200 years since Philadelphia began using cast-iron water mains. But the 6-inch-wide city pipe that still delivers drinking water to a block on Nixon Street here uses an even more primitive technology: wood. Its wooden planks are lashed together with a coil of metal as if each section of pipe were a long, narrow barrel. And while the small stretch beneath the ground here may seem more Swiss Family Robinson than 21st century, it is not unique to Chelan.
Water officials say they believe that a handful of wooden water mains are still in use in South Dakota, Alaska and Pennsylvania, among other places. The old wood pipes offer a vivid reminder of the age and fragility of the nation’s drinking water systems, many of which rely heavily on old pipes that often remain out of sight and mind — until they burst.
And they are bursting with alarming frequency in many areas these days, particularly in systems coping with septuagenarian, octogenarian, and even century-old pipes. There are an estimated 240,000 water main breaks each year in the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Aging Water Infrastructure Research Program, and some water experts fear that the problem is getting worse.
“We believe that the number of breaks is increasing,” said D. Wayne Klotz, the president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He warned that the breaks not only waste millions of gallons of clean, treated drinking water, but also can cause tremendous damage, pointing to a major break in Maryland just before Christmas that stranded motorists on a flooded road. “When most people think of a leak, they think of a drip in their sink,” Mr. Klotz said. “These are not like that. They were rescuing people by helicopter!”
Read more from the New York Times by clicking here.
Secretary Salazar announces $260 million in economic recovery investments to help California address long-term water supply challenges and devastating drought conditions
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 18, 2009 at 9:05 amSorry, don’t know why I didn’t catch this before, but here is the press release from the Department of the Interior on the stimulus money for California water infrastructure:
SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, at a press conference with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and California congressional leaders, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the Department of the Interior will invest $1 billion under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) in America’s water infrastructure to create jobs and get the economy moving again. Overall, the Department of the Interior will manage $3 billion in investments as part of the recovery plan signed by the President to jumpstart our economy, create or save jobs, and put a down payment on addressing long-neglected challenges so our country can thrive in the 21st Century.
Of the $1 billion that Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation is investing in water projects across the country, $260 million will go to projects in California that will expand water supplies, repair aging water infrastructure, and mitigate the effects of a devastating drought the state is currently experiencing. An additional $135 million is available for grants for water reuse and recycling projects; California is emerging as a leader in the development of these projects and is expected to also significantly benefit from this funding.
“In the midst of one of the deepest economic crises in our history, Californians have been saddled with a drought that is putting tens of thousands of people out of work and devastating entire communities,” said Secretary Salazar. “President Obama’s economic recovery plan will not only create jobs on basic water infrastructure projects, but it will help address both the short- and long-term water supply challenges the Golden State is facing. From boosting water supplies and improving conservation to improving safety at our dams, these shovel-ready projects will make a real and immediate difference in the lives of farmers, businesses, Native American Tribes and communities across California.”
Secretary Salazar, who earlier in the day toured the Sacramento Delta with Governor Schwarzenegger, announced that more than 30 Bureau of Reclamation water infrastructure projects will be funded in California under the ARRA, including:
* $40 million for immediate emergency drought relief in the West, focused on California. These investments will allow for the installation of groundwater wells to boost water supplies to agricultural and urban contractors, the facilitation of the delivery of Federal water to Reclamation contractors through water transfers and exchanges, and the installation of rock barriers in the Sacramento Delta to meet water quality standards during low flows;
* $109.8 million to build a screened pumping plant at the Red Bluff Diversion Dam to protect fish populations while delivering water to agricultural users irrigating approximately 150,000 acres;
* $22.3 million to address dam safety concerns at the Folsom Dam near Sacramento, which is currently among the highest risk dams in the country for public safety;
* $8.5 million to repair water-related infrastructure at Folsom Dam;
* $20 million for the Contra Costa Canal to protect water supplies for 500,000 Californians and to build fish screens to restore winter-run Chinook salmon and the endangered Delta smelt;
* $4.5 million to restore the Trinity River and honor the Federal government’s responsibility to the Native American Tribes;
* $26 million for Battle Creek Salmon/Steelhead Restoration project, which will help restore fisheries that support thousands of jobs in northern California.
* $4 million to the Bay Delta Conservation Plan for conveyance systems to move Central Valley Project and State Water Project water, habitat restoration and adaptive management;
* $4 million to broaden scientific knowledge of Klamath River sedimentation for future management decision-making;
* $20.7 million in smaller water infrastructure and related projects across California.With an array of projects identified by stakeholders as critical, the Bureau of Reclamation worked through a rigorous merit-based process to identify investments that met the criteria put forth in the Recovery Act: namely, that the project addresses the Department’s highest priority mission needs; generates the largest number of jobs in the shortest period of time; and creates lasting value for the American public.
The $1 billion announced by Secretary Salazar today will go to programs including:
* Meeting Future Water Supply Needs (including Title XVI water recycling projects and rural water projects) – $450 million
* Improving Infrastructure Reliability and Safety – $165 million
* Environmental and Ecosystem Restoration – $235 million
* Water Conservation Initiative (Challenge Grants) – $40 million
* Green Buildings – $14 million
* Delivering water from the Colorado River to users in central Utah under the Central Utah Project Completion Act – $50 million
* Emergency drought relief in the West, primarily in California – $40“President Obama and this Department have ambitious goals to build America’s new energy future, to protect and restore our treasured landscapes, to create a 21st Century Youth Conservation Corps,” added Salazar. “These Bureau of Reclamation projects will help us fulfill these goals while helping American families and their communities prosper again.”
Secretary Salazar has pledged unprecedented levels of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the Department of the Interior’s economic recovery projects. The public will be able to follow the progress of each project on www.recovery.gov and on www.interior.gov/recovery. Secretary Salazar has appointed a Senior Advisor for Economic Recovery, Chris Henderson, and an Interior Economic Recovery Task Force. Henderson and the Task Force will work closely with the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General to ensure that the recovery program is meeting the high standards for accountability, responsibility, and transparency that President Obama has set.
The dam infrastructure problem: New report says over 1,800 dams pose significant risk to human life. Fixing them will cost billions, but can we afford this in addition to roads, bridges and other projects?
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 9, 2009 at 7:12 amFrom CNN Money:
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Kentucky’s Wolf Creek dam has been a hazard for years. Some 150 miles northwest of Nashville, the 270-foot high, 1950s era dam on the Cumberland River has been leaking for decades. The problem seems to have gotten worse in recent years. The dam poses such a threat that in 2008 counties down river installed emergency evacuation horns.
Although the Army Corps of Engineers is working aggressively to fix the problem and says the dam should be stable in seven years, the consequences of a breach are huge. The pent-up water in Cumberland Lake would spread over over 200 miles – flooding Nashville. The Corps estimates over 100 lives could be lost, and cause over $3 billion in property damage.
It’s against this backdrop that the American Society of Civil Engineers recently said over 1,800 dams nationwide are deficient, and their failure could result in loss of life. That’s almost a five-fold increase from 2001.
“There’s a huge gap between what we’ve been able to repair and what we need to repair,” said Brad Larossi, a dam safety manager who helped author the engineer society’s report. “And the number has been growing dramatically.”
Read more from CNN Money by clicking here.
Bay Area sewer, water projects to get federal stimulus funding
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 20, 2009 at 6:13 amFrom the San Jose Mercury News:
Cities with badly outdated sewer and water infrastructure saw a ray of hope in February when it became clear that federal stimulus funding for “shovel-ready” projects would include the sort of crucial water-based repairs that the public rarely thinks about and is reluctant to pay for.
Cities, wastewater agencies and special districts around the Bay Area rushed to pre-apply for federal grant funds that may become available to expand wastewater plants, implement water recycling programs, and replace old and leaky water mains, according to Ken August, spokesman for the California Department of Public Health, which will distribute some of the federal money.
Much of that hope may be in vain as his staff wades through more funding requests than it can ever possibly meet.
The department has already received 2,274 project proposals with a total value of $6.8 billion, but California can only expect to receive $168 million from the federal stimulus signed this month by President Barack Obama.
Read more from the San Jose Mercury News by clicking here.
Infrastructure: Water in the west
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 19, 2009 at 8:11 amFrom Reuters News, this video:
Pat Fitzgibbons hosts a discussion of the drought in the Western U.S. with Reuters Los Angeles Bureau Chief Mary Milliken and Jonas Minton, Water Policy advisor of the Planning and Conservation League in Sacramento.
Enjoy!
In hard times, money for water: Funding is tougher, trickier, and leaner, but ultimately available
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 18, 2009 at 11:05 pmFrom the Water Efficiency Journal:
Just when water agencies were getting used to rainfall droughts, comes a financial one. In the wake of the housing market collapse, towns and cities have seen revenues plummet for over a year. A recent survey by the National League of Cities found that falling property and other tax revenues were impacting nearly 80% of the communities polled, and shortfalls were anticipated to continue at least two more years. Many state governments are now also running in the red or facing deficits. Departments and agencies must wrangle over what dwindling income remains. The federal deficit continues to explode beyond control.
Water agencies—which in sunnier times have enjoyed relatively easy access to funding—also are finding that times have changed. As a fact sheet from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MoDNR) put it to its state water agencies in mid-2008: “The days of 100% construction grants are long gone, and the reality is that all communities will have to borrow money for water and wastewater infrastructure at some point.”
Borrowing for water projects has long been routine in most places, of course, but here too, the late-2008 capital crisis applied unprecedented pressure on bond markets, adversely impacting interest rates and affordability.
Taking stock of this drastically altered funding landscape, the same MoDNR fact sheet noted that water agencies (even during a relatively easier bond market) have sometimes unwisely balked at drawing upon subsidized state-revolving funds to pay for projects, protesting the many attached strings (e.g., meeting state wage rates). Impatient with such requirements, agencies are thus tempted to explore independent financing and, in an almost eerie parallel to bad subprime mortgage deals, have sometimes been lured into debt financing, such as lease-purchase arrangements or issuing their own bonds. As the fact sheet cautioned, these have sometimes resulted in doubling, and even tripling, a project’s total cost.
Read more from the Water Efficiency Journal by clicking here.
Another tool in the water main repair tool box
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 18, 2009 at 11:03 pmFrom the Water Efficiency Journal:
When it comes to repairing aging water mains, municipalities are always on the lookout for cost-effective and less-intrusive technologies. Every repair made means more of the community’s water is making its way from the plant to the user. But every repair has a price tag.
The EPA estimates that in the last 20 years, communities across the US spent over $1 trillion to repair drinking water treatment and distribution structures and wastewater treatment and disposal systems. But with a growing population, continually aging water and wastewater infrastructure, and increasingly limited funds, it is estimated that by 2020 there will be shortfall in funding that could reach $500 billion.
With EPA’s data supporting it, and communities relying on their own experience, new technologies for improving water delivery are growing in number. But each technology must be evaluated for its effectiveness and applicability, and just how it will work in the water main repair toolbox. One Denver, CO, suburb tested a new solution and was pleased with the outcome.
Read more from the Water Efficiency Journal by clicking here.
Numbers: Dams, from Hoover to Three Gorges to the crumbling ones
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 9, 2009 at 6:06 amFrom Discover Magazine:
845,000 Number of dams in the world. The United States has 80,000, with a total storage capacity of 48 trillion cubic feet of water. Hoover Dam, straddling the Nevada-Arizona border at Lake Mead, is the country’s largest, storing 1.2 billion cubic feet.
49 Number of dam failures in the United States between 2000 and 2007. Overtopping due to poor design accounts for 34 percent of all failures. Some 85 percent of all large dams will have passed their projected life spans by 2020. The Association of State Dam Safety Officials estimates that it would cost $10.1 billion to repair the dams most in need of rehabilitation.
Click here to read the rest of this article from Discover Magazine by clicking here.
Plumbing the planet: The 5 biggest projects taking on the world’s water supply
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 5, 2009 at 8:02 amFrom Popular Mechanics:
The dire statistics are well-known, but deserve repeating: One in six people in the world live without regular access to clean water, according to the United Nations, and one in three lacks access to decent sanitation. Even countries with good water supplies—like the U.S.—will experience trouble sustaining them in the near future, as panelists discussed at the water roundtable PM hosted last fall.
The United States has its share of ambitious water infrastructure—that’s how cities such as Los Angeles exploded from the desert—but it doesn’t solve the problem of vanishing supplies. The snowpack in the California mountains is down to 61 percent of a normal year, authorities there say. U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu recently expressed his concerns for the long-term consequences. “I don’t think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen,” Chu told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. “We’re looking at a scenario where there’s no more agriculture in California. I don’t actually see how they can keep their cities going,” either.
At the same time, urban areas like New York and Tokyo are grappling with the problem of too much water all at once. A projected consequence of global warming, besides drought, is the accelerated cycle of what used to be 100-year storms. Around the world, countries are trying to combat these problems with ever-more-clever engineering: bigger and badder treatment plants, pipelines, tunnels and reservoirs. Here are five projects hoping to be big and bad enough.
Click here to read the rest of this article from Popular Mechanics, which profiles the Ashkelon desalination plant in Israel, the North-South Transfer project in China, the G-Cans Tunnel System in Japan, the Marina Reservoir project in Singapore, and Orange County’s Groundwater Replenishment System.
Push for public-works projects expected: Construction jobs could aid economy
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 17, 2008 at 6:36 amFrom the San Diego Union Tribune:
Now that taxpayers have received rebates, banks have gotten bailouts and the auto industry is lobbying for help, unemployed construction workers are hoping Uncle Sam dusts off an old standby to boost jobs and the economy – public works.
When the new Congress convenes next year, Democrats are expected to push for an economic stimulus package that would create high-paying jobs, in contrast to the immediate but temporary boost provided by last spring’s tax rebates. The amounts for the package being considered range from $61 billion to $500 billion, with $300 billion most often mentioned.
Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego, who serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said funding infrastructure is “the quickest way to create jobs in America.” “We have two major problems – jobs and people forced out of their homes,” Filner said. “You have to have two different kinds of programs aimed at each and hopefully supplement each other.”
Because public-works construction often takes so long to get started that its impact isn’t felt until the economy has begun to recover, cities and states with infrastructure projects in the pipeline are likely to get first priority. To be ready for handouts, San Diego’s 18 cities and county government are sending wish lists to the San Diego Association of Governments, whose board is scheduled to discuss priorities Thursday.
Local officials hope they will receive 1 percent of whatever infrastructure funds end up being adopted; that figure is roughly the county’s share of the nation’s population.
Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune by clicking here.
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