06.02.09
Tuesday’s Water News: Hartford to Start Massive Sewer Project
The largest public works project in Hartford, Connecticut history has started which will redo part of the city’s century-old sewer system. The first leg of the 15-year, $2 billion project will separate sewage from storm water in metro Hartford and reduce the frequency of sewer overflows from once a week to once a year.
Headlines
In Florida, St. Augustine city officials on Monday located a 19-inch-long, 6-inch-wide gash in a submerged 1960s-era pipe that caused hundreds of gallons of raw sewage to bubble up into Oyster Creek over the weekend.
The town of Cape Elizabeth, Maine has reached an agreement to fix sewer overflows at one of its pump stations which could cost the town hundreds of thousands of dollars.
A water main break has left an estimated 300 customers without water and restricted traffic in the east part of Mesa, Arizona.
Stimulus Spotlight
Vermont’s congressional delegation has announced $39 million in federal economic stimulus funds for drinking water and wastewater projects throughout the state.
Sewer Rate News
Bad Axe, Michigan
Crystal Lake, Illinois
Sioux City, Iowa
Waterloo, Iowa
04.09.09
Thursday Headlines: Stimulus Funds To Upgrade Army Depot Water System
In Pennsylvania, the Tobyhanna Army Depot will recieve funds from the recently passed federal economic stimulus package to upgrade its water distribution system to better accommodate the depot’s operations, facilities and personnel.
Headlines
Wastewater plants in the cities of Bay City, Essexville and Saginaw in Michigan have reported totals from sewage overflows last week into the Saginaw River. Bay City discharged 35.4 million gallons of partially treated sewage and stormwater, more than 3.3 million gallons were discharged from Essexville and 124 millions gallons in discharges has been reported by Saginaw.
In California, the Marin County sewage agency in Mill Valley has agreed to pay a $1.6 million fine for spilling more than 3 million gallons of sewage into Richardson Bay in late-January last year. Half of the fine will go to a state clean up fund and the other half will go to two environmental projects.
Utility crews in Austin, Texas spent a good portion of Wednesday cleaning up a sewage spill after a broken wastewater line released 100,000 gallons near Little Walnut Creek.
A water main break this morning in Ellsworth, Maine caused traffic to be re-routed through downtown. A boil water alert was also expected to be issued for some customers in the area.
Sewer Rate News
Apple Creek, Ohio
Chesterfield, Indiana
Frederick, Maryland
03.10.09
Tuesday Headlines: House to Consider SRF Bill This Week
The House of Representatives is expected to consider a bill this week that among other things would authorize $13.8 billion for the EPA’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF). In addition, the Water Quality Investment Act (H.R. 1262) would provide more than $3 billion for water pollution and sewage control and other EPA water projects, and require sewage treatment plants to set up alert systems to notify the public within 24 hours of sewer overflows.
Some House Republicans have opposed the bill because of language that would require contractors to pay union-scale wages for work financed by the SRF. An amendment stripping the requirement, known as the Davis-Bacon Act, is expected to be part of the floor debate in the House. An amendment to strip Davis-Bacon requirements from a SRF authorization bill two years ago was rejected, 140-280, with 50 Republicans voting against it.
02.17.09
Tuesday Headlines: Stimulus a Down Payment on State Infrastructure Needs
Throughout the state of Montana, approximately 100 water and wastewater projects are in need of money to begin construction. Even as the stimulus bill is signed into law many of Montana’s small towns see the economic stimulus bill as just a start in addressing it’s infrastructure needs. Much of the state’s water infrastructure was built in the 1950s and ’60s and now needs to be replaced.
Headlines
In Bay City, Michigan, a sewer overflow last week from a wastewater treatment plant totaled almost 58 million gallons. The discharge was blamed on snow melt and rain that totaled about 1.3 inches.
A blocked sewer line is to blame for the release of raw sewage into the Cayucos Creek. A officer for San Luis Obispo County, California reports a manhole cover overflowed and dumped an unknown amount of sewage into a nearby storm drain.
Some residents in Brewer, Maine did not have water when they woke up this morning due to a massive break in the water main in the area. The 10-inch water main was mangled by the fluctuating recent temperatures.
Fifteen months after the Lisbon, Ohio’s upgraded water treatment plant began operation, the Ohio EPA has lifted the order that required the improvements as the treatment plant is now in compliance with the state’s clean drinking water laws.
Sewer Rate News
Halifax, Virginia
Inman, South Carolina
01.09.09
Friday Headlines: Oberstar Proposes $12B in SRF Funding as Part of Stimulus
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) has proposed spending $85 billion for infrastructure projects as part of economic recovery legislation, and includes $12 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund which allows states to provide low-cost loans to localities for wastewater projects. The Drinking Water State Revolving Fund is not part of the Committee’s jurisdiction and was not included in the proposal.
Headlines
A 500,000 gallon sewage spill earlier this week did not contaminate drinking water in Columbia, South Carolina. Officials say pumps that push the sewage through the pipe system failed.
A ruptured water main continued to impact traffic on West Broad Street in Henrico County, Virginia on Thursday. Motorists traveling in the area of the break were urged to use caution.
Officials in the Upper Peninsula town of Ironwood, Michigan are urging residents to conserve water because of low pressure caused by a water main break. Residents are being urged to boil water for five minutes before using it.
A 12-inch water main broke along State Routes 4 and 32 in Waterford, New York forcing crews to close down one lane of the busy route during the Thursday morning rush hour. The pipeline that broke had infrastructure dating back to the 1960s. “A lot of the lines in this area are old and there is not enough funding to replace them, so we get periodic breaks,” said Ed Hernandez a project manager with Delaware Engineering.
Sewer Rate News
Hall County, Georgia
Holyoke, Massachusetts
Jay, Maine
01.08.09
Thursday Headlines: Md. Water Main Break Leads to Calls for More Oversight
The big water main break last month in Bethesda, Maryland has renewed calls from state legislators to improve oversight of the utility that serves Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. The Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce, opposes the idea contending the bill would put county businesses at a competitive disadvantage with neighboring counties in Maryland.
Headlines
Untreated sewage flowed out of a sewer manhole in Pismo Beach, California, closed part of Shell Beach. Grease collecting in the sewer line is blamed for plugging the line and causing the sewage to overflow out of the manhole.
In California, East Bay Municipal Utility District crews, with help from the city of Berkeley and Caltrans, worked Wednesday to repair a sinkhole caused by a water-main break near California State Highway 13.
Several intersections in a Duluth, Minnesota neighborhood were blocked off Wednesday evening after a water main break. Some people had to scrape their cars of the ice formed on their cars parked along the street.
A busted water main closed the high school in Rhinelander, Wisconsin on Tuesday. The affected water main looked like it had been sheared right in half.
Sewer Rate News
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Dunkirk, Ohio
Merrimack, New Hampshire
Norwalk, Ohio
12.04.08
Thursday Headlines: Apt. Complex Evacuated After Water Main Break
How would you like to start your morning this way? Tuesday, an apartment complex in Lindenwold, New Jersey was evacuated in the early morning due to a water main break that also caused a sinkhole. Mud and sewage spilled into first floor apartments because of the break, and residents may have to wait a month before being allowed to return to the building.
Headlines
Massive sewer and water system improvements are needed for Elyria, Ohio and have city officials warning residents that the upgrades are going to force them to increase sewer rates. The rate hike will be used to pay for two 20-year projects that combined total almost $270 million. The two projects entail replacing sewer lines, upgrading the wastewater treatment facility and fixing substandard waterlines.
A water main broke on state Route 100 in Pittsfield, Maine early this morning forced a detour in the downtown area and a boil-water order from the town government.
A broken water main and freezing temperatures Wednesday evening led to at least three accidents and more than a half-dozen vehicles being damaged in Topeka, Kansas. As temperatures dropped after sunset, a sheet of ice nearly a quarter-mile long covered streets and sidewalks in the area.
Students in Pilot Grove, Missouri were dismissed early from school on Tuesday after the town’s water was shut off to work on a broken water main. The Mayor of Pilot Grove said the water main broke Monday, but that there wasn’t enough time to work on it until Tuesday.
Sewer Rate News
Emmaus, Pennsylvania
Gilroy, California
11.21.08
Friday Headlines: Town in Maine Looks to Repair Water Main Under I-95
Looking to repair a water main break under Interstate 95, the Board of Selectmen in Seabrook, Maine are considering replacing the main using directional drilling technology to pull a new pipe through a bore hole. The 12-inch, 350-foot water main remains shut off after it broke in two places in November 2007 and the cost of repair is estimated at $235,700.
Headlines
Town officials in Meyersdale, Pennsylvania are busily trying to figure out how to pay for $1.4 million in state mandated sewer work. The sewer work includes dredging sludge out of lagoons at the treatment plant, correcting combined sewer overflow problems and installing flow meters.
Customers of the Grand Rapids, Michigan water and sewer systems will face big rate increases next year, thanks to expansive upgrades and the defection of five suburbs from its sewer system. The average city resident will get a quarterly water and sewer bill of $168.10, an 8.2 percent jump over this year.
A broken water main in Chester, Vermont left some residents without water last night and forced the closure of a local high school for today.
For more than a week, the left lane of a key San Francisco artery has been closed by orange cones and sawhorses. The sinkhole, formed because of a broken sewer main, needs major repair. and patching the hole is in advisable because the hole might return and cause serious damage to a vehicle.
Sewer Rate News
Arkadelphia, Arkansas
Coldwater, Michigan
El Dorado, Arkansas
Sayre Borough, Pennsylvania
11.07.08
Friday Headlines: NYC Agrees to Bring Treatment Plants into Compliance
New York City has reached an agreement with the state of New York to bring its 14 wastewater treatment plants into compliance with environmental laws. The price tag to bring all the plants into compliance is expected to be in the billions. Steven W. Lawitts, the acting commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection commented on the situation stating:
The many components of this agreement highlight the challenges that cities around the country face in building costly and complex, but critically important, infrastructure
Headlines
Students and faculty at Carnegie Mellon University were inconvenienced after a 6-inch water main on campus broke Thursday afternoon.
An equipment failure at a Long Island sewage treatment plant caused approximately 51,000 gallons to spill into a bay where shellfish beds were recently reopened.
About 90 homes in Baltimore County, Maryland were without water yesterday after a break in a 10-inch water main.
A main pipeline near Palatka, Florida’s water plant broke Wednesday night, leaving the city without water for several hours and a boil-order through at least today. “An aging infrastructure can cause these types of mishaps,” said City Manager Woody Boynton.
Sewer Rate News
Bath, Maine
Phoenix, Arizona
11.05.08
Wednesday Headlines: Ballot Initiatives for Water Infrastructure Pass in 3 States
Measures were on the ballot in three states yesterday to increase investments in water and wastewater infrastructure.
In the Keystone state, Pennsylvanians voted overwhelmingly to adopt the only statewide measure on the ballot yesterday, allowing state leaders to borrow $400 million for water and sewer improvements. An estimated 2,200 drinking water systems and 1,060 wastewater systems in the state must spend an estimated $20 billion to meet federal and state clean water standards.
In the third referendum question on Maine’s ballot Tuesday, voters authorized a $3.4 million bond issue for drinking water programs and construction of wastewater treatment facilities.
And in Arkansas, voters approved a measure that will allow up to $300 million in bonds to be issued for water projects around the state.
