August 19, 2010
Thursday’s Water News: Massive Water Main Break Disrupts Service to Half of Waco, Texas
A massive break in a 48-inch water main has left Waco, Texas scrambling to save its water supply. Officials are asking residents to stop watering lawns and stop washing cars in order to save precious water. The massive pipe is critical to providing water service to half of the city’s residents.
Headlines
Work will be completed soon on a $6.5 million sewer project in Noblesville, Indiana. Prior to this project, the existing sewer was a combined sanitary and storm sewer that was constructed of brick over 100 years ago. Over the past year, crews installed large-diameter storm sewers and backup sewers.
A large water main break in Center Point, Alabama this morning damaged a busy road, and caused other property damage. Water also was spraying into the air, and damaged the road and blew out a window in a car.
Stimulus Spotlight
In Montana, though the entire project is years away from completion, the Rocky Boy’s/North Central Regional Water System’s first customers can drink the water pouring out of their faucets. Once a treatment plant is built at Lake Elwell and a waterline is installed, the project will deliver clean water to a territory the size of Delaware. Last summer, $20 million in federal stimulus money more than doubled the funding the project has received since it was authorized in 2002.
The drafting of an application seeking federal stimulus funds for Strasburg, Virginia’s planned $25 million upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant has come to a standstill as an environmental review document has become outdated during the process.
Sewer Rate News
Bar Harbor, Maine
Bradenton, Florida
Jackson, Mississippi
The blog is taking its summer vacation. We’ll return with all new material on Monday, August 30.
August 11, 2010
Wednesday’s Water News: Honolulu to Spend $3.5 Billion on Sewer System Improvements
Honolulu has reached a consent decree agreement with the EPA requiring it to make more than $3.5 billion in improvements to its sewage treatment system by 2020, and also pay a $1.6 million fine to be split between the federal government and the state to resolve violations of the federal Clean Water Act and Hawaii’s water pollution law.
Headlines
The city of Chattanooga, Tennessee’s sewer system has released 510 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Tennessee River over the past five years. Now a nonprofit group is threatening to sue the city to enforce environmental compliance.
In West Virginia, Wellsburg’s City Council is down to three members after five council members quit in a dispute over a proposed sewer rate hike. All five had opposed a plan to raise the city’s sewer rate by 30 percent.
Downpours over the past two nights have overwhelmed Des Moines sewers and sent millions of gallons of untreated sewage into the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers. The city’s taxed sewer network has caused wastewater backups in basements throughout the city, with the heaviest concentrations on the south and east sides.
Stimulus spotlight
In Montana, improvements to Pondera County Canal and Reservoir’s infrastructure has boosted efficiency and improved the water quality of the lower Birch Creek watershed. The project was financed with $527,000 in federal stimulus money and a $366,000 local match to upgrade irrigation infrastructure originally dug by hand and mule in the 1800s.
The city of Cape Girardeau, Missouri received $144,540 from the economic stimulus for engineering reports on the city water and wastewater systems. The funding will enable the city to hire an engineer to study their water system and advise them on how to achieve or maintain compliance with drinking water rules and regulations.
Sewer Rate News
Berryville, Virginia
Granville, Ohio
Warrenton, Virginia
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
August 2, 2010
Monday’s Water News: Main Break Gushes 4 Million Gallons of Water in Bozeman, Montana
Residents in a Bozeman, Montana neighborhood watched in dismay from their muddied front lawns yesterday as cleanup crews, city workers and water-damage companies labored to repair a broken water main and clean up the mess left behind by 4 million gallons of water.
Headlines
Work crews in Troy, Ohio shut off part of the city’s water supply yesterday to repair a water main break. A boil advisory has been issued and will be in effect until Tuesday afternoon. The water main serves most of the western half of Troy.
A broken sewer line spewed nearly 15,000 gallons of untreated sewage in Arnold, Maryland on Sunday afternoon.
Starting next July, sewer rates for residents some residents in Richmond, California will go up 5 percent annually until July 2014. The rate increase will affect more than 16,000 single-family residential units and approximately 2,000 multifamily residential units and 2,000 commercial units. The increase in fees are needed to repair the system built in 1953.
Stimulus Spotlight
After more than a decade of planning, the construction work for $10.8 million upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant in Ferndale, California begins this week. The economic stimulus is financing 40 percent of the project with thanks to a $5 million federal loan with a 40-year repayment and a 2.375 percent fixed interest rate.
Sewer Rate News
Marco Island, Florida
Prescott Valley, Arizona
Princeton, New Jersey
Wellsburg, West Virginia
June 23, 2010
Wednesday’s Water News: Storms Lead to Water Main Breaks, Flooding on Indian Reservation
After nearly five inches of rainfall in the past few days, an Indian reservation in Great Falls, Montana is faced with severe flooding. Ten different water mains ruptured and broke from the massive quantity of rainwater, leaving widespread flooding and water damage and no drinking water for the tribe’s natives.
Headlines
Kentucky state Rep. Larry Clark is among a bipartisan group of state lawmakers pushing for a Louisville-area pilot program on regionalization of wastewater treatment
Officials in Carroll County, Maryland are asking citizens to watch what they flush after an accumulation of plastics, towels, rubber gloves, and grease backed up sewer lines and resulted in 70,000 gallons of spilled raw sewage. The sewage managed to flow into two separate streams during the overflow.
Sewer Rate News
Astoria, Oregon
Charleston, West Virginia
Fernley, Nevada
Issaquah, Washington
May 12, 2010
Wednesday’s Water News: Daytona Beach Traffic and Water Service Disrutped By Water Main Break
A water main break in Daytona Beach, Florida has caused a giant car-sized hole in the middle of one of the city’s busiest roads. Water was still gushing out of the of the pipe and onto the road this afternoon because the 50 year-old pipe is so old, the valves don’t work anymore, and crews can’t turn the water off to fix the pipe.
Headlines
Individual septic systems in Wolf Creek, Montana are slated to be replaced with a $3 million community wastewater treatment facility to better protect the small town’s drinking water. Funding for the project includes a $1.16 million grant and $3999,000 loan from USDA. Those funds will be used in conjunction with a $750,000 grant from the Treasurer State Endowment Fund; $100,000 from the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation; and $529,000 from WRDA.
Milton, Indiana will hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Friday for a new $3.7 million wastewater treatment project that will install sewer lines, a pump station and a 6.5 mile force main. Milton won a $1 million grant from the state’s Office of Community and Rural Affairs to help pay for the project.
A recent study by Lux Research suggests the market for harnessing energy from wastewater sludge will almost double over the next decade.
Stimulus Spotlight
Oronoko Township, Michigan is considering a $5.98 million sewer project that would be partially funded by the Build America Bond program in the economic stimulus.
Sewer Rate News
Brooktrails, California
Pima, Arizona
St. Marys, Georgia
Vacaville, California
May 11, 2010
Tuesday’s Water News: Kansas City Set to Start First Phase of $2.5B Sewer Project
Kansas City will soon start the first phase of a massive 25-year sewer project to cut the overflow of raw sewage from nearly 6.5 billion gallons a year to less than a half billion. The total cost of the 25-year plan is estimated to be $2.5 billion. It is the biggest public works project in the city’s history.
Headlines
Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard is urging a City Council Committee to approve the sale of the city’s sewer and water utilities to Citizens Energy. The transfer is expected to net the city about $425 million in cash, savings and borrowing power.
Voters in Mattapoiset, Massachusetts have approved a $6.8 million sewer extension to parts of the area currently using septic systems.
Stimulus Spotlight
The Montana communities of Sweet Grass and Valier will soon start construction to upgrade their water systems, having received $3 million in loans and grants through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
A $20 million waste water expansion project is underway in Warrick County, Indiana. $15 million is coming from the state while the rest is funded through economic stimulus. The entire project should be completed by April 2011.
Sewer Rate News
Geneva, Illinois
Granby, Connecticut
Tarboro, North Carolina
Waynesboro, Virginia
April 20, 2010
Tuesday’s Water News: Arkansas Community Seeks $25M Loan for Water Projects
In Jacksonville, Arkansas, the City Council supports a plan by the water department to secure $25 million in loan funds from the state’s National Resources Commission to pay for four major capital improvement projects. The projects will include adding new water lines and replacement of a ground water storage tank.
Headlines
Work has begun on a new wastewater treatment plant for Sweetwater, Tennessee. The city will finance the project with a $6.5 million bond that it will pay back over the next 20 years.
A broken water main break in a Las Cruces, New Mexico caused a gas line to leak this morning.
Minnesota’s Public Facilities Authority will provide $12.3 million in financing to seven cities for drinking water and waste water improvements.
Stimulus Spotlight
In Loveland, Colorado, the Bureau of Reclamation has received $12.2 million from the economic stimulus to recoat the penstocks above the Flatiron Power Plant. The penstocks are large pipes that carry water from a reservoir to a nearby power plant behind a lake which provides water and power in northeastern Colorado.
Despite the inconvenience for some Galion, Ohio residents, construction of two pump stations and a main line to the wastewater treatment plant should be completed in August. Part of the $5.3 million project will be funded via $3.4 million in economic stimulus funds.
Sewer Rate News
Belgrade, Montana
Cadillac, Michigan
Charleston, Illinois
Spring Hill, Tennessee
March 9, 2010
Tuesday’s Water News: Small Montana Town Needs a New Water Tank
The tank that supplies water to the approximately 600 residents of Belt, Montana is failing, and city leaders are scrambling for a fix. The 180,000 gallon tank is leaking so badly that huge ice formations are visible on its outer walls, and steel reinforcement bars once inside the concrete are now exposed.
Headlines
Thousands of gallons of sewage spilled into a Creve Coeur, Missouri creek on Friday after grease clogged a sanitary sewer line. The sewer department suspects the grease blockage came from a business like a restaurant and could have been building up for a couple of months.
A follow-up to a story we had yesterday, 11 Baltimore County schools are closed for a second day after a weekend water main break. The schools are closed again Tuesday because they have no water or low water pressure. Over the weekend a water main break caused 100,000 customers to lose water service.
Development projects in Watertown, New York are about to get easier, thanks to a new sewer line which will add capacity at a cost of $1.5 million.
Stimulus Spotlight
Two million dollars of federal stimulus funds are flowing to the Village of Warwick, New York to correct its problem of a contaminated drinking well. The funding will provide for the construction of a micro-filtration plant and in the process, employ 25 people.
In Carey, Ohio, a new sewer separation project funded in part from the economic stimulus will redirect storm water.
Sewer Rate News
Ankeny, Iowa
Athens, Alabama
Placerville, California
Port Huron, Michigan
March 2, 2010
Tuesday’s Water News: Massive Water Main Break in Florida Causes Sinkhole, Shuts Down Road
A water main break in Hialeah, Florida caused some major issues for drivers and residents after a 40 year-old, 54-inch water main burst and drenched a neighborhood. The deluge of water caused a sinkhole to form in the road and a huge geyser of water to shoot into the air.
Headlines
Newtown, Connecticut’s wastewater treatment plant has garnered praise from federal officials as one of six in New England improving water quality with outstanding operations, maintenance and training.
The county of Dobson, Tennessee will move forward with two new water and sewer projects, one of which will help a local company retain jobs. The Surry County Board of Commissioners approved a $142,300 extension to the a water line and a $374,942 sfor a ewer project at a middle school.
Stimulus Spotlight
A water main replacement project to stop 500,000-plus gallons of city-owned water from leaking into the ground on a daily basis got under way on Monday in Troy, Montana. The city received about $1.77 million in stimulus funding and appropriations for the second phase of the massive project to replace its water distribution system.
In Norwich, Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell announced that federally funded upgrades to public drinking water and wastewater treatment plants in Plainfield, Putnam and Norwich are all on schedule. Gov. Rell said Plainfield, Putnam and Norwich will get a share of the $17.5 million in stimulus funds being applied to a total of 12 cities and towns.
Sewer Rate News
Chillicothe, Ohio
Colchester, Connecticut
Williamston, South Carolina
Montgomery County, Maryland
February 12, 2010
Friday’s Water News: Snow Leads to Wastewater Spill in North Carolina
The City of Lexington, North Carolina reported 187,500 gallons of untreated wastewater spilled on Monday. The spill happened after a sewer line was crushed under the combined weight of soil and snow.
Headlines
An estimated 100,000 gallons of sewage entered an intersection in Palos Verdes Estates, California shut down access to Lunada Bay on Monday.
Officials in Steamboat Springs, Colorado say a subdivision’s water is safe to drink and that repairs have been completed after a major break in a water line Monday evening.
Stimulus Spotlight
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has awarded the Black Eagle Water and Sewer District $225,000 in economic stimulus funding to replace water mains, valves and hydrants in areas with a history of water main breaks.
Several Central Ohio projects are among the beneficiaries of the latest round of stimulus funding for water-quality improvement projects.
Sewer Rate News
Brandon, South Dakota
Great Falls, Montana
Keokuk, Iowa
New Albany, Indiana
