07.07.09
Tuesday’s Water News: Main Break Stops Essential Water Use in South Austin (Tx.)
Residents of Austin, Texas were told to stop all essential water use, including outdoor watering, this morning as crews began repairing a 54-inch water main. The water line provides the city with 60% of the drinking water for residents and businesses south of the river and is one of the city’s main water arteries.
Headlines
A pipe burst in a building near Shepard Park Beach in New York caused 10,000 gallons of raw sewage to dump into the Adirondack Lake over the holiday weekend. The Lake George beach was forced to close on one of the busiest weekends for the area. Clean up of the beach is scheduled to begin Tuesday and the beach will be reopened as soon as possible.
The New Jersey Local Finance Board is considering a borough of Buena’s Municipal Utilities Authority project which is a federally financed project that will take 12-15 months to complete. The project has two impacts on the MUA. First, the new system will send treated wastewater into lagoons, where it will percolate into the ground. Wastewater presently is sent into a stream. Second, the authority’s capacity to treat wastewater will increase from 400,000 gallons to 600,000 gallons, enabling more service for residential and commercial uses. That also benefits neighboring Buena Vista Township, which has the right to use one-third of the increase in treatment capacity.
Stimulus Spotlight
Delaware state lawmakers and public officials accepted $19.2 million in federal money to clean up water. Governor Jack Markell said the money will allow the state to employ citizens in “green jobs.”
Sewer Rate News
Laramie, Wyoming
Mount Airy, North Carolina
Middlesex, Massachusetts
05.13.09
Wednesday’s Water News: Akron Proposes Plan to Fix Combined Sewers
Don Plusquellic, Mayor of Akron, Ohio, has proposed ”a phased approach” aimed at fixing the city’s combined sewer problem. Akron has 35 combined sewers that overflow and dump diluted raw sewage and storm water into the waterways. The city is one of 86 Ohio communities with combined sewer overflow problems and eliminating the problem will cost an estimated $6.3 billion.
Headlines
Officials in Ironton, Ohio have unveiled the timetable and requirements needed for the reconstruction of its heavily-dated combined sewer overflow system on the city’s north side.
A water main break in Muncie, Indiana on Tuesday afternoon backed up traffic and caused temporary water shutoffs to about 50 customers.
Stimulus Spotlight
North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue has recommended that Clay County be approved for $1.07 million from the Appalachian Regional Council in the first round of distributions from federal stimulus money. These funds would come from the state’s drinking water fund with half of the money in the form of a grant and the other half is a zero-interest 30-year loan.
The state of Wyoming Loan and Investment Board has awarded nearly $40 million in federal economic stimulus money for water projects around the state. The total includes $19 million for wastewater projects and $19.5 million for drinking water projects that will fund 43 projects around Wyoming.
Sewer Rate News
Payson, Illinois
Temple Terrace, Florida
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.
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
05.29.08
Thursday Headlines: Water Main Break Floods San Diego Suburb
Crews were expected to complete repairs Thursday afternoon to a ruptured water pipe that flooded parts of the La Jolla Shores neighborhood outside of San Diego. The San Diego Water Department spokesman said a ruptured 8-inch connector pipe caused the flooding.
Headlines
The Mayor of Olean, New York has asked the City Council to authorize borrowing $7.5 million to rebuild two troublesome sections of the city’s sewer system.
Near St. Louis, a $90 million construction project will mean fewer sewer backups in the Lemay sewer treatment area.
Carrolton, Ohio has been awarded a $500,000 grant and a $500,000 zero-interest loan by the Ohio Public Works Commission to be used to build a new wastewater treatment plant.
Emergency steps are being taken in Casper, Wyoming to protect the North Platte River, after a risk of equipment failure at the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
Sewer Rate News
Baltimore, Maryland
Marion, Illinois
Sturgis, South Dakota
04.18.08
Friday Headlines: Senators Decry Lack of Water Infrastructure Investment
Montana and Wyoming senators wrangled with the Bureau of Reclamation’s commissioner over the lack of funding for major water projects in the West. Here’s a quote from Senator Jon Tester (D-Mont.) on the issue:
“The water infrastructure in my neck of the woods, in the state of Montana and I think the West overall, is worn out. Some of it is beyond repair. We need to really make this a priority for this country”
Headlines
In California, a sewage spill in Laguna Beach closes streets and beaches.
A water main break in North Waterboro, Maine has some residents under a boil water order.
Cross Timbers, Missouri will receive $733,000 from the USDA to finance the construction of a new wastewater collection and treatment facility.
