Last Thursday, approximately 2 million gallons of water gushed from a pipe in the Hampton’s Road Bridge Tunnel’s fire hydrant supply system, filled underground ducts and eventually caused the complete closure of the westbound tunnel as water pooled in the travel lanes. Today it was revealed water flowed for more than eight hours before the break was identified and traffic was diverted.

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Officials in Powdersville, South Carolina have broken ground on a new one-million gallon water storage tank in anticipation of future growth.  State lawmakers see the project as a tool for economic development in the area.

Residents of a southwest Philadelphia neighborhood woke up at 4:30 a.m. to find water gushing into their homes due to a water main break.

Stimulus Spotlight
The state of Florida will use $11.2 million provided by the EPA from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to repair underground petroleum tanks currently contaminating ground water.

Lansing, Michigan has received $10.5 billion from the economic stimulus to help with the city’s sewer modernization project, but it still needs to spend spend $25 million next year and $283 million over the next 11 as part of the project.

Sewer Rate News
Galion, Ohio
Sussex County, Deleware
Fort Wayne, Indiana

A water-pipe break on Harbor Island in Seattle Wednesday evening released 860,000 gallons of water, flooding railroad tracks and a freight-storage building.

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A $4 million sewer line project proposed for the Rattlesnake area of Missoula, Montana will go to the Missoula City Council next week. The sewer line would convert more than 300 residential properties from septic to a sewer main.

About 11,000 residents in Fredonia, New York  are being advised to boil their water today because of a water main break there Wednesday night.

Stimulus Spotlight
Officials in Smyrna, Delaware  have approved contracts funded by $3.7 million in federal stimulus dollars to upgrade the town’s drinking water system. In the first phase, George and Lynch Inc. will replace six valves in a 10-inch water main from a water tower. Then Sprig Construction will replace a two-inch water main in the town.

The city of Fort Wayne, Indiana has received a $1.5 million stimulus grant and a $3.5 million low-interest loan, which will be used to finance three sewer separation projects.

Sewer Rate News
Bethlehem, West Virginia
Corsicana, Texas
Des Plaines, Illinois

The state of Massachusetts has had a record number of beach closures so far this season, mainly due to high bacteria levels caused by heavy rainfall. According to the state’s Department of Public Health there have been 188 closures of the state’s roughly 1,100 bathing beaches.

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Whitestown, New York contractor crews will be testing sewer lines this week for the engineering study for the Oneida County Sewer District’s overflow abatement project. The test locates leaks, faulty connections and broken pipelines in the system which will prevent overflows.

Some good news out of Orange County, California that for the sixth year in a row sewage spills have dropped. This is part of a continuing trend toward cleaner beaches the sewage spill rate has been at its lowest since 2000.

Stimulus Spotlight
The Texas Water Development Board has been awarded $160 million worth of stimulus funds to help finance the cost of replacing water infrastructures in the state. EPA officials say the funds will go to invest in several overdue water projects that are essential to protecting public heath and the environment.

Two Utah Indian tribes are getting pieces of the $90 million in stimulus money targeted at helping to upgrade water quality and create jobs for tribal communities nationwide.

Sewer Rate News
Hamilton, Iowa
Herber Springs, Arkansas
Kansas City, Missouri
New Albany, Indiana

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.

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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

Plans for fixing Washington, D.C.’s Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant carries a hefty price tag. Nitrogen upgrades have to be fixed by 2015 under the new EPA permit, and the combined sewer overflow problem is on schedule to be fixed by 2025.

For the nitrogen work, the states of Maryland and Virginia will kick in money, as a large amount of the Blue Plains sewage comes from their residents, but the bigger bill–the $2.2 billion for the sewer overflows–has to be paid for solely by D.C. residents.

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Sewer workers are still trying to identify and temporarily fix a leak in Provincetown, Massachusetts’ wastewater collection system, following a  July 4th weekend with nymerous overflow calls.

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is calling the Michigan City Sanitary District’s sewer overflow reporting unsatisfactory after it was discovered there are  no records of a number of overflows for a period of three years prior to a spill in May.

In Austin, Texas, water officials are urging swimmers to stay away from Bull Creek after thousands of gallons of sewage spilled into a tributary of the creek Saturday.

Stimulus Spotlight
Despite the slow pace of the stimulus spending in Arizona, in Tempe, new work on a stimulus-funded water-treatment system is expected to soon support 260 jobs.

Sewer Rate News
Norwood, Massachusetts
Sterling Heights, Michigan

A water main break caused the flooding on the campus of Harris-Stowe University in St. Louis, including flooding in the school library. The campus was shut down after being enveloped in 4-5 feet of water. 

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A colony of prehistoric creatures has taken over the concrete pipes below Raleigh North Carolina’s Cameron Village. Living in a 6-inch sewer main, the clusters of organisms feed through tentacles on whatever floats past.

The Town of Merryville, Louisiana is the recipient of a $1 million grant by the Clean Water State Revolving Fund program. Mayor Charles Hudson said the money will be used to upgrade the town’s aging sewer plant.

Three wastewater utility companies in Louisiana have been fined a total of $374,470 for federal environmental regulations. The companies are all owned by Jeff Pruett who faces 17 counts of federal charges for his companies.

Stimulus Spotlight
California will be getting $132 million in federal economic stimulus funds for water recycling projects. The money will be shared by 26 different projects including two in San Diego County.

The state of New York distributed $11 million in stimulus funding to go towards 17 projects and create an estimated 435 jobs. The projects will work to update the State’s aging infrastructure.

Sewer Rate News
Plainwell, Michigan

We’ll be back on Monday, July 6. Have a great 4th of July weekend.

After nearly a year of digging, the $18.5 million sewer tunnel under downtown Lafayette, Indiana is nearly complete. The tunnel is being drilled to hold up to 1.2 million gallons of combined sewage and stormwater which will help reduce the amount of raw sewage discharged into the Wabash River during storms.

The city has increased sewer rates a total of 33 percent since April 2006 to generate the $27 million needed to pay for the tunnel, lift station and related work.  An additional $84 a year in sewage fees for the average Lafayette household.

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Water officials in Tampa, Florida are rerouting traffic in the Tampa Heights neighborhood following a break in a 24-inch water main. Residents might see brown or discolored water while repairs are in progress.

The Sanitary District in Muncie, Indiana will borrow $9 million in bonds to clean up sewage overflow in Jakes Creek in northwest Muncie and in the White River.

Stimulus Spotlight
The City of El Paso, Texas is on the verge of receiving a $12 million no interest loan from the economic stimulus package for five stormwater projects to improve flood water drainage and flow around the city.

Lansing, Michigan now can pursue $16 million in improvements to the city’s wastewater treatment plant and could be forgiven for up to $6 million of the proposed project costs. While it could mean a sewer rate increase, officials said any increase should be kept at a minimum because the economic stimulus bill presents an opportunity for nearly half of the debt to be forgiven.

Sewer Rate News
Atlanta, Georgia
Jefferson City, Missouri
Louisville, Kentucky
Maui, Hawaii

Yesterday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study titled Clean Water Infrastructure: A Variety of Issues Need to be Considered When Designing a Clean Water Trust Fund.

GAO was asked to (1) obtain stakeholders’ views on the issues that would need to be addressed in designing and establishing a clean water trust fund and (2) identify and describe potential options that could generate about $10 billion in revenue to support a clean water trust fund.

In designing and establishing a clean water trust fund, stakeholders identified three main issues that would need to be addressed: (1) how a trust fund should be administered and used; 2) what type of financial assistance should be provided; and 3) what activities should be eligible to receive funding from a trust fund. Click here for for a summary of the study.

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On Thursday of last week, the Senate Appropriations Committe approved $2.1 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF), $1.39 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) and $150 million for targeted water and sewer projects as part of the FY 2010 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill. And on Friday, before the Independence Day District Work Period, the House of Representatives passed the FY 2010 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill by a vote of 254-173, which includes $2.3 billion for the CWSRF, $1.44 billion for the DWSRF and $160 million for targeted water and sewer projects.

A water main break in Oklahoma City poored thousands of gallons of water onto the streets and into the buildings near downtown including a church charity.  The water flowed unabated outside causing a sinkhole, which nearly swallowed the charity’s minivan.

Stimulus Spotlight
The city of Valdosta, Georgia is receiving $10 million in federal economic stimulus funds as part of an expansion of a wastewater treatment plant.

Sewer Rate News
Dyersburg, Tennessee
Holly, Michigan
Warren County, Ohio

The Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee unanimously approved legislation this morning that would cut environmental agencies’ spending by $200 million from what the House appropriations approved. The measure includes $3.6 for water and waster infrastructure.

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Beaches that have been closed in Greenwich, Connecticut due to heavy rainfall and sewage overflows have now been reopened. Byram Beach still remains closed to swimmers, however, because the rainfall in the shallow cove caused more concern.

A plugged valve caused an estimated 10,000 gallons of sewage to spill into a creek in Grass Valley, California. Valley officials are investigating why an alarm system didn’t sound when it happened. Signs have been posted warning people of the bacteria within the creek and contact with the water should be avoided. 

Stimulus Spotlight
The Utah Water Quality Board meets Wednesday to consider requests involving the Ogdan River Restoration Project and 12 other similar projects around the state. The Ogdan River could be restored to a natural wider river channel that could accommodate higher flows, and reduce urban encroachment for $7.25 million. Ogden officials are hoping up to $4 million will come from federal stimulus money.

Sewer Rate News
Detroit, Michigan
Monroe, Pennsylvania
Spokane County, Washington

In Alabama, Jefferson County officials have proposed an oversight board for the sewer system in an effort to get support from state lawmakers and creditors to solve its lingering sewer debt crisis. The county said the proposal is likely the last hope of reaching a solution that involves concessions to creditors.

Headlines
Amtrak halted all train service between Baltimore and Washington on Saturday because of a major water main break north of BWI  that covered the tracks with mud. 

City officials in Wichita, Kansas took bottled water to residents and businesses in a neighborhood that was without water after a ruptured water main.

The Muncie (Ind.) Sanitary District plans to borrow $9 million to clean up sewage overflow in northwest Jakes Creek and along the White River.

Stimulus Spotlight
The construction of a new wastewater treatment plant in the city of Prairie Grove is one of seven Arkansas clean water projects on a short list to get federal stimulus funding.

Sewer Rate News
Mesquite, Nevada
Milton-Freewater, Washington