Headlines
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources is investigating the release of more than 50,000 gallons of sewage into a creek in the city of Warrensburg. Such discharges have the potential to contaminate lakes and streams, causing serious water quality problems.

Work on an $8 million, 1 million-gallon water tank project at The Highlands, a dining, entertainment and shopping complex in Triadelphia, West Virginia, is expected to begin soon. Funding for the project includes a $6.4 million federal Economic Development Administration grant and a $1.6 million West Virginia Infrastructure and Jobs Development Council loan.

Stimulus Spotlight
Plans are still under way in Independence, Missouri for the Little Blue Valley Sewer District’s $85.9 million in improvements. The district will use Build America bonds by the end of 2010 to finance the improvements. The bonds, part of the federal economic stimulus effort, aim to reduce the cost of borrowing for state and local government entities.

Flooding on U.S. Highway 101 in Seaside, Oregon is such an important issue that it took the top spot in a list of 65 projects that local officials want to see fixed. The list represents the projects that could be financed with federal stimulus funds or state grants.

Sewer Rate News
Altavista, Virginia
Granville, Ohio
Holbrook, Massachusetts
Mecklenburg County, North Carolina

Headlines
The City of Columbia, South Carolina issued a boil water advisory yesterday after a water main break. The advisory was issued for several apartment complexes which house hundreds of students who attend the University of South Carolina.

About 48,000 gallons of raw sewage spilled into a residential lagoon in Redwood City, California last week, nearly 10 times more than city officials initially estimated. The city estimate was revised after crews discovered a pipe had broken underground, sending far more sewage into the water than originally thought.

All three pumps at the a pump station in Cohoes, New York have failed, resulting in 27,100 gallons of raw sewage discharging into the Salt Kill, a tributary of the Hudson River. The cause was a string of rags found in the system.

Stimulus Spotlight
In Massachusetts, permanent financing for a new water plant that will serve Chatham and New Berlin should be secured next month. Plans are to pay for the project through Build America Bonds, a federal stimulus program that will reimburse the commission for 35 percent of its interest expenses. The bonds will be paid off over 30 years.

Sewer Rate News
Colleyville, Texas
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Gulfport, Mississippi
San Marcos, Texas

Headlines
The city of Austin, Texas is cleaning up a wastewater spill in a heavily wooded area of eastern Travis County. City officials estimate at least 100,000 gallons of sewage spilled into the creek and said that residents and their pets should avoid the water there until crews can clean up the spill.

A water main break on 16th Street in Omaha is fixed, but road restrictions remained in effect this morning. Traffic has been reduced to one lane in each direction on 16th Street as repairs are being made.

Stimulus Spotlight
Today in Louisiana, the Iberia Parish government and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had a ceremonial groundbreaking for the construction of an Iberia Parish wastewater treatment facility near the Acadiana Regional Airport. The federal portion of this project is funding through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack will be in Berlin, Maryland this week to see firsthand the construction progress of the town’s wastewater treatment plant, a project funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Sewer Rate News
Fluvanna County, Virginia
Marshall, Missouri
Parkersburg, Pennsylvania
Petoskey, Michigan

Headlines
The Washington state Department of Ecology has lowered the dollar amount of the penalty that King County was assessed for sewer overflow violations earlier this year. Originally, King County was fined $46,000, but that amount was lowered to $39,500 after the penalty was recalculated by the state at King County’s request.

Work has begun in Duluth, Minnesota to address its sewer overflow problems by constructing a 1 million gallon tank at one of the Sanitary District’s pumping station.

Stimulus Spotlight
Officials in North Dakota today broke ground for a water treatment facility in Linton for the South Central Regional Water District. The project has received more than $21 million in federal stimulus grants and more than $7 million in federally backed loans.

The Santa Clara Valley Water District (Calif.) has decided to begin the second phase of a federally funded flood protection and habitat enhancement project on Lower Silver Creek in San Jose. The project, in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, has been awarded $18.5 million in federal economic stimulus funds through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Sewer Rate News
Buellton, California
Holmdel, New Jersey
Rome, Georgia
Superior, Wisconsin

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.

Headlines
In Amarillo, Texas about 80,000 gallons of wastewater leaked from a broken sewage pipeline. The wastewater leak was discovered by city personnel. The pipeline broke because the pump controls at the main pump station in Southeast Park failed and caused a pressure surge in the pipeline.

Rockton, Illinois leaders are speaking out against the Illinois EPA fining the Village for leaking raw sewage into the Rock River.

Residents in Niles, Ohio want to know what the city is doing to stem flooding in the Washington Avenue area during heavy rains.

Stimulus Spotlight
Growth in the Hernando, Florida, which now has a population estimated at 15,000 and growing, is projected to continue, and city officials took steps Tuesday to seek authorization for a $2.3 million-dollar low-interest loan to construct a new water tower adjacent to Interstate 55. The city expects to receive approximately $400,000 in federal stimulus funds, which will cut the actual debt to about $1.7 million.

Sewer Rate News
Ashtabula, Ohio
Milton, Massachusetts
Prescott, Arizona
Winsted, Connecticut

Headlines
A water line break drowned a Tulsa, Oklahoma neighborhood in acres of water on Monday afternoon. The water flooded the street, dozens of yards, and swamped several homes. As the water receded, it left a gaping hole and a buckled road in its muddy wake.

Logan, Utah Mayor Randy Watts said the state Department of Environmental Quality has given the city seven years to cut by half the amount of phosphorous its sewage lagoons, located on the west side of town, discharge to Cutler Reservoir.

A $5.2 million upgrade to the village of Winneconne, Wisconsin’s wastewater treatment plant has started and is expected to take 18 months to complete. The project includes work to upgrade and increase the facility’s ability for wastewater treatment that should be good for at least 25 years.

Stimulus Spotlight
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources has awarded more than $1.46 million in grants for engineering studies to 50 public water supply systems throughout the state. These awards, which are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will fund engineering reports and facility plans that will include data collection, analysis and water system planning.

Sewer Rate News
East Moline, Illinois
Galesburg, Illinois
M0yock, North Carolina
Northport, Alabama

Headlines
In Oregon, the Lebanon City Council has approved issuing up to $6.5 million in Wastewater Revenue Bonds to finance a new wastewater treatment plant and to refinance an existing bond at a lower interest rate. The current treatment plant was constructed in the early 1970s and although it meets the city’s current needs, it is close to capacity and the community is growing.

Crews from Mobile (Ala.) Area Water & Sewer System have repaired a break in a 10-inch water main that caused water pressure and outage problems in west Mobile on Sunday. A lightning strike is thought to be the cause of a split in the line that was estimated to be between 6-and-10 feet long.

Stimulus Spotlight
In an effort to improve the Boonville, Missouri’s public water system, an engineer will examine its infrastructure and identify potential projects. The city received a $45,000 grant from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as part of federal stimulus funding to hire the engineer.

In California, a $3.2 million pipeline was constructed by the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District with the help of a $600,000 federal stimulus grant. And upon its recent completion, it became the first recycled water project completed with stimulus funds in Southern California.

Sewer Rate News
Jamestown, California
Marco Island, Florida
McCook, Nebraska
Tybee Island, Georgia

Headlines
Opposition has emerged to a proposal to build a big commercial wastewater treatment plant in Sussex County, Delaware that’s envisioned to serve thousands of new homes spreading northwest from Rehoboth Bay.

The Y Bridge and a portion of Main Street in Zanesville, Ohio was expected to be open this morning after a water main break caused a closure on Wednesday. The bridge had to be closed because a large portion of the road had to be torn up to repair the break.

Stimulus Spotlight
The city of Tacoma, Washington’s Water System is issuing $73.65 million in Build America Bonds–a program created in the economic stimulus– for repairs of its water and sewer systems.

In addition, the city of Sarasota, Florida is issuing $33.7 million in Build America Bonds for a system that provides water supply, treatment and delivery to nearly 19,000 residents.

Sewer Rate News
Malvern, Ohio
New Hanover County, North Carolina
Sturgis, Michigan
Whittier, California

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