Articles by: Contributing Author

By Zeynep Erdal One and a half centuries ago, a rancher, naturalist, explorer, environmental philosopher, writer and conservationist named John Muir said, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” Much more recently, theRead More

By Ken Malone To ensure ongoing water service reliability, the Las Vegas Valley Water District is charging forward with its 10-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), focusing on infrastructure renewal to repair or replace aging facilities and pipelines. With the use of Echologics’ LeakFinder-ST, an acousticRead More

By Katie Jones & Stephanie Biehl Flint, Michigan, is now synonymous with “water crisis.” Unfortunately, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. In communities across the country, countless other water crises are unfolding, though with different chemical contaminants and, in many cases, clear fingerprints pointing toRead More

By Travis Wagner Quantifying the value of water is an overwhelming task. A physical asset evaluation would assume that our national water treatment and pipe infrastructure has a value of over $3.6 trillion with nearly 60 percent of the value underground. A holistic approach wouldRead More

By Jeff Lipton Challenges Due to COVID-19 As a recent McKinsey study points out, many professional organizations have excess structural capacity due to reduced demand from the COVID-19 crisis. There is an urgent need to rightsize the capital base of operations and convert fixed costsRead More

By Kristy Neckowicz I recently read an article from a well-regarded industry veteran who was excited about all the new technologies available to our industry. Everything from big data, IoT to AI and machine learning. I can’t disagree with his enthusiasm as it has beenRead More

By Brian Sliger, Erik Waligorski, Matoya Darby & Bob Isaac King County’s Eastside Interceptor (ESI) collects the majority of wastewater flows from the Puget Sound Area Cities of Kirkland, Bellevue, Mercer Island, Sammamish, Issaquah, Newcastle and Renton, and conveys it to the County’s South Treatment Plant.Read More

By Robert Mankowski Extreme weather events and rising populations are straining existing (and often inadequate) drainage infrastructure in cities around the world, leading to flooding that damages property and infrastructure, impacts human safety and weakens economies. In 2015, the United Nations reported that over theRead More

By George S. Hawkins & Andy Kricun Throughout history, great challenges often reveal the best in human spirit and ingenuity. At Moonshot Missions, we believe the impact of the coronavirus pandemic upon on the water industry will be matched by the indomitable spirit and creativity ofRead More

By Robert Sheets Water and wastewater utilities are more often than not self-supporting revenue enterprises (and sometimes revenue generators) for communities. However, even with the best of intentions, good utilities can go bad. In general, the smaller the utility, the greater the struggle, though thereRead More