Commentary

By Ryan Sitton At the beginning of this year, an unprecedented freeze hit the southern part of the United States. The state of Texas, which has its own, self-contained energy grid, saw power outages that it had never experienced. At one point, nearly six millionRead More

By Rachael Olson Water utilities are rightly concerned about managing their business through the course of winter 2021 and into the hot summer months. This is especially true as the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic keep some of their customers’ finances suspended, just as manyRead More

By L. Gregg Horn A recent hydraulic flow test on a 97-year-old distribution main demonstrated the longevity of cement-mortar lined (CML) iron pipe, and the consistent flow efficiency that translates into pumping cost savings. With energy costs among the higher factors of consideration in waterRead More

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 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 Kristy Neckowicz Recently one of our clients, an engineering director of a major water utility, made a bold claim when she stated, “Against the will of every engineer, their job needs them to also be an accountant.” I’d argue that the same applies for everyRead More

By Peter Yolles and Cynthia Koehler Newsflash: our water-stressed, climate-changing world is a major resilience challenge for communities. But there’s also an upside to meeting this challenge. Building resilient water solutions can create important, and sometimes catalytic, opportunities for private investors. That’s especially so inRead More

By Abe Munfakh As a professional engineer, I have spent my career focused on infrastructure projects. While this has given me a unique perspective on the importance of these efforts, over the years I have also worked very closely with community leaders and elected officials onRead More

By Dan Buckley As contractors, engineers and business owners, we deal with numbers every day. As I give you a recent summary of how our elected officials have been behaving, I ask you to remember a scene from a movie that is over 20 yearsRead More

By Gordon Henrich As I was moderating a session at a trenchless rehab seminar it became obvious that most research and development in our industry is being done on new pipe and manholes ordered directly from a manufacturer. If our focus is rehabilitation, why aren’t weRead More