Water Management

Last week, U.S. Senators were approaching a bipartisan deal on legislation that would help Flint, Mich., and cities across the country improve their water infrastructure. The agreement was announced last week by a group of senators and would also revise public notification rules following the detection of lead in community water supplies.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder?s office released new emails over the weekend related to his administration?s handling of Flint?s contaminated water system. The emails revealed that some of Snyder?s top advisors advocated switching Flint’s drinking water away from the highly corrosive Flint River more than a year before the crisis became serious.

On March 6, CNN is hosting a Democratic presidential debate featuring Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Flint, Mich. A massive crisis over toxic drinking water in the city has made Flint the subject of national headlines for months.

The American Water Works Association (AWWA) Board of Directors has announced that Aurel Arndt of Allentown, Pa., was elected as the association?s treasurer at its winter board meeting.

The Detroit Free Press reported Sunday that at least a dozen lawsuits have been filed in local, state and federal courts on behalf of Flint residents who drank lead-tainted water for nearly two years. The complaints name a long list of state and local agencies and officials, from Gov. Rick Snyder to Flint city employees.

Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN), of Houston, has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies? (ACEC) 49th annual Engineering Excellence Awards.

Many countries are facing a perfect storm of financing constraints and water infrastructure shortfalls. Dramatic declines in oil and commodity prices, low water tariffs, groundwater overdrafts and untreated wastewater discharges are prompting governments to tap the private sector through public-private partnership. According to a new report from Bluefield Research, the market for water public-private partnership projects is set to nearly triple between 2016 and 2020.

Hydromax USA recently announced a partnership with Utilis LTD to exclusively provide water utilities the ability to analyze satellite imagery to detect water leaks within their network infrastructure.

The American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA) and the American Water Works Association (AWWA) recently announced four awardees at this year?s Membrane Technology Conference & Exposition.

United States Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Estevan L?pez released plans to spend $23 million to support water reuse and efficiency. The funding is part of the FY2016 omnibus appropriations legislation, which gave the Bureau of Reclamation $100 million to address the ongoing Western drought.