Golder Associates, the global consulting and engineering firm, announced it has appointed Dr. Hisham Mahmoud as its president and CEO. Mahmoud has been appointed to this role after an extensive global search over recent months.

CH2M HILL recently announced it has adopted a refreshed brand and logo designed to better reflect its clients? needs and its own ambitions for growth. The company has also adopted a simpler brand name, CH2M.

WateReuse recently appointed two new members to serve on the Board of Directors. Halla Razak, the public utilities director for the City of San Diego and Gilbert Trejo, P.E., chief technical officer for El Paso Water Utilities begin service effective May 2015.

Last Tuesday, the surface of Lake Mead, the sprawling reservoir outside Las Vegas, fell to 1,079.76 ft above sea level ? nearly 140 feet below capacity ? as the prolonged drought continues to evaporate the beleaguered Colorado River system.

Upon graduating college, I was fortunate to start my business career as a salesman for a petrochemical company in their plastics division. For the next 10 years or so, I had the opportunity to witness firsthand how various types of plastics were used across all industries.

The City of Santa Fe recently chose Badger Meter?s BEACON smart water meter solution, for full installation across all its water meter endpoints, including both residential and commercial customers. According to IHS, it is the single largest implementation of cellular machine-to-machine (M2M) technology in the water utility sector worldwide.

Sensus has opened a new meter manufacturing and assembly facility in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, the People?s Republic of China. The facility, with capacity to produce 150,000 meters annually, will meet the growing demand for advanced meters in China, Southeast Asia and other markets.

American Water has announced it has formed a partnership with LG Sonic to perform ultrasonic algae control in water treatment plants. This partnership is a result of the company?s Innovation Development Process.

SplashLink.com, an online ?one-stop shop? for the water industry, was recently launched as an online marketplace for posting and searching water-industry bids and RFPs, as well as grant and financing opportunities.

It is imperative that utilities educate their customers and ratepayers as to the full value of their invaluable service, and the pressing need to support robust water rates and prices commensurate with its true value.