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.

The Board of Direction of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) has elected Innovyze president, COO and chief technical officer Dr. Paul Boulos, to the grade of Distinguished Member (Dist.M.ASCE).

On Saturday, state regulators issued a revised plan for California?s first-ever mandatory water cuts, emphasizing the need for urgent action. The drought, which started in 2012, could persist for years, warned the State Water Resources Control Board.

Roughly 300 mayors from around the country recently attended the Winter Meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington, D.C. Held Jan. 20-23, the Winter Meeting involved some interesting sessions and presentations.