The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week the award of 14 Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grants totaling over $17 million to fund projects that will improve Great Lakes water quality.

UIM: Water Utility Infrastructure Management and the SWIM Center at Virginia Tech are looking for speakers for the 15th annual Water Asset Management Conference in Arlington, Va., Dec. 2-3, 2015. If you are interested in presenting to executive-level municipal representatives and consultants involved in the fields of water, wastewater and stormwater, we want to hear from you. The deadline to submit an abstract is April 1.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge has ordered the Sacramento region?s sewer agency to halt construction of a storage project, finding enough probability that a $114 million contract awarded to Teichert Construction of Davis violated state law.

A study conducted by Duke University finds that population growth could cause global demand for water to outpace supply by mid-century if current levels of consumption continue. And it wouldn’t be the first time, according to the study.

Total construction put in place (CPIP) for 2015 is predicted to grow 8 percent, according to a recent report from FMI. This supports earlier FMI predictions that CPIP will top $1 trillion in 2015, something the market has not seen since 2008.

Last week, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a $1.1 billion drought relief and flood protection package, as California?s dry conditions stretch into a fourth year. The enactment marks the second time in two years that Brown and lawmakers approved legislation related to California?s ongoing drought.

American Water has announced that its president and CEO Susan Story has been elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the Alliance to Save Energy (Alliance), a nonprofit that promotes energy efficiency.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved millions in funds for New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico to help finance improvements to water projects that are essential to protecting public health and the environment.

The Southern Delivery System (SDS), one of the largest water projects under construction in the western United States, will complete its 50 miles of pipeline construction this month.

Last week on Capitol Hill, water utility leaders urged Congress to increase the effectiveness of the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) by repealing a ban on the use of tax-exempt bonds in WIFIA-funded projects.