The American Water Works Association (AWWA) recently named David B. LaFrance as its new executive director. He will join the staff in May.

Haley & Aldrich, one of the nation?s leading geotechnical and environmental engineering consulting firms, announced the promotions of Lawrence P. Smith, P.E., R.G., to President/CEO and William R. Fisher, P.E., to Executive Vice President/Chief Client Officer.

Tampa Bay Water, American Water and Acciona Agua announced that the Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination Facility, the largest seawater desalination plant in the United States, has passed the final two performance milestone tests.

More than 125 people traveled to Blacksburg, Va., March 9-10 to attend a joint UIM Water/Wastewater Conference and Trenchless Road Show, sponsored by Benjamin Media and in conjunction with Virginia Tech.

The Clean Water America Alliance (CWAA), a newly formed organization focused on the promotion of water sustainability and the development of a viable national water policy to better address the provision of clean safe water for future generations, recently hosted its second national dialogue.

The financial services firm Janney Montgomery Scott held its annual Water Industry Summit March 22-23 in New York City at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

The National Association of Water Companies (NAWC) issued a release applauding the House Ways and Means Committee for passing the Small Business and Infrastructure Jobs Tax Act of 2010 March 17, and urged the House to follow suit and pass this bill.

Securing public and private utility sites and facilities from losses resulting from theft, burglary and vandalism is complicated, relatively expensive and often times frustrating.

A lot of discussion surrounds the need for condition assessment of existing infrastructure in order to properly prioritize the work that needs to be done to rehabilitate our water and sewer pipelines.

The decision, by an engineer, designer, municipal official or anyone else, of how to accomplish the renewal of a deteriorated buried pipe in an urban or suburban environment without excavation must be based on readily available parameters for the existing pipeline being examined.