The City of Austin has once again extended its contract with Wachs Water Services to perform fire hydrant maintenance and assessment and repair services. The program involves maintenance of more than 8,000 hydrants per year including condition assessment, routine maintenance, collection of critical items ofRead More

Michels Corp. recently announced a new leadership structure for its Pipe Services division. Pat Herzog has been appointed vice president of Michels Pipe Services and Kelly Odell has been named vice president of Advanced Pipeline Product Development. ?This is the right leadership team to continueRead More

Sensus, a leading provider of smart grid infrastructure technologies for electric, gas and water utilities, has received the ?Companies to Watch in 2013? award from Smart Grid News. This award underlines the importance of Sensus? role in advancing the technology that drives smart water networks.Read More

Xylem Inc. (NYSE: XYL), a leading global water technology company focused on addressing the world?s most challenging water issues, announced Feb. 5 that it has acquired PIMS Group, a privately held United Kingdom-based wastewater services company, for approximately $57 million. The actual terms of theRead More

As many are aware, the term ?fiscal cliff? referred to the economic effect that would have likely evolved as a consequence of scheduled tax increases, scheduled spending cuts and the resulting reduction in the U.S. budget deficit beginning in 2013 if existing laws and guidelines had not been modified by the end of 2012. While the deficit would have been reduced by half, it was anticipated by the Congressional Budget Office that a combination of these initiatives would have led to a state of recession in early 2013.

?Payback? is getting more from an investment than what you invested. Every last one of us intuitively makes payback estimations before investing our money, time, careers and everything else. Some people do some actual math. That is seldom required for most decisions. Whether we use math or just intuition, we all seek positive paybacks, meaning we want more out of our investments than what we put in.

Water utility managers today have an often unenviable task: make the most of the assets they have to offset rising operational costs, both in the short and long terms. The key is water efficiency. In addition to the obvious, the resource itself, ?water efficiency? speaks as well to wise management of infrastructure, energy, revenue and more.

Wastewater facilities are faced with a myriad of challenges: aging infrastructure, rising labor costs and difficulty in getting rate increases to properly fund maintaining their operations. This has focused many utilities on looking for smart ways to cut costs without negatively affecting their ability to perform their mission

Imagine it is a typical Tuesday morning and your alarm sounds. You slap at the buttons to turn off the blaring buzz, climb out of bed and shuffle to your bathroom to wash your face and brush your teeth. You are getting ready to start your day as an operator at the nearby drinking water treatment plant. You go turn on your tap, but nothing comes out. You try the shower and, again, nothing. The same goes for the kitchen faucet, the one next to your coffee pot. No shower, no pearly whites, no coffee?this is not going to be a good day.

Every four years, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) publishes ?The Report Card for America?s Infrastructure,? which grades the current state of the nation?s infrastructure categories on a scale of A through F. This year, the U.S. infrastructure earned a D+ average — only a slight improvement from 2009. The report card provides an updated look at the state of U.S. infrastructure conditions, but there is also a larger question at stake: How does a D for infrastructure affect America?s economic future?