A Guide to Sometimes Overused but Always Essential Terms, Acronyms & Other Basics of the Modern Water Utility Industry Whether you’re new to the water utility industry or you’re a seasoned veteran, you have to admit there’s a ton of jargon, buzzwords and acronyms to navigate. Like any field, waterRead More

The Oro Loma Sanitary District Board of Directors recently approved low-cost financing to replace old sewer collection system infrastructure serving its customers and communities while protecting the environment.   With this financing, the Board maintains its 10-Year Strategic Plan and implements priorities to maintain its infrastructure in a pro-active manner toRead More

Last week, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its 2021 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, giving overall infrastructure in the United States a cumulative grade of C-. Although the report card finds the country is spending just over half of what is needed, it’s the first time infrastructure as a wholeRead More

Everyone knows that running a water or wastewater utility is closely connected to the important mission of protecting the environment and public health. For Andy Kricun, the real mission has always been beyond the utility, making an impact on the community. “I always believed very strongly that a big partRead More

Recent trial programs looking at the efficacy of testing wastewater to detect COVID-19 outbreaks have yielded important insights about how this method of testing can be used to improve public health, including providing an early indicator of infection that can be used to trigger advisories and recommendations How to BringRead More

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced a $513 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) in California to help finance needed pretreatment and other related improvements to its Southeast Treatment Plant, which treats 80 percent of San Francisco’sRead More

Itron has announced it has completed the first phase of its deployment of a wastewater management solution with its customer Miami-Dade County Water & Sewer Department (WASD). Taking advantage of Itron’s developer program, Itron, Utility Systems Science & Software (US3) and The Avanti Company created an innovative IoT solution forRead More

By Greg Quist Stormwater and sanitary sewer systems may be some of the least technologically sophisticated systems in the utility’s arsenal. Most often, these systems are gravity-based and out of sight. As a result, operational assessments are limited to the occasional visual inspection when an operator lifts a manhole toRead More

By G. Tracy Mehan, III In the classic 1942 film “Casablanca,” Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, is asked by the world-weary Vichy French Captain Renault, played by Claude Rains, “What in heaven’s name brought you to Casablanca?” “I came to Casablanca for the waters,” replies Rick. Captain Renault responds, “TheRead More

Congress approved legislation last week that ended a brief government shutdown, set a federal budgetary framework through the 2019 fiscal year and delivered billions of dollars in disaster relief aid to communities affected by the devastating hurricanes in fall 2017. The bill was approved as part of a deal between RepublicanRead More