Business

Illinois American Water Announces Winners of “Imagine a Day Without Water” Art Contest

Illinois American Water has selected the winners of its annual “Imagine a Day Without Water” art contest. The company offered the contest to 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classrooms within the company’s service area. The contest is held annually in conjunction with the Value of Water Coalition’s “Imagine a..

PSE&G Upgrades NatGas Pipeline Infrastructure Post-Sandy

Five years after Hurricane Sandy left two million New Jerseyans without power, Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G) has completed strategic infrastructure investments that, in the event of another Sandy-like storm, will keep critical equipment out of floodwaters’ way and the lights on for..

Man Dies While Working in Sewer Line Outside Chicago

STREAMWOOD, Ill. (AP) — Authorities have identified a Gurnee man as the worker who died in a suburban Chicago sewer line. The Cook County medical examiner says 22-year-old Brett Morrow died in the accident in Streamwood, about 30 miles (48.28 kilometers) northwest of Chicago. Firefighters worked ro..

Utility Worker Cleaning Storm Debris in North Carolina Dies

TAYLORSVILLE, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina sheriff says a utility worker has been killed after cutting a tree which had fallen on a power line following a severe storm. Alexander County Sheriff Chris Bowman told local media outlets that 31-year-old Brian Keith Wilmoth was cutting the tree Wednesday..

Four Union Utility Workers from New Jersey American Water Travel to Puerto Rico for Relief Work

Four New Jersey American Water employees joined a team of more than 300 AFL-CIO volunteers who traveled to Puerto Rico on Oct. 4 to help with Hurricane Maria relief efforts. The employees who volunteered to join this two-week assignment are Utility Mechanics Al Archila, Karl Engallena and Jorge Pere..

Kinder Morgan Warns About Trans Mountain Delays

Kinder Morgan has warned that its Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion project is facing possibly months of delays because of the timing of permit issuance and other regulatory approvals. The delay could be as long as nine months, Kinder Morgan’s chief executive Steven Kean said in a recent confer..

Public Meetings Set on Montana Utility's Proposed Gas Rate Increase

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota regulators have scheduled public meetings on a request by Montana Dakota Utilities to raise its natural gas rates. The proposed increase is for $5.9 million annually over current rates, or a 5.4 percent overall increase. The average residential customer would see ..

Enbridge Receives Presidential Permit for Line 67 Pipeline

The U.S. Department of State has granted a presidential permit to Enbridge Energy, L.P., authorizing the company to increase transport up to a full design capacity of approximately 890,000 barrels per day of crude oil and other hydrocarbons across a three-mile segment of the Line 67 Pipeline at the ..

Michigan Utility Companies Partner to Showcase Careers in Energy

DTE Energy, Consumers Energy and the Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL) are partnering to provide Michigan students an up-close look at vibrant career paths with the fourth annual Careers in Energy Week, proclaimed Oct. 16-20 by Gov. Rick Snyder. More than 99,000 Michiganders have energy-rela..

Water Environment & Reuse Foundation and Water Research Foundation Announce Integration into One Organization

The Boards of Directors for the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation (WE&RF) and Water Research Foundation (WRF) have voted unanimously to integrate the two organizations into one research foundation. Beginning on January 1, 2018, the new organization will be led by a single Board of Directors comp..

The Toro Company Recognized With 2017 EPA WaterSense® Excellence Award

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today recognized The Toro Company with a 2017 WaterSense® Excellence Award for its contributions to the WaterSense program and furthering efforts in water efficiency in 2016. Toro was presented the award at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Expo..

Customers Against Indiana Michigan Power Rate Hike

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Indiana residents say they can’t afford Indiana Michigan Power’s proposed 20 percent rate hike increase, which would be used to improve the utility’s electric distribution system in Indiana. Customers would see an estimated $26 monthly increase, which could go into effect ..

Geospatial Corporation Makes Leadership Change

Geospatial Corporation has named Rob Brook to the company’s executive management team.  Brook, who will serve as Team Lead GeoUnderground is a former Senior Director – Gas Infrastructure for Pacific Gas & Electric and he served as the Global Pipeline and Gas Utilities Industry Manager for ESRI. ..

Bentley Systems Completes Rollout of Comprehensive Modeling Environment for Infrastructure

Bentley Systems, Incorporated, has completed its CONNECT Edition application portfolio for design, analytical, construction, and asset performance modeling of infrastructure. The CONNECT Edition’s comprehensive modeling environment supports aligned digital workflows across applications for all proje..

Pressman Joins Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board

Barry D. Pressman was seated today as the city of Beverly Hills’ representative on the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Pressman replaces Robert Wunderlich, who had served on the board since July 2007. A professor and chair of the Department of Imaging ..

WaterStart Begins Accepting Grant Proposals

Nevada-based incubator, WaterStart, has started accepting proposals from companies around the world with timely, collaborative and unique applications on how their technologies can help its members advance development and management in various areas related to water. With support from both its memb..

Middlesex Water Company Files Rate Request Seeking Recovery for System Upgrades

Middlesex Water Company has filed a petition with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) for a general increase in water rates for its Middlesex system in New Jersey.  Middlesex filed the request seeking recovery of $92 million in investments made to its drinking water infrastructure since..

Nokia and WOW! Deploy Industry's First Virtualized Distributed Access Architecture

Nokia and WOW! today announced the cable industry’s first commercial virtualized Distributed Access Architecture (vDAA) deployment designed to significantly increase the capacity of WOW!’s existing Hybrid Fiber-Coaxial network and help meet exploding bandwidth demands of subscribers. Traditional Hy..

Xcel Energy may Split Subsidiary for Minnesota, North Dakota

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Xcel Energy has proposed splitting its utility operations in North Dakota and Minnesota, telling regulators that widening policy differences between the two states over clean energy have caused stresses that might best be resolved through a breakup. But a consultant for the North..

Authorities ID Victims in Western Michigan Trench Collapse

WYOMING, Mich. (AP) — Authorities have identified the man killed in a trench collapse in western Michigan and say the man who was rescued was his father. Wyoming firefighters said Tuesday the collapse killed 30-year-old Christopher James Godfrey, who was completely buried by dirt. Firefighters res..

Vincent Sapienza Named Commissioner of New York City's DEP

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has named Vincent Sapienza as the Commissioner of the City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).  During his 34 years with DEP, Sapienza has served in leadership posts for several of the key operating divisions, has overseen major capital improvements and..

Vortex Companies, Deep Trekker Form Strategic Sewer Repair Partnership

The Vortex Companies announced today that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Deep Trekker, a developer and manufacturer of commercial-grade pipe inspection crawlers and other remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). Based in Canada, Deep Trekker and Vortex will aggressively attack the trench..

Omaha Utility Says Water, Gas Rates Likely to Rise in 2018

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An Omaha-area utility says work to replace aging infrastructure will see natural gas and water bills in the area rise again next year. Metropolitan Utilities District is planning increases similar to those approved for 2017, the Omaha World-Herald reported . The board ..

1 Worker Dead, Another Rescued After Trench Collapse

WYOMING, Mich. (AP) — Authorities say a trench collapse in western Michigan has left one worker dead and one rescued. Wyoming Fire Chief Chuck Lark said firefighters were called about 2 p.m. Monday to a residence where the collapse occurred. He tells The Grand Rapids Press that when they arrived, o..

California American Water to Purchase Hillview Water Company

California American Water has entered into a Purchase Agreement to acquire the operating assets of Hillview Water Company and assume the provision of water service within the Hillview Water Company service area between Oakhurst and Raymond, Calif. Hillview Water Company, which consists of approxima..

Ex-Santee Cooper Lawyer Returns to Run Utility

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina’s state-owned utility is bringing back a familiar face to temporarily lead the company as it deals with the problems created by a failed $10 billion nuclear power plant project. James Brogdon Jr. was named interim president and CEO of Santee Cooper by the utilit..

Agency Plans Northwestern Arizona Water Purchase, Transfer

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — The operator of the Central Arizona Project aqueduct system is planning to buy water rights in rural northwestern Arizona to transfer the water for use in the Phoenix and Tucson areas. The agency’s governing board approved the purchase agreement on Thursday to buy seven farms c..

California Launches First-Ever Water Professionals Appreciation Week

California today announced it will celebrate its first-ever Water Professionals Appreciation Week from October 7 through October 15 as part of a new annual designation intended to highlight the important role of water industry professionals and local public water agencies in ensuring safe and reliab..

CountryWide Broadband To Acquire Full Channel

CountryWide Broadband today announced that, along with Seaport Capital of New York, the company has agreed to acquire Full Channel, a leading provider of broadband video entertainment, high-speed internet access, and telephone services to residents and businesses in Rhode Island’s East Bay, includin..

Peak 10 + ViaWest Data Center Chosen as US Point of Presence for Subsea Cable to New Zealand and Australia

Peak 10 + ViaWest today announced that its Brookwood data center in Hillsboro, Ore. was selected by Hawaiki Submarine Cable as its US point of presence. The cable will stretch more than 14,000 km across the Pacific Ocean and will be the first carrier-neutral, low-latency, fiber optic connection betw..