Regulatory
Birmingham Water Works tries to reassure customers
The Birmingham Water Works Board is distancing itself from Jefferson County’s financial woes following a filing on Nov. 9 of the largest government bankruptcy in U.S. history, according to an article in The Birmingham News.
Upgrade water system, create nearly 1.9 million jobs
Want to create nearly 1.9 million American jobs and add $265 billion to the economy? Upgrade our water and wastewater infrastructure. That’s the message of a new report released by Green For All, in partnership with American Rivers, the Economic Policy Institute and the Pacific Institute. The Rockefeller Foundation generously provided funding for the project.
EPA Develops Planning Approach To Improve Water Quality In Cities
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a commitment to using an integrated planning process to help local governments dealing with difficult financial conditions identify opportunities to achieve clean water by controlling and managing releases of wastewater and stormwater runoff more efficiently and cost effectively.
Integrity Management Expansion Stirs Controversy In Congress
Two House committees are attempting to combine slightly different pipeline safety bills while Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is preventing a Senate vote on a bill passed by the Commerce Committee last May. All three bills are moderate, and make changes around the edges of current law, both with regard to natural gas and oil pipelines.
U.S. Labor Dept. improves Whistleblower Protection Program
In a continuing effort to improve the Whistleblower Protection Program, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced that it is implementing additional measures to strengthen the program and is releasing an internal report detailing a recent review of the program.
Atlanta gets A1 rating on water/wastewater bonds
Moody's Investors Service, one of the world’s leading credit rating agencies, affirmed in July Atlanta, GA’s A1 rating on the city’s $3.2 billion water and wastewater revenue bonds.
Disaster aid for Kane County, IL, infrastructure projects
Kane County, IL, has been awarded more than $2.27 million in federal disaster aid for five infrastructure projects aimed at alleviating chronic flooding. The federal funding is part of the Illinois “IKE” Disaster Recovery Program established in the wake of Hurricane Ike in Sept. 2008.
NTSB Recommendations On San Bruno Put Pressure On Congress, Administration; Keystone XL Decision Coming
The pipeline safety recommendations issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Aug. 30 puts significant pressure on both Congress and the Obama administration to respond to the problems discovered as part of the NTSB investigation of the PG&E San Bruno explosion in December 2010.
Jefferson County seeks better deal to settle debt
In an effort to avoid filing the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, officials in Alabama’s Jefferson County extended until mid-September talks with creditors holding $3.14 billion in debt incurred after officials borrowed money to fix their troubled sewer system and then entered into a number of complicated and corruption-laced refinancing deals that backfired in 2007 with the mortgage lending crisis. Those schemes also resulted in the conviction of a number of local officials and businessmen.
NLRB Pushing Pro-Union Agenda; EPA Proposal Affects Pipeline Compressors
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has picked up the pro-union cudgel from Democrats in Congress. In the last session of Congress, Democrats had tried and failed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) which would have expanded union organizing rights.
Official San Bruno Report Clears Pipe Bursting, Faults Utility And Oversight
On Aug. 30, the National Transportation Safety Board issued its final report on the fatal pipeline explosion in San Bruno, CA, that occurred on Sept. 9, 2010. The report named Pacific Gas & Electric's "lax approach to pipeline safety" and the failure of overseeing bodies to check that approach as the main factors in a preventable accident.
Water and wastewater construction loans awarded
Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and Department of Environment and Conservation Commissioner Bob Martineau announced recently that seven communities and one county have been approved to receive low-interest loans for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements.
New OSHA Web site explains recordkeeping rules
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration recently unveiled a new interactive web tool to help users determine whether injuries and illnesses are work-related and recordable under the OSHA Recordkeeping rules.
AEM progresses with I Make America
Less than a year ago, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) launched <em>I Make America</em>, a national grassroots campaign to increase jobs for America's equipment manufacturers. The message of <em>I Make America</em> is simple: the goal is to create a new manufacturing policy that creates jobs by rebuilding and modernizing America's infrastructure, and by helping farmers and manufacturers sell their products to new markets around the world.
Northeast Ohio regional sewer plan approved
In an effort to clean up Lake Erie that began with the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, U.S. District Court Judge Donald C. Nugent has approved a 25-year regional sewer district plan to reduce the amount of untreated waste that is dumped into local waterways, usually during flooding.
Voters looking for leadership, action to rebuild infrastructure
In a meeting held in May with Senators at the U.S. Capitol, Dennis Slater, president of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), called on Congress to address the urgent need to rebuild America’s infrastructure and to actively pursue innovative funding approaches to finance this critical investment without increasing the deficit.
Public-private solutions proposed to repair decaying water infrastructure
In the keynote address to the 2011 Pennsylvania Infrastructure Summit, Pennsylvania American Water President Kathy L. Pape said recently that expecting government bailouts is not a realistic, long-term solution to fix aging water and wastewater systems, which require tens of billions of dollars of capital investment.
DC Water awards $330M tunnel contract for clean rivers project
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC Water) Board of Directors has approved the Authority's largest contract to date, for the design and construction of a storage and conveyance tunnel as part of the Clean Rivers Project.
Hydrofracking changes water wells
A study by Duke University researchers has found high levels of leaked methane in well water collected near shale-gas drilling and hydrofracking sites.
Federal Fracking Initiatives Starting To Gel; PHMSA Reforms Uncertain; DOE Allowing More LNG Exports
The fracking debate is moving forward on two separate stages in Washington. The Department of Energy's natural gas subcommittee is expected to make recommendations on fracking liquid disclosure in August.
CertainTeed Honored For Environmental Efforts
CertainTeed Corporation, through its parent company Saint-Gobain, is once again sharing top honors for its contributions to protecting the environment through energy efficiency.
New Underground Construction Standards Imminent From OSHA; Pipeline Bill In Congress; Wetland Gas Repairs
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) appears ready to propose a new standard on silica exposure which would have a major impact on underground construction companies.
Dubuque to settle violations of Clean Water Act
The city of Dubuque, IA, has agreed to pay a $205,000 civil penalty and spend an additional $3 million on improvements to its water pollution control plant and sewer collection system over the next three years to settle a series of alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act.
CIPP Industry Defends Styrene Use
Organizations in the cured-in-place-pipe (CIPP) industry are seriously concerned about a recommendation before the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to designate styrene as a “reasonably anticipated carcinogen,” implying that it could be a cause of cancer in humans.
SRF Budgets Take Beating, Pipeline Safety In Focus, Fracing Initiative Announced
The EPA sewer and drinking water construction budgets for the current fiscal 2011 year dropped precipitously in the final budget passed by Congress. Fiscal 2011 actually started last Oct. 1 but Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate had been unable to agree on a budget.
Senators introduce critical pipeline safety act
The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation recently announced that Senators Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) have introduced legislation to improve pipeline safety efforts nationwide.
EPA awards grant for sewer improvements
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $868,000 to the city of Clinton, IA, for improvements to its wastewater system. The construction project is expected to be completed by the spring of 2012.
Sharp Budget Knife at Throat of SRFs
The Environmental Protection Agency’s water infrastructure congressional appropriations are destined to sink, maybe like stones, this year. Republicans and some Democrats want to severely cut the appropriations for both the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds in fiscal year 2011, which started last Oct. 1.
Agency examines other approaches to prevent work-related hearing loss
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced that it is withdrawing its proposed interpretation titled “Interpretation of OSHA’s Provisions for Feasible Administrative or Engineering Controls of Occupational Noise.”
INGAA Locks Horns with PHMSA
The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) has locked horns with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) over the agency's advisory bulletin on pipeline safety.
- OSHA cites Florida contractors for trench safety violations at sewer and excavation sites
- Biden-Harris administration invests $849 million in aging water infrastructure, drought resilience
- Cadiz to reuse steel from terminated Keystone XL pipeline for California groundwater project
- Texas contractor penalized by OSHA for repeated trench safety violations
- West Virginia approves $67 million for water, sewer projects