Regulatory
Wichita gets grant for storm sewer project
EPA has awarded $123,000 to the city of Wichita, KS, for improvements to its storm sewer system. The project is expected to be completed by the fall of 2012.
U.S. Clean Water Act settlement in Chicago to reduce sewage overflows
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the state of Illinois announced a Clean Water Act (CWA) settlement with the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) to resolve claims that untreated sewer discharges were released into Chicago area waterways during flood and wet weather events.
EPA awards grant to Missouri city for sewer project
EPA has awarded $1,455,000 to the city of Lee’s Summit, MO, for improvements to its sewer system. The project is expected to be completed by the summer of 2014.
Surviving An Exceptional Funding Drought
As last summer’s drought conditions wore on, I learned that there is a condition even worse than “extreme.” There is an “exceptional” drought category, which essentially means “pending devastation if you don’t get rain fast.” The impact of this drought, when finally broken, will be felt for years.
Rule Changes, Proposals Could Prove Significant For 2012 Underground Market
The One-Call and excavation damage provisions included in the new pipeline safety bill passed by Congress in December will trigger a number of state and federal responses in 2012. However, a rule allowing the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to impose civil penalties on excavators -- ordered by the 2006 pipeline safety bill but never finalized -- would be even more significant. A proposed rule moving that requirement forward is expected this year, finally, perhaps as early as this winter.
Pipeline VOC Emission Limits Soon To Be Finalized; EPA Makes Changes To Pipeline GHG Reporting Rule
Natural gas transmission companies are very unhappy with the EPA's decision to tighten industry air emission limits. A consent decree signed by the EPA requires the agency to revise both New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) and national emission standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) for the natural gas industry, including for pipelines, by the end of February. Those are two separate EPA regulatory programs.
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.
- Intrepid Fiber breaks ground on fiber optic network in Superior, Colo.
- Excavator collides with I-95 overpass in Henrico, Va., causing multi-vehicle crash
- Shrewsbury, Mass., expands sewer inspections and cleaning efforts
- Two workers rescued after hours trapped in Mich. trench collapse
- Trump calls for Keystone XL pipeline revival, but developer has moved on
- Illinois overhauls Peoples Gas pipeline program, mandates focus on high-risk pipes
- Ameren Illinois to invest $140 million in natural gas pipeline replacement program
- Charlottesville, Va., to begin work on 24-inch water line for Rivanna River crossing
- Mass. governor slams Trump for ‘dangerous delay’ of $50 million in lead pipe replacement funds