As part of EPA’s Sustainable Infrastructure Initiative, the Office of Water collaborates with partner organizations, hosts and co-sponsors to provide training sessions on best practices in Advanced Asset Management. Upcoming workshop sessions will take place in Los Angeles, CA on April 21 - 22, 2010; Virginia Beach, VA on April 28 - 30, 2010; and Oakland, CA on June 30 - July 1, 2010. The Training workshops are primarily designed to meet the Advanced Asset Management training needs of water and wastewater utility CEOs and senior level personnel.
As part of their “Toxic Waters” series the NY Times on Monday looked at New York City’s wastewater collection and treatment system and found it’s frequently overwhelmed when it rains – leading to combined sewer overflows (CSO).
The article, titled Sewers Fill, Waste Poisons Waterways, sums up the dire situation: “Despite (billions in) upgrades, many sewer systems are still frequently overwhelmed, according to a New York Times analysis of environmental data. As a result, sewage is spilling into waterways.”
The article looks closely at the Owls Head WPCP in Brooklyn and the obstacles operators face in treating storm flows…
“The public has no clue how important these sewage plants are,” said Bob Connaughton, the Plant Engineer. “Waterborne disease was the scourge of mankind for centuries. These plants stopped that. We’re doing everything we can to clean as much sewage as possible, but sometimes, that isn’t enough.”
The NY Times series on water is one of many this year that captured the public’s attention. There’s also the PBS-Frontline special Poisoned Waters about stormwater pollution and the AP’s on-going series about prescription drugs flushed down the drain (a huge no-no of course!) and their impact on ecosystems. The Atlantic magazine hosted a water conference last month in DC about dwindling supplies of clean water. And so on…
Perhaps the years of public outreach by CWEA, WEF, WIN, NACWA and WWEMA (Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association) are finally paying off with more public coverage of America’s crumbling water/wastewater infrastructure.
In the latest twist to LA’s on-going hunt for answers of major water main breaks – scientists from NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena have been called in to see if tectonic movement is causing the “major blowouts” as the DWP calls them. Overall water main breaks are down according to a spokesperson, but the number of “major” breaks is above average.
From an LA Times story…
The DWP said it’s too early to determine a cause. But officials confirmed they are seeking assistance from USC, JPL and Cornell University, but declined to comment further. As part of JPL’s effort, scientists will be analyzing radar data of ground movement taken from a NASA airplane.
Engineers also stressed that the city’s 7,200 miles of pipe aren’t actually leaking more than usual — in fact, the number of leaks, about 1,400 a year, is down from the past and represents a lower rate per mile of pipe than in other cities.
Chuck Rogers, Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant Superintendent, walks to the top of an anaerobic digester that converts biosolids into methane gas. Thousand Oaks is seeking federal stimulus funds to help upgrade the plant’s energy-producing capability. (credit: Joseph A. Garcia, Ventura County Star)
Several utilities in the Tri-Counties area were featured in an article about green energy, stimulus funding and all the cool things wastewater treatment plants can do to generate energy and recycle biosolids.
Chuck Rogers, CWEA member and Superintendent of Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant (Thousand Oaks) is featured in the article.
Rogers stopped in front of one of two large internal combustion engines used for co-generation. He is confident the entire plant, the largest energy user among city-owned facilities, will soon be fully powered by renewable energy. “We will achieve it and blow right past it,” Rogers said
CWEA’s Northern regional Training Conference in Redding not only trained hundreds wastewater professionals, but raised awareness of our aging infrastructure and the public health benefits of clean water with the City of Redding’s Mayor and the public.
Redding’s Record Searchlight was at the conference and reported that aging sewer pipes, pumps and plants will mean more leaks and spills if they’re not replaced. Investment in sewer infrastructure will be a hard sell when a grinding global recession has forced cities to cut police and fire protection.
Redding Mayor Rick Bosetti listens as John Tasello, retired wastewater collection supervisor for Redding, talks about nozzles used to clean sewer systems during the NRTC09 conference in Redding. Photo by Nathan Morgan, Redding.com
But sanitation is a part of public safety, too, said CWEA President Darren Greenwood, water resources manager for the San Francisco Bay area city of Livermore and president of the California Water Environment Association (CWEA).
“We’ve been so successful, no one notices us,” Greenwood said. “You flush and it goes away. But if a community underfunds wastewater, the infrastructure deteriorates. And when an agency upgrades treatment, that’s a good thing for the environment. It’s time to remind people there will be a need for funding.”
Greenwood said he supports the idea of a national “flush out,” modeled on the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout Challenge. But the idea would be to go a day without flushing to dramatize how key sewer systems are to public health.
Read the whole Record Searchlight article .
An LA City fire truck stuck in a sinkhole on Tuesday Sept 8th after a break in a 6" drinking water pipeline. The break follows the much larger Studio City water main break that occurred Saturday night. (Credit: Flickr, Mick_O, cc)
With five Los Angeles Dept of Water & Power drinking water pipelines bursting within a few miles of one another within the last ten days some folks in Los Angeles are wondering what’s going on under their feet. According to an LA Times article, DWP engineers are also wondering why the number of leaks overall are down – but major blowouts (shooting out the streets type stuff) are way up.
It might be good if people pay more attention to the infrastructure that surrounds them and makes life better. In Los Angeles and in cities across California infrastructure is wearing out and reaching the end of its useful life. The large 62″ DWP pipeline which failed Saturday night was nearly 100-years old.
Infrastructure falling apart isn’t just a problem in LA. The following organizations have been warning for years about a widening investment gap in America’s water and wastewater infrastructure…
- EPA – 2002 Infrastructure Gap Report
- WEF – Water is Life and Infrastructure Makes it Happen
- CBO - 2002 Future Investment in Water/Wastewater Report
- WIN – 2000 Water Infrastructure Network Report
- ASCE - 2009 US Infrastructure Report
The EPA forecasts communities are under-investing by $10 to $20-billion each year o projects like replacing old drinking water and wastewater pipes, as well as upgrading wastewater treatment plants. That gap will grow to $220-billion int he coming decades according to EPA reports.
Tell us below in a comment what California should do about our crumbling water and wastewater infrastructure.
Here’s a good overview from CBS News about the nation’s failing infrastructure…
