The Wave | Spring 2019

THE

Spring 2019

Tata & Howard Employees to Visit Africa In the small, landlocked country of Rwanda, situated amid a dense population of nearly 12 million inhabitants, Water for People (WFP) expanded their mission of promoting the development of high-quality drinking water and sanitation services. The ‘Everyone Forever’ mission they promote was built out of their Rwanda office in Kigali and is a programmatic effort to provide water and sanitation to Everyone in targeted districts, Forever.

To understand the full scope of Water for People’s vision while also supporting their mission, two Tata & Howard employee owners will be heading off to visit Water for People’s Rwanda site as part of their Impact Tour in September of this year.

Water for People’s Impact Tours were created in efforts to show stakeholders how the organization is strengthening communities and fostering independence within defined geographical areas – that is, by bringing clean water and sanitation to every family, clinic, and school.

This issue: Employees Embark on Impact Tour PAGES 01-02

Falmouth Main St. Water Main Construction PAGE 03

T&H Jobs & New Employees PAGE 04

Wastewater is an Asset PAGE 05

Navajo Water Rights Bill Introduced PAGE 06

Photo: Water for People

Story continued on pg. 2 >

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Philanthropy IMPACT TOUR 2019

Tata & Howard Employees to Visit Africa Continued from pg. 1

Throughout the course of an Impact Tour, participants will visit one of Water for People’s sites for a week to visit country staff, see the work they are doing, and witness firsthand what supporting Water for People truly looks like. Participants will interact directly with community leaders, local staff, government officials and people whose lives have been changed for the better due to the support and work in their area.

There are typically two Impact Tours each year. The first took place in Bolivia from April 13-18. The Rwanda Impact Tour that our team members will be participating in will take place from September 7-12.

James Hoyt, Project Manager, was randomly chosen to attend this special trip through a company-wide raffle that was put together through our ESOP Committee. The raffle encouraged employees to continue supporting an organization we have been heavily involved with as a company, while also increasing employee engagement.

James is excited and honored for the opportunity to represent T&H for the Rwanda Impact Tour. He looks forward to meeting and interacting with Water for People staff and the local community while learning from their experiences.

James Hoyt & Jenna Rzasa

$7,728

“It is meaningful to have the opportunity to bring this experience back to the company and to be an advocate for the positive changes the organization is making,” he said.

Tata & Howard Co-President, Jenna Rzasa will also be accompanying James on the Rwanda Impact Tour this September. As a donor and supporter of Water for People for the last 15+ years, Jenna saw the Impact Tour as a wonderful opportunity to see the positive benefits that come as a result of providing safe drinking water to the people of Rwanda.

“Not only is WFP important to me, but also to the late Don Tata (cofounder of Tata & Howard), who was passionate about the organization and the winner of the 2018 Kenneth J. Miller Founders’ Award,” said Jenna. “By choosing to attend the trip with the Tata & Howard raffle winner, it serves as a tribute to Don as well,” she added.

We look forward to sharing updates and photos from James’ and Jenna’s trip!

Tata & Howard matched employee contributions to WFP for a total of $7,728 in 2018!

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Falmouth Main St. Water Main Construction Tata & Howard was contracted to provide design, construction administration and resident observation for the installation of 18,000 linear feet (approximately 3.5 miles) of 16-inch ductile iron water main in Falmouth, MA. Water main replacement will be in Main Street and Route 28 from the intersection of West Main Street and Locust Street, to the intersection of Teaticket Highway and Oxbow Road.

New water main will be replacing the town’s 10-inch cast iron water pipes that were originally installed in 1898. Falmouth’s 121-year-old water infrastructure has stood strong for more than a century; however, it has become clear that it’s nearing the end of its useful life and approaching the age at which it needs to be replaced. Evidence of this can be seen in the three water main breaks that have occurred since August of 2018. In addition, the original water main is hydraulically deficient and needs to be upsized to meet the increasing demands in the system.

Construction began at the beginning of April and continued up until Memorial Day of this year. During the heavy tourist months in Cape Cod, construction will be placed on hold and will resume again after Labor Day. Project completion is expected in 2021.

Current Projects Barnstable, MA Tata & Howard is providing construction administration and resident observation services for the Maher Filtration Plant in Barnstable, MA. The filtration plant will include iron and manganese pressure filtration, advanced oxidation with UV, and activated carbon filtration.

Fairhaven, MA The town of Fairhaven, MA has contracted Tata & Howard to provide evaluation, procurement and installation assistance of water meters and advanced metering infrastructure (AMI).

Auburn, MA The Auburn Water District awarded Tata & Howard with engineering construction services for Prospect Street Water Tank No. 1, a new 1.0 million gallon (MG) capacity glass-fusedto-steel water storage tank. Work also includes demolition of an existing 0.5 MG welded steel water tank.

Marion, MA Tata & Howard will provide engineering services for an update of the Town’s Water Distribution System study originally completed in October 2014.

Falmouth, MA - Water Main Installation on Rt. 28

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Employee News New Team Members Tata & Howard welcomed Sam Jeppson, Assistant Project Engineer, to the Marlborough office earlier this year. With a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Sam has 11 years of experience as an engineer, nine of which are in the water/wastewater facet. Sam is most passionate about helping to solve complex problems in the water space.

Jessica Kemp, Marketing & Communications Manager, joined the T&H team in February. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, Jessica brings nearly 10 years of strategic marketing and communications experience to the firm. Hailing from the world of higher education and enrollment marketing, Jessica is excited to take her career in a new direction within the engineering space.

Construction Manager, Barry Pociask joined the team in March. Barry brings more than 30 years of vertical and horizontal construction expertise in water and wastewater and will be a tremendous asset during the design phases and construction of large-scale facilities.

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Work with Tata & Howard Are you interested in making a lasting impact in the lives of millions?

Water touches everything and everyone we care about, which is why Tata & Howard takes pride in delivering unsurpassed water, wastewater, stormwater and environmental solutions to hundreds of clients each year.

We’re looking for innovative and passionate individuals to join our growing team. We have several open positions across our offices in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

Head to our website at bit.ly/CareersTH to learn more and apply to the positions below.

• Resident Project Representative (Water/Wastewater) – Massachusetts and Connecticut • Water/Wastewater Senior Manager – Vermont • Water/Wastewater Engineer – Massachusetts • Water/Wastewater Project Engineer – Massachusetts • Water/Wastewater Project Engineer – Vermont • Water/Wastewater Project Engineer -Connecticut • Project Manager, Water Engineering - Massachusetts • Office/Project Manager – Salem, NH

Beyond the Waste Why wastewater is a true asset On the surface, the water affected by domestic, industrial, commercial or agricultural use doesn’t seem too glamorous. In fact, wastewater may seem just like what the name suggests -– waste. But beyond trickling down pipes to a treatment plant, wastewater has potential for so much more.

Before any used water can be discharged into nature, it must be treated.

The process of treating the water uses an incredible amount of energy.

According to the Environmental Protection agency (EPA), water and wastewater facilities account for more than a third of municipal energy budgets. One way to counter this is to recover energy from the wastewater itself. In a study conducted at Stanford University, wastewater was found to contain more than three times the amount of energy used to treat it.

Through anaerobic digestion, a process in which microorganisms feed on grease and other organic materials in wastewater to produce biogas, part of this energy can be recovered. Biogas is made up of 50% methane, which can be used as fuel for heating systems, boilers, and even power to turn turbines that will ultimately generate electricity.

Other valuable resources found in wastewater are nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorous. These nutrients are essential in the growth of plants. In current water treatment processes, ammonia found in urine is converted into nitrogen. Phosphates in solid form can also be removed from wastewater using filtration processes in the primary treatment stage.

Together these resources can fuel rapid plant growth, which is why they are heavily used in fertilizers.

34 billion gallons of water are processed in treatment plants in the U.S. each day, according to the EPA. To recover and reuse valuable assets from such a vast amount of our world’s most important resource is monumental. As research and technology continue to advance, more and more assets will appear in the water so many refer to as ‘waste.’

Water News First-ever Stormwater Needs Survey The Water Environment Federation (WEF) released the first-ever analysis of needs for the U.S. stormwater sector – a field that is notoriously data-poor. Within the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) assessment, 622 responses were received from 48 states, including the District of Columbia. The goal of this survey was to understand the general needs and challenges of MS4 permitees.

Based on data collected from this survey, a shocking $7.5 billion annual funding gap in the MS4 sector was revealed.

Other findings included: • Phase I and II (municipal and nontraditional) permittees ranked regulatory compliance, local flooding, and water quality and habitat restoration issues as important program drivers.

• The most significant challenges identified are lack of funding, aging infrastructure, and evolving regulations.

• The greatest need for information and technical resources is related to funding and financing.

• A lack of priority by respondents regarding climate change, which points to the need to highlight how changing precipitation patterns will impact MS4s in the future.

With new data surrounding stormwater needs, it is important to note that stormwater is the only growing source of water pollution in many waterways across the country. With the urban population expected to grow 70 percent by 2050, there is a significant need for improvements in stormwater systems.

Milford Wastewater Treatment Plant

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Under Construction (De)leading the Way The City of Marlborough, MA (home of T&H headquarters) contracted Tata & Howard for the design, pre-construction services, construction administration and resident observation of approximately 1,200 lead water service connections.

Until 1944, lead was widely used in service lines and is quite common in many of the older cities and towns in Massachusetts.

Lead pipes currently placed between the streets and homes of identified Marlborough residents will be replaced with copper pipes in five phases - each phase consisting of approximately 250 homes.

Tata & Howard will be involved in each phase, reviewing tie-cards, attending field surveys to determine what each service placement will entail, and advising contractors on the quantity of pipes to be installed in each location.

Although lead is known to be a major health risk to children and pregnant women, the supplier of Marlborough’s water, Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), treats all water to reduce lead from getting into drinking water.

Navajo Water Rights Bill Introduced The Navajo Utah Water Rights Settlement Act of 2019 was introduced in April by U.S. Senators Mitt Romney, Martha McSally and Kyrsten Sinema in hopes of settling a decades-long negotiation over water rights for Utah Navajos.

For years there has been a great deal of conflict over who has the right to water that flows through Utah and the Navajo Nation. Currently, about half of the 5,000 citizens who live in Navajo Nation do not have running water.

Legislation would: • Settle current and future claims by the Navajo Nation for water rights within Utah • Provide the Navajo Nation with the right to deplete 81,500 acre-feet of water per year from Utah’s Colorado River Basin • Authorize $210 million in funding for water infrastructure on the Utah portion of Navajo Nation • Require the State of Utah to contribute $8 million in funding to the settlement Tata & Howard is a longtime supporter of the Navajo Water Project, a subsidiary of DIGDEEP that works to provide safe, accessible drinking water to those living in Navajo Nation. The Navajo Water Project is a community-managed utility alternative that brings running water to homes without access to water or sewer lines. So far, new sources including wells have been developed so water can be pumped, treated, and stored locally. Water is then delivered to hundreds of families living close to the source.

Although these efforts have made tremendous positive impacts in the lives of thousands of Navajo, 40 percent still must haul water home every day. The price to pay for hauled water is 67x more vs. piped water.

Once approved, this Act will bring water infrastructure and running water to a community so deserving of our earth’s most precious resource. “Many lives are going to be blessed because of it,” said Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer.

Exterior and interior photos from Marlborough site visits Photo: Navajo Water Project

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PFAS Contamination Sites Increasing Across the Country Contaminants known as Per- and polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are increasingly being detected in water samples both in the United States and around the world. As of March 2019, at least 610 locations in 43 states are known to be affected, including drinking water systems that serve an estimated 110 million people.

What are PFAS? PFAS are man-made chemicals that have been used in both industry and consumer products since the 1950s. Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) have been the most extensively produced and studied compounds of these chemicals. Both chemicals are very persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time. The most common products that PFAS are used in include: Non-stick cookware Products that resist grease, water, and oil Water-repellent clothing Stain resistant fabrics Firefighting foams Some cosmetics Exposure to PFAS can happen through a variety of ways including: Drinking contaminated municipal water or private well water Eating fish caught from a source that was contaminated with PFAS Swallowing contaminated soil or dust Eating food that was packaged in material containing PFAS Using consumer products including the ones listed above The Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Northeastern University’s Social Science Environmental Health Research Institute (SSEHRI) have been at the forefront of PFAS detection within many communities in different parts of the country and have identified 36 sites in New England alone that are affected by PFAS.

As a leader in water, wastewater, stormwater, and environmental engineering services, Tata & Howard has proven expertise in the removal of PFOA and PFOS. Recent treatment experience includes the design of the new Maher Filtration Plant in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Tata & Howard designed this plant in an effort to treat the elevated levels of PFOA, PFOS, 1,4 Dioxane, and iron and manganese in the three drinking water production wells at the existing treatment facility. Using granular activated carbon filtration, the successful removal of PFOS/PFOA will be obtained in the new filtration plant. The greensand pressure filtration will not only remove the iron and manganese, but also extend the useful life of the granular activated carbon.

To learn more about treatment options, please contact us directly at 508.303.9400.

Current Projects Fairlee, VT T&H is currently designing a water treatment facility for the Town’s water supply. The filtration system will reduce iron and manganese below Secondary Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs).

Bondsville, MA The Sykes Street Water Main and Pump Station are currently in the design phase.

The project consists of approximately 5,100 linear feet of new 12” ductile iron water main on Route 181 in Bondsville towards Three Rivers. The project also consists of a new pump station and PRV vault to create an interconnection between the Bondsville Fire & Water District and the Three Rivers Water District for emergency purposes.

Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA Tata & Howard has designed a cured in place pipe (CIPP) lining of a sewer line along the shoreline of Manchester-by-the -Sea which is tidally influenced. The contract also includes, but is not limited to, epoxy lining of manholes, frame and cover replacements, and raising manholes.

Marion, MA Engineering design for pump station upgrades at the Mary’s Pond Wellfield in Marion, MA are well underway. This includes activating three gravel packed wells, well cleaning, and pump station rehabilitation. Work is ongoing and is expected to bid this summer.

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PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID WORCESTER, MA PERMIT NO. 143

67 Forest Street Marlborough, MA 01752 T: 508-303-9400 F: 508-449-9400 www.tataandhoward.com

Unsurpassed Solutions in the Water Environment

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