Municipal Water Leader March 2021

Volume 8 Issue 3

March 2021

Jerry Brown: Advancing the Sites Reservoir Project

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Municipal Water Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for May/June and November/December by

an American company established in 2009.

STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Tyler Young, Writer Stephanie Biddle, Graphic Designer Eliza Moreno, Web Designer Caroline Polly, Production Assistant and Social Media Coordinator Cassandra Leonard, Staff Assistant

8

Jerry Brown: Advancing the Sites Reservoir Project

Contents March 2021 Volume 8, Issue 3

5 N ew Construction

By Kris Polly 8 Jerry

Brown: Advancing the Sites Reservoir Project 12 P rogress on the Integrated Pipeline Project

28 H ow Burns & McDonnell Is Helping Homewood, Illinois, Transition Its Water Source 34 N ational Water Resources Association President Christine Arbogast on WRDA 2020

ADVERTISING: Municipal Water Leader accepts half-page and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

CIRCULATION: Municipal Water Leader is distributed to all drinking water and wastewater entities with annual budgets or sales of $10 million per year or greater as well as to members of Congress and committee staff and advertising sponsors. For address corrections or additions, or if you would prefer to receive Municipal Water Leader in electronic form, please contact us at admin@waterstrategies.com.

Copyright © 2021 Water Strategies LLC. Municipal Water Leader relies on the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources professionals who provide content for the magazine. However, the views and opinions expressed by these contributors are solely those of the original contributor and do not necessarily represent or reflect the policies or positions of Municipal Water Leader magazine, its editors, or Water Strategies LLC. The acceptance and use of advertisements in Municipal Water Leader do not constitute a representation or warranty by Water Strategies LLC or Municipal Water Leader magazine regarding the products, services, claims, or companies advertised. @MuniWaterLeader

Coming soon in Municipal Water Leader: April: Apprenticeships and Career Development Do you have a story idea for an upcoming issue? Contact our editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

4 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

/MuniWaterLeader

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COVER PHOTO:

Jerry Brown, Executive Director, Sites Project Authority.

Photo courtesy of James Morris (CalRice).

municipalwaterleader.com

. PHOTO COURTESY OF JAMES MORRIS (CALRICE).

22 Z ach Renstrom: Planning for the Future of the Washington County Water Conservancy District

SUBMISSIONS: Municipal Water Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions; the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only upon request. For more information, please contact our office at (202) 698-0690 or municipal.water.leader@waterstrategies.com.

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New Construction

By Kris Polly

T

he history of American water resources is marked by the construction of monumental structures like Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee Dam, the Colorado River Aqueduct, and the Central Arizona Project. But such construction is not limited to the past. Around the country today, large-scale reservoir and pipeline projects as well as important municipal projects continue to be planned and executed.

Perhaps one of the most impressive projects now being planned is the proposed 1.5-million-acre-foot Sites Reservoir, which will capture storm water flows from the Sacramento River for storage and release in dry years for environmental, residential, and agricultural uses. We interview Jerry Brown, the executive director of the Sites Project Authority, about the project, which is projected to be complete in 2030.

Meanwhile, Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD), which provides water to Fort Worth, Texas, is making progress on its enormous Integrated Pipeline (IPL), which will supply Fort Worth and Dallas with 350 million gallons per day of raw water supplies from East Texas reservoirs.

IPL Program Manager Eddie Weaver and IPL Resident Engineer Shelly Hattan update us on the progress being made on the pipeline and its booster stations.

General Manager Zach Renstrom tells us how southwestern Utah’s Washington Country Water Conservation District is actively planning for the construction of a pipeline to Lake Powell, which will allow it to draw from

Utah’s significant untapped rights to Colorado River water.

The Chicagoland town of Homewood, Illinois, has chosen to switch its municipal water source in the interest of greater rate stability. Stephen Boden and Stephen Crede of engineering firm Burns & McDonnell tell us about the interconnect they are constructing for the town and the corrosion control study they are carrying out in preparation for the changeover.

Finally, we speak with National Water Resources Association President Christine Arbogast about the Water Resources Development Act, passed in December 2020, and its likely effects on western water providers.

With projects like the Sites Reservoir and the IPL, today’s water agencies are taking their place alongside the legends of the early 20th century. For evidence that this is still a country that can successfully undertake infrastructure projects on a monumental scale, look no further than the water agencies featured in this issue of Municipal Water Leader. M Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader magazine and the president and CEO of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He can be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

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Jerry Brown: Advancing the Sites Reservoir Project Costa Water District, where I worked in various capacities, including planning, operations, management, and special projects, and in May 2010 became the general manager.

I left Contra Costa in December 2019 to start my own firm, Waterology Consulting. During my tenure at Contra Costa, I was heavily involved in the Los Vaqueros expansion project. The opportunity to lead the Sites Project Authority arose, and I started with Sites in April 2020.

Municipal Water Leader: What is the history and significance of the Sites Reservoir project?

A view from a hillside in the Sites Valley, where the reservoir will be located.

The existing topography creates a natural bowl for storing water.

T

he proposed 1.5-million-acre-foot Sites Reservoir is intended to capture storm water flows from the Sacramento River for storage and release in dry years for environmental, residential, and agricultural uses. A reservoir of this scale requires serious, long-term planning efforts that encompass funding, design, and permitting. Jerry Brown was recently hired to lead the project team. Since April 2020, he has served as the executive director of the Sites Project Authority, the joint powers authority (JPA) in charge of advancing the project, which is projected to be complete in 2030.

In this interview, Mr. Brown tells Municipal Water Leader about the challenges that the authority is facing and overcoming on the way to construction.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

8 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

Municipal Water Leader: Who are the members of the JPA? Jerry Brown: Currently, nine different entities are members.

Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District (GCID), Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority (TCCA), Colusa County, and Glenn County were among the founding members. The representatives on the authority board represent many of the large agencies and counties in the Sacramento Valley. Our reservoir committee represents 21 water districts throughout the state of California, ranging from the Dunnigan Water District to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. It’s a broad cross-section of irrigators, agricultural districts, and municipal water districts throughout the state. I want to emphasize the importance of the local leadership in gaining local support. Without local support, we wouldn’t be able to do this.

Municipal Water Leader: What are the benefits of the project?

Jerry Brown: It has several types of benefits and addresses a lot of different areas of need. Of course, water supply is one of those areas. The project will significantly improve the state’s water management system, primarily during drier periods, and restore much-needed flexibility and reliability. The project also has important environmental benefits. A significant portion of the reservoir’s annual water supplies are dedicated to environmental uses, such as improving conditions for delta smelt; preserving cold water pools in Shasta and Oroville Reservoirs; supporting salmon development, spawning, and rearing; and improving the Pacific Flyway habitat for migratory birds. Beyond those important benefits, we are also providing flood protection benefits, mainly for the local community of Maxwell and municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SITES PROJECT AUTHORITY.

Jerry Brown: I am the executive director of the Sites Project Authority. I grew up in Salina, Kansas, and migrated to California for college. I got a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at California State University, Northridge. After undergrad, I went to work at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) in the power industry.

During my time at LADWP, I got a master’s degree in civil engineering at the University of Southern California.

In 1991, I moved to the Bay Area and went to work for the East Bay Municipal Utility District’s wastewater department, known as Special District No. 1. I worked there for approximately 9 years. Then, after completing an MBA at San Jose State University, I went to work for the San Jose Water Company, which is an investor-owned water utility in Silicon Valley. After 2 years there, in 2001, I came to Contra

Jerry Brown: The Sites Reservoir project has a long history, but it wasn’t until 2010, when the Sites Project Authority was formed, that it really got legs and started to develop as a locally led project. The visionary leadership of the agencies that started the JPA got things rolling. Today, because of their foresight, the project is on track to be completed within the next decade.

ADVERTISEMENT the homes, businesses, and farms in surrounding areas. We’ll be limiting the downstream flood risks of the creeks that currently flow through the valley. Finally, there are economic and recreation benefits. The local economy will be improved by the creation of hundreds of construction-related jobs, and the recreational opportunities associated with the reservoir will contribute to the overall economy of the Sacramento Valley.

Municipal Water Leader: What is the projected capacity of the reservoir?

Jerry Brown: 1.5 million acre-feet.

Municipal Water Leader: What is the status of the project now?

Jerry Brown: We are addressing some issues related to the affordability, permitability, and buildability of the project.

Before I came to the project and because of the innovative work of the board and committee members, we went through a fairly significant process called value planning, in which we reviewed the project’s proposed operations and facilities to create what we call a right-size project for our investors and participants. As with any value-engineering process, we looked at all the different components, facilities, needs, and requirements. We also reviewed all the feedback that we had previously received during the development of the project and identified what our investors could afford. Through that process, we eliminated about $2 billion in project costs. We revised our operation to what we could actually get permitted through the resource agencies while being protective of aquatic species, and then right sized all our facilities around those requirements and constraints. Then we looked at what we could actually build within a reasonable time frame— specifically, over the next decade—because time is money.

Those changes were substantial. We put out an environmental impact report/environmental impact statement (EIR/EIS) 3 years ago, but we have to do some modifications and refinements to reflect our right sizing. We are on track to put out a revised draft EIR in July 2021. It will cover all the different effects of the project, be responsive to the prior feedback we received, and communicate to the public what’s going on with the project.

After that, we will do the preliminary and detailed design work that’s been folded into the construction process, and hopefully complete construction by 2030.

Municipal Water Leader: Reducing the overall cost by $2 billion is no small feat. What is your estimated total project cost now, and how do you envision that cost being shared?

Jerry Brown: Right now, the estimated project cost is around $3.3 billion. A few factors play into how it will be shared, but the fundamental principle is that the beneficiary pays. That includes state, federal, and local sources.

First, under the proposition 1 water supply investment municipalwaterleader.com

An aerial view of the Red Bluff Diversion, with its state-of-the-art fish screening facility, where Sites Reservoir Project water will be diverted from the Sacramento River and conveyed around 60 miles to the reservoir.

program, which was voted on in 2014, the California Water Commission conditionally allocated $816 million to the project for environmental benefits. That amount will go toward the $3.3 billion. The Bureau of Reclamation has determined the project to be feasible for a cost share of up to 25 percent, to be paid for with Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act funds, and we are working together closely to determine Reclamation’s level of investment.

The remaining $2.5 billion, under our current assumptions and until a federal level of investment is determined, will be funded by local investors. We currently have 21 different investors across the state. We assume securing a couple of federal loans, like a $449 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that has been secured and loans provided through the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act, which we are seeking but have not yet secured. We hope that the $13.7 million of new preconstruction and construction appropriations that were approved as part of the federal omnibus signed into law in December 2020 will bolster federal participation in the project, helping to keep the project on schedule. Aside from those loans, the project will be funded through revenue bonds that the JPA or the individual agencies issue.

Municipal Water Leader: What challenges remain in the project’s path for completion?

Jerry Brown: Some of the biggest challenges involve making sure that the project is affordable and can be permitted. We have to make sure that this project remains affordable for all our investors. Our investors range from irrigation districts in the Sacramento Valley to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and they have different thresholds for affordability.

Right now, we’re estimating the unit cost of the water supplies this project would generate on a long-term annual average basis at around $600–$660 an acre-foot. That is on the upper end of the price range Sacramento Valley irrigation agencies can afford. That price is competitive with other supply March 2021 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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ADVERTISEMENT options for south-of-delta irrigation and water agencies, but the water still needs to get to them through the delta, which requires us to analyze potential losses and other restrictions so that we can provide assurances that they’re going to get what they paid for. Generally, water is in short supply in the drier years when this project is producing, so the movement of this new supply can be beneficial on several fronts.

Our concerns about permitting relate primarily to the amount of water we can safely divert from the river. This project will take water out of the Sacramento River at two existing fish-screened intakes at Red Bluff and Hamilton City, which divert water to the TCCD’s canal and the GCID’s main canal. We can only take water at these two existing points of diversion when all the other water needs in the Sacramento River and Bay Delta system are met and sufficiently protective measures for aquatic species are observed. Make the conditions too restrictive, and local agencies cannot afford the project. However, if the conditions are not restrictive enough, the species may be harmed. Neither of these conditions are acceptable to the project proponents, and we are working hard to find the sweet spot. We’ve done quite a bit of modeling and fisheries analysis work and believe there are coequal and protective conditions that support moving forward with the project.

Our challenge is demonstrating this to all the stakeholders, but it is something we are confident we can accomplish.

Municipal Water Leader: What should every member of Congress know about the Sites Reservoir project?

10 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

Municipal Water Leader: How has it been to work with Reclamation?

Jerry Brown: It’s been fantastic. We’ve always stood side by side, and we want to continue to do that. We want to help Reclamation meet its goals and find ways to make a federal investment in the Sites Reservoir as part of its water management portfolio.

This project has wide bipartisan support, particularly compared to other California water projects. Reclamation has been an outstanding partner in advancing this project.

We also have a lot of support from Senator Feinstein and her team. We’re lucky in the Sacramento Valley to have Congressman Garamendi and Congressman LaMalfa working side by side in support of this project. We’re also starting to see support from other members on both sides of the aisle, including Congressman Josh Harder from the Central Valley. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, water fights in California were much more conflict-ridden. Because of its innovative nature and because it has so many statewide benefits, this project has garnered significant support on both sides of the aisle at both the federal and the state levels.

We were recently included in the governor’s final water resiliency portfolio plan as an example project to advance as part of that process. We have strong support in the state senate and the state assembly from members in this area and throughout the state. When we went through the proposition 1 process and submitted our application, we had a letter of support from more than 40 members of Congress. Getting 40 California members to agree to anything is a feat in itself. M Jerry Brown is the executive director of the Sites Project Authority. He can be contacted at jbrown@sitesproject.org or (925) 260‑7417.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF JAMES MORRIS (CALRICE).

Jerry Brown: Most importantly, they should know that Sites Reservoir represents a unique, 21st-century, multibenefit solution to California’s water reliability challenges. No other statewide project has the kind of local support that we have or can produce the flexibility, reliability, and resiliency for statewide water supply needs that we can.

This project is badly needed to address climate change.

We know that climate change is reducing our snowpack and increasing the frequency and magnitude of floods and dry spells. Collecting and storing flood water off stream for use primarily in drier times helps us manage this extreme weather variability. We’ve run various climate change predictions and find that the project will actually function even better as the climate changes. In California in particular, we need to prepare ourselves for this changing situation. A project like the Sites Reservoir is a critical piece of that future for all of California.

I’d also like to reiterate the potential for federal involvement. Reclamation is considering participation in the project as well. It has completed a feasibility report, and there has been a secretarial determination that the project merits federal investment up to a 25 percent cost share.

Together with Reclamation, we are examining a range of potential federal participation levels in the project, and the early results are looking very promising. The local-led nature of this project envisioned by the WIIN Act is little

different from the typical federal project, and Reclamation’s involvement has made the project better.

More broadly from a western states perspective, California is a major diverter of Colorado River water, and we see that Lake Mead is predicted to hit its low point sooner and sooner each year. As Pat Mulroy, the former general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, has accurately pointed out, what happens on the Colorado can have an effect in the Bay Delta of Northern California. John F. Kennedy’s comment at the groundbreaking of the San Luis Dam in 1962 still rings true: “Things stand still for all Californians when citizens of one part of the state feel that everything they have is theirs and should not be shared with other citizens of the state.”

To continue its prosperity, California needs to find a way to navigate this issue, and the Sites Reservoir can be the gateway to a new approach to 21st century water infrastructure.

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Progress on the Integrated Pipeline Project

IPL contractors placing a section of pipe in an open-cut tie-in to an interconnect facility.

F

or nearly 100 years, the Tarrant Regional Water District (TRWD) has been providing flood-control services along the Fort Worth floodway and water supply services to 11 counties. Dallas Water Utilities (DWU) has been providing water to its service area for over 125 years. Combined, TRWD’s and Dallas’s service populations are in the 5.75–6 million range. Population growth, climate variability, greater distance to sources, bonding capability, debt service, rates, politics, regulations, legislation, and capital and life-cycle costs are all driving state and local agencies to partner and share regional resources and conveyances, and TRWD and DWU are not exceptions. The rapid growth of both agencies’ service areas has necessitated the design and construction of an ambitious new joint pipeline project, the Integrated Pipeline (IPL) project, a raw water supply program that integrates the TRWD and DWU water supplies from Lake Palestine, Cedar Creek Reservoir, and Richland Chambers Reservoir. The IPL will be designed and constructed over the next 20 years, and when operational, will deliver up to 350 million gallons per day (MGD) of water to the TRWD and Dallas service areas. In this interview, IPL Program Manager Ed Weaver and IPL Resident Engineer Shelly Hattan update us on the progress of the project.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions.

12 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

Shelly Hattan: I worked my way through school, so I graduated later. I’m a civil engineer, and I ended up coming to work for TRWD straight out of college. I stayed here for about 2½ years before leaving for several years. I had the great opportunity to come back to TRWD just before this project was getting started. During my first week back, about 12 years ago, we started interviewing engineers for the program manager position. I’ve been in the field on this project for the past 6 years. I worked to get information for the designers, and during construction, I worked as a construction manager assistant. I am a certified construction manager and a licensed professional engineer. In addition, I have a master of science degree in water resources from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about TRWD. Ed Weaver: TRWD provides raw water to our customers, who then treat and distribute the water; Dallas, on the other hand, does raw water transmission, water treatment, and distribution. TRWD has five existing pipeline systems that transport raw water from Cedar Creek and Richland Chambers Reservoirs in East Texas to Arlington, Benbrook, and Eagle Mountain Reservoirs in and around Fort Worth.

These pipeline systems were put in service in 1973, 1987, municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRWD.

Ed Weaver: TRWD is the only job I have had since high school. I started out in the welding shop and worked up from there through construction inspection, construction management, pipeline systems operations and maintenance, systems automation, and engineering. At the same time, I

went to school at night, earning associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees. Presently, I am working on a systems engineering PhD at Colorado State University, focusing on a systems approach to regional water supply planning. I currently serve as the IPL program manager.

ADVERTISEMENT water supply planning, the state encourages these agencies to come together and look at supplies and opportunities for this type of project. DWU and TRWD were ahead of the state by starting negotiations 20 years ago regarding combining Dallas's Lake Palestine pipeline project with the TRWD third pipeline project as an opportunity for savings for our rate payers. The initial business case analysis showed that combining the projects into a shared pipeline would result in $500 million in capital cost savings and $1 billion of life-cycle cost savings.

Based on those results, we negotiated and entered into a contract with Dallas and put the program together in phases.

Shelly Hattan: The most interesting thing for me about the IPL project happened when we first started hiring. We had eight pipeline teams, two pump station teams, and a handful of other different services teams surveying. At the beginning, we thought we had to have everything online by 2018. After TRWD’s study of our demands, however, the concept design team realized that we only needed a portion of water by 2018. The team devised a plan to put sections online on a staggered timeline.

the early 1990s, and the early 2000s, respectively. The new IPL project, which is a joint project between TRWD and the City of Dallas, intends to address the demands on our system that we expect to see in coming years by bringing more water from East Texas. In addition, the district and the city have worked out a water sharing agreement to allow the district to deliver water to Dallas from its current reservoirs to allow for the optimization of energy management. The IPL will connect Cedar Creek and Richland Chambers Reservoirs and will allow TRWD to convey our total permitted water from those two sources. The IPL also includes a connection to Lake Palestine, where the City of Dallas has contracted water rights, to deliver its allotment to its designated water treatment plant. Right now, we are working on phase 3 of the IPL program: the connection from Lake Palestine over to Cedar Creek. That is Dallas’s only source and conveyance portion of the project.

Ed Weaver: After the business case study and before the conceptual design phase, we devised an economic analysis on the savings and justification for a joint project. Because of the magnitude of our past projects, we’ve always managed all our own contracts for expansions. We’ve had consultants do a lot of the design work and manage some of the construction, but we’ve always taken ownership of these programs as an agency.

As Shelly said, we initially thought we had to have everything ready by 2018. As we got into the logistics, we started looking at the short and longer-term demand scenarios related to supply, growth, and conservation. We wanted to have designs up to 60 percent done so that we could start to put together our phased schedule. We came up with a three-phase schedule that would allow us to tie the TRWD demand delivery point east to the Dallas supply point at Lake Palestine by 2027.

The rest of the construction will be demand driven. We have put phases 4 and 5 on hold for now, and when demand picks up, we will respond. There is no point in building and maintaining infrastructure before the need exists. We hired consultants, did preliminary designs for the entire project for permitting purposes, and then did final designs for the sections we needed to build first.

Municipal Water Leader: How has the planning and construction of the IPL progressed?

Municipal Water Leader: What is the current status of the construction?

Ed Weaver: TRWD, the City of Dallas, and North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) have a little over 95 percent of the total water supply and 95 percent of the population in Texas’s planning region C. These three agencies supply water to the population from 15 reservoirs. NTMWD is building a new reservoir as well. In order to promote regional

Ed Weaver: Currently, we’ve got roughly 60–65 miles of pipe in the ground. We’ve got one pump station operational, with some interconnects that allow us to tie in to our existing Cedar Creek and Richland Chambers infrastructure. We also have a 450‑million-gallon balancing reservoir that allows us some operational flexibility.

Crews stage pipe segments along the IPL route as the right of way is cleared in preparation for excavation.

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March 2021 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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ADVERTISEMENT Currently, we’re working on connecting our next supply, which is permitted water in Cedar Creek Reservoir. That will come online this spring if everything holds up.

Dallas has also said it wants the Lake Palestine connection online by 2027. We’re currently working on obtaining financing and putting together plans and specifications for roughly 40 miles of 84‑inch pipe and a lake pump station. We should be done with that by early summer. That project will involve some long tunnels.

In summary, we are working toward the operation of the new Cedar Creek Reservoir pump station during the first and second quarters of 2021 and will ramp up construction of the Dallas-focused phase 3 during the third and fourth quarters.

Workers complete a tunnel crossing where a 108-inch section of the IPL can be installed.

Shelly Hattan: We already have pipelines from Richland Chambers and Cedar Creek Reservoirs. The first Cedar Creek pipeline was actually not large enough to take advantage of our full water rights. The station we’re building now will allow us to pump our full permitted amount. In addition, the new pump station will have the capacity to deliver the additional capacity for a future project we are planning. This project will involve taking water out of Trinity River, filtering it through wetlands, and returning it to Cedar Creek Reservoir.

Municipal Water Leader: How is the IPL being paid for?

Municipal Water Leader: Tell us about the JCC1 pump station on the IPL.

14 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

Municipal Water Leader: The JCC1 pump station has variable frequency drives (VFDs) on all its vertical turbine pumps. How does this feature help respond to energy costs?

Ed Weaver: Energy is our biggest cost driver when it comes to delivering water. We budget around $20 million a year just for pumping power. We take supply voltage at 4,160 volts, coming off 138‑kilovolt transmission lines. Because of the size of the pump units, an electric distribution system can’t reliably serve our loads. The pumping units at JCC1 are each 3,500 horsepower. The total amount of water that JCC1 will be able to move is 277 MGD. Our existing Cedar Creek pump station can only produce a maximum of around 137 MGD. In the old days, most pumps operated at a constant speed.

It’s hard to hit a demand with constant-speed pumps. It requires you to set your demand high, regardless of whether you run the pumps for 15 minutes or 15 months, and to pay the same demand charge. That charge is for the highest kilowatt demand set during a given billing cycle within either the annual on-peak or off-peak tariff period. This can be a lot of money. Then you regulate the flow by throttling valves, which is inefficient from a power point of view.

VFDs allows us to dial in the correct current or voltage (depending on the type of drive) while reducing the current draw on the electric grid so that we draw and pay for only what we need instead of setting a high demand and pinching flow back with a valve. I compare VFDs to dimmer switches on a light fixture, which allow you to adjust your light to a desired level instead of having it at full brightness all the time.

The VFDs allow us to control the flow more efficiently and effectively than we could by putting actuators on valves and throttling them. The VFDs also have a soft start feature.

Soft starts and drives are easier on the equipment. Finally, the VFDs have allowed us to start using SCADA and unmanned operations, which frees up operators to work in a lot of different places instead of manning the pump stations 7 days a week on rotating shifts.

Shelly Hattan: We have tools that monitor how much energy is going to cost and that warn our operations staff at least 15 minutes before rates spike. That allows our operators to slow pumps down during times of high energy cost so that we use less energy. One strategy is to pump at lower rates during the day, when everyone is using their air conditioning units, and then speed up the pumps at night, when rates are cheaper. That’s something we’re working municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRWD.

Ed Weaver: Once the IPL is all built out from the original study, it’s expected to cost $2.3 billion. We issued bonds in 2‑year increments so that the debt service will not hit all at once and spike rates. The bonds generally have 30‑year terms, and the debt service payments will slowly ramp up and then ramp down at the end of the terms. We also executed these projects with our current staffing levels so that we were able to hire a minimal number of people. By using consultants to augment our staff, TRWD avoids the need to lay off people at the end of the project. That has worked out well on the management side.

Shelly Hattan: The JCC1 lake pump station is located 55 miles southeast of Dallas on Cedar Creek Reservoir. It is one of three pump stations that will be part of the completed IPL. It’s taken 4 years to build. First, we constructed the wet well and the intake structure, which took about 2 years. For the past 2 years, we’ve been working on the pumps in the upper structure. It is expected to be completed in April.

ADVERTISEMENT through, and the VFDs give our energy-management staff the ability to do that.

Municipal Water Leader: What is the advantage of the tee screens on the intake structure at JCC1 being able to be moved to different elevations?

Ed Weaver: In order to get permits from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, we had to ensure that we were protecting wildlife. The screens we have on our existing stations were installed before a lot of updated and new state and federal regulations came into play.

Among other things, those state and federal regulations restrict the velocity of water in the intake to a certain speed so that they don’t harm fish and wildlife. We also need to have screens with openings small enough to prevent fish from being pulled into the pump. The tee screens are there to meet those environmental requirements. They are about 7 feet in diameter and 15 or 16 feet long. The screens rotate and have brushes that prevent vegetation from clogging them and starving out the pumps. Tee screens or pump intake screens have been around for a long time, especially in the Northwest. They are adjustable for water quality reasons and head reasons.

We can move them up and down based on changes in water level. The best water quality allows us to take care of some of those issues for the treatment plants by being able to vary the elevation of the intake.

Shelly Hattan: Our lakes are fairly shallow, and as such, we have varying water qualities by depth based on water temperature and time of year. Our water treatment plants don’t like the water from the bottom of the lakes because the oxygen is low and there are a lot of water quality issues, such as high levels of manganese and iron.

Municipal Water Leader: What did TWRD learn from this project, and what will it bring forward to other elements of the IPL? Ed Weaver: One of our missions going into this was to keep in mind the triple bottom line of social, environmental, and economic aspects of the project. We took that concept to heart, knowing that it was going to add some cost, but that in the grand scheme of things, it was the right thing to do.

The IPL was the first pipeline ever awarded the Platinum Award by the Sustainable Infrastructure Institute. Instead of spoiling all the materials that came out of excavation, we tried to find opportunities to use them. The clay material excavated from the pipeline was suitable to use to build the clay core for the balancing reservoir of a project we call the Midlothian Balancing Reservoir. The granular material coming from the balancing reservoir site, in turn, was used for backfill for the pipe. municipalwaterleader.com

We have goals related to diverse business participation.

We have a goal of 25 percent for professional services and construction contracts. It’s been easier with professional services than with construction services because of the size and scale of some of these projects, but we’re averaging about 22 percent on professional services and construction contracts.

The research we did in preparing for this project has also provided us with lessons that we will bring forward to future projects. We did a lot of research on coatings for the pipe and on backfill methodologies that we have made available to the industry as a whole. We did university studies and consultant studies. Some of the results were resisted by some manufacturers and contractors because they strengthened our specifications in a number of areas, in turn affecting fabrication, storage, handling, and installation methods. For the most part, businesses, including pipe manufacturers and coating manufacturers, have since come around. Our results are now finding their way into some industry standards.

Shelly Hattan: I’m proud of the research that we did, even though we were disappointed with some of the results. For instance, we did a lot of research on in-situ-controlled, lowstrength backfill. It didn’t really pay off in the areas where we had clay, but it may be beneficial in the next phase, where we have a lot of sand. It was interesting and eye opening to do a study and see results that were different from what our consultants came up with. The research on pipe coatings got down to the microscopic level, which gave us confidence in our choice of materials and methodology.

Ed Weaver: Our coating research also affected how we contracted and how the coordination between pipe manufacturer coating and delivery worked, which really gave contractors some flexibility. We added 10 or 12 mils to the industry-standard minimum polyurethane thickness to give it a sacrificial layer so that even when the pipe is staged above the ground, the minimum thickness will be guaranteed when it is finally installed. During the summer months, the coatings will chalk and lose thickness integrity, which can otherwise be a problem. Coating thickness is important for the longevity of the buried pipe. M Ed Weaver is the program manager for the Integrated Pipeline project.

He can be contacted at eddie.weaver@trwd.com.

Shelly Hattan is the resident engineer for the Integrated Pipeline project. She can be contacted at shelly.hattan@trwd.com.

March 2021 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 15

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Black Mesa Project Lowers Flooding Risk in Albuquerque’s South Valley

F

or more than three centuries, the verdant South Valley of Albuquerque has been a bountiful farming community with irrigation ditches leading to and from the iconic Rio Grande River. While these ditches are the lifeline to the farming and ranching residents of the area, these ditches can be dangerous. The months of March through October can be especially perilous because the ditches are usually filled with water. These ditches can be prone to overflow and rushing water due to rain or snow melt rushing down from the mountains causing flash-floods or the sudden downpours during the state’s monsoon season.

It came as no surprise that over time, a practical solution was needed to keep water in the South Valley running safely and smoothly. “There

was a lot of flooding in the valley floor because of limited outlets from the inside of levees into the Rio Grande,” said AMAFCA Development Review Engineer Nicole Friedt, PE. “The dams were being used to drain irrigation facilities and that’s not their purpose. We needed to provide appropriate outlets.”

The first phase of the Black Mesa Project was constructed in 2009 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

AMAFCA constructed the next phase – known as Phase Ia – in 2014 as well as Phase II in early 2019. Estimated to cost $7.6 million, construction of Phase III and Phase IV, began in November 2019 and was finished in early 2020. The finished project connected the drainage from three dams – the Don Felipe Dam, the Raymac Dam, and the McCoy Dam – into one pipe

manifold and drained the water to the Rio Grande River.

“Three individual dams and three separate pipes would have been very expensive,” said AMAFCA Executive Engineer Jerry Lovato, PE. “By minimizing how much pipe we put into the ground, this project will save money.

Once the dams are connected, the pipe is pressurized.”

When selecting materials, AMAFCA chose Hobas CCFRPM 42-inch and 36-inch pipes with tee bases and 30” flanged tops to serve as irrigation piping for agriculture. Phase V is slated for completion in early 2021, bringing the total feet of pipe used for the Black Mesa Project to more than five miles.

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Zach Renstrom: Planning for the Future of the Washington County Water Conservancy District

Utah's Virgin River, seen here from Angel’s Landing in Zion National Park, is the WCWCD’s single current source of water.

T

he Washington County Water Conservancy District (WCWCD) provides culinary, secondary, and wastewater services to nearly 200,000 people in southwestern Utah. The WCWCD’s new general manager, Zach Renstrom, is carrying on the work of his predecessor by planning to make sure that the district has reliable water supplies decades into the future. In this interview, Mr. Renstrom tells Municipal Water Leader about his work on several key initiatives: a future Lake Powell pipeline that will bring Colorado River water to the region, the construction of two new reservoirs, septic-to-sewer conversions, and conservation efforts.

Bar Association as an attorney. I practiced law for a little bit and then was the principal owner of an engineering firm for a while. I then decided to get involved in politics and was elected for a 4‑year term as a county commissioner. During that time, I was on the board of the WCWCD. When Ron Thompson told the board he would be retiring, we opened his position. I applied, went through the interview process, and was selected to replace Ron.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

Zach Renstrom: The district was set up under Utah state law by a local district court judge in 1962. Local citizens had petitioned the courts to form a water district, the judge granted the petition, and the water district was formed.

We live in a geographically small area with limited water resources that were developed years ago. Developing additional water resources was going to be expensive.

No one city had the financial capability to develop water projects, but collectively, they did. The water district was the vehicle by which they started developing larger water

22 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WCWCD.

Zach Renstrom: My first involvement with water came when I worked on a dairy farm as a young child. I learned there, and have never forgotten, that every single drop of water counts. I went to the University of Utah and received a degree in civil engineering with an emphasis in water resources. I also earned a law degree. I am a licensed professional engineer and am licensed with the Utah State

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the WCWCD and its history.

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In the early 1980s, the WCWCD started its first large project, which comprised a diversion dam, reservoir, and extensive piping. Since then, the WCWCD has continued to grow. Its infrastructure supports all the growth occurring in the county’s major population centers.

Municipal Water Leader: Are your customers the municipalities?

Zach Renstrom: The vast majority of our water is sold wholesale to the cities, although we do run several small retail sections in unincorporated areas of the county.

To protect our groundwater and surface water, we also operate septic systems, a small sewer treatment plant, and a wastewater system.

Municipal Water Leader: About how many end users benefit from the water WCWCD provides?

Zach Renstrom: More than 90 percent of the county’s population is directly connected to our pipelines. Right now, we serve nearly 200,000 people.

Municipal Water Leader: What kind of infrastructure does the WCWCD currently own and operate?

Zach Renstrom: We own and operate several reservoirs, more than 250 miles of pipelines, two hydro plants, multiple wells, two secondary water systems, and a sewer treatment plant. We also operate two water treatment plants—one surface water treatment plant and one groundwater treatment plant.

Municipal Water Leader: Given the fact that you own hydro plants, do you also provide electricity?

Zach Renstrom: Yes. We sell the electricity from our two hydro plants to our local municipality, which puts the power in its grid. We generate about 10 million kilowatt-hours annually.

Municipal Water Leader: What is the current source of the district’s water, and what was the motivation behind initiating the Lake Powell pipeline project?

Zach Renstrom: We have one water source, the Virgin River basin, which is reaching its full development potential and is closed to further appropriations by the Utah state engineer.

We are also the hottest, driest, and fastest-growing region in Utah. Our population is projected to more than double by 2065. Our local water resources are not sufficient to meet the projected demands of our growing population and expanding economy, particularly considering the variability of the Virgin River basin and the effects of climate change. municipalwaterleader.com

The WCWCD’s Quail Creek Water Treatment Plant.

That prompted the State of Utah to suggest that we use the Colorado River as an additional water source. The State of Utah has a lot of water rights in the river that have never been used. Multiple studies were done, and it was determined that using Colorado River water was feasible.

Since then, we have also started to face new challenges on the Virgin River. In 2020, for instance, we had some algal blooms that contaminated our sole water source. To have the opportunity to tap into a second source is valuable.

Municipal Water Leader: There is a lot of conflict on the Colorado River about water usage, but it sounds like in this case, Utah has a clear right to more water. Is that the case?

Zach Renstrom: Utah was given water rights to the Colorado River by the 1922 compact and the subsequent agreements that created the Law of the River. Even with the Lake Powell pipeline, the state will still not be using its full allocation. Other states have been using their full allocations for years and years. Utah has been more conservative in how it develops and uses the water, but the state now needs that water to accommodate its rapidly growing communities. The Law of the River allows states to develop their respective water shares whenever need arises.

Municipal Water Leader: What entities have been involved in the process of planning the Lake Powell pipeline?

Zach Renstrom: The Lake Powell pipeline has been studied by the Utah Division of Water Resources since the late 1990s.

The Lake Powell Pipeline Development Act was passed in the 2006 legislative session, authorizing the State of Utah to build and finance the project. The Bureau of Reclamation is serving as the lead agency. Several other federal, state, tribal, and local agencies are involved, including the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service.

March 2021 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 23

ADVERTISEMENT the benefits of conversions go beyond just protecting our groundwater from septic system leakage.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you tell us about the WCWCD’s conservation work?

The WCWCD’s Quail Creek Reservoir, located near Hurricane, Utah.

Municipal Water Leader: What is the current status of the project?

Zach Renstrom: We are currently in the environmental permitting process, with a supplemental draft environmental impact statement anticipated later this year, followed by a record of decision (ROD) in 2022.

Municipal Water Leader: What is the timeline for the construction and completion of the pipeline?

Zach Renstrom: After the ROD is received, we will begin design work, which will probably take 1½–2 years. We hope to break ground in about 5–6 years, and we anticipate that construction will take 3–5 years. We can accelerate that as needed, but those are the current plans.

Municipal Water Leader: What is the total amount of water you expect the pipeline to bring you when it is complete?

Zach Renstrom: Approximately 83,000 acre-feet per year when it is operating at full capacity.

Municipal Water Leader: What are the district’s other top issues today?

Zach Renstrom: We’re updating our water conservation plan to achieve a more aggressive reduction in water use. We’re studying our water supply, our use, and the effects of climate change. We’re also developing additional infrastructure.

Current projects include additional well development, water treatment expansions, and a new reservoir called Toquer Reservoir. The reservoir is in the final stages of environmental permitting; we hope to start construction later this year.

Municipal Water Leader: Are you working on any septicto-sewer conversions?

24 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future of the district?

Zach Renstrom: My vision for the district encompasses a couple of things. First, I want to continue our strong conservation habits and motivate our water users to be more efficient. I’m a strong believer in the 1 percent improvement—in other words, taking an excellent initiative and making it 1 percent better, and then 1 percent better after that. Second, I want to make sure that our water is safe and that we continue operating a reliable drinking system. If local citizens aren’t thinking about their water, then we’re doing our job. Third, I want to ensure that the infrastructure we’re building for our children and grandchildren will be beneficial for them. When the district’s first major reservoir was built in the 1980s, I was in the third grade. The previous generation built that reservoir, making it possible for me, my family, and so many others to live here today. Every prior generation in this county has made sure that the next generation has a safe, reliable water source. I want to carry on that tradition of leaving our area better than we found it. M Zach Renstrom is the general manager of the Washington County Water Conservancy District. He can be contacted at info@wcwcd.org.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF WCWCD.

Zach Renstrom: Yes. Right now, we’re undertaking multiple studies to look at different areas of the county to see where it makes financial sense to invest in septic-to-sewer conversions.

When I started my career, wastewater and drinking water were completely separate. Now, reuse water is viewed as beneficial. The public is starting to accept it. Converting the septic systems to sewer will add water to our system, so

Zach Renstrom: Conservation is a big part of the district’s mission, and it is something all our cities and elected leaders support. Our county was the first to meet the governor’s statewide water conservation goal, reducing per capita water use by more than 30 percent from 2000 to 2018. Washington County has some of the most aggressive conservation goals in the state of Utah and an extremely robust program that offers rebates for water-efficient irrigation system upgrades, appliances, and water fixtures. We also fund state and local conservation campaigns, host free community landscape workshops, train landscaping professionals, and manage two conservation demonstration gardens.

In addition, our residents are responding. The annual Parade of Homes historically featured landscapes with extensive grass. Now, those homes incorporate beautiful, water-efficient landscapes with little or no grass. It’s neat to see that change, and I think that change is occurring because we live in an area where people really do care about the environment. The majority of the citizens here love the environment, care about it, and want to enjoy it.

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How Burns & McDonnell Is Helping Homewood, Illinois, Transition Its Water Source

The path of the proposed transmission line.

T

he Village of Homewood, Illinois, recently decided to move forward with the biggest public works project it has undertaken since its founding in 1893. A 2½-mile stretch of 30‑inch transmission main and a booster pump station will allow it to change its water source from the Village of Harvey, Illinois, to the City of Chicago Heights, Illinois, allowing it to continue providing clean and reliable water service to its inhabitants at a lower and more reliable cost. The design-build firm Burns & McDonnell was selected to design and build the new tie-in. In this interview, Stephen Boden and Stephen Crede, respectively a senior project manager and a design and construction engineering department manager at Burns & McDonnell, tell Municipal Water Leader about how they are helping Homewood transition its water source on a tight timeline.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about yourselves and how you came to be in your current positions.

Stephen Boden: I’ve been in the industry for 19 years, but I’ve only been with Burns & McDonnell for the last

28 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about Burns & McDonnell as a company.

Stephen Crede: Burns & McDonnell was founded in 1898. It has been a 100 percent employee-owned company since 1986, and that characteristic really drives the culture here. We are headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. We have more than 55 offices worldwide, including offices in Canada, India, Mexico, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom in addition to the United States. The company has over 7,600 employees and 9 different global practices—for instance, Stephen and I are focused on our water global practice, which includes any project that has a storm water, wastewater, or drinking water component. Burns & McDonnell has been in Fortune magazine’s 100 Best Places municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BURNS & MCDONNELL.

Stephen Crede: This is my 22nd year in the industry. I was hired by Burns & McDonnell back at the beginning of 2007. I became a section manager in our water global practice, based in Chicago, in 2019, and I was promoted to department manager at the beginning of 2021.

20 months or so. I was with CDM Smith for the first 17 years of my career, traveling around the United States and doing projects in California, the Northeast, and the Midwest. I moved to Illinois about 8 years ago with my family. I support Burns & McDonnell’s water global practice, but I actually work on the firm’s construction design-build global practice in Chicago. My background is in construction, engineering, and installation. I take our plans on paper, go through value engineering, and then support construction and installation on site.

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Homewood's Water Pump Station No. 2.

to Work list for more than 10 years—not just the company as a whole, but our individual regional offices as well. That’s something we take a lot of pride in.

Municipal Water Leader: Has water been a major piece of the company throughout its history, or is it new?

Stephen Crede: Water has been a part of the company from its beginning. Our first projects back in 1898 were water related. We are certainly not a new practice. All the practices at Burns & McDonnell are always looking to innovate, grow, and expand into new markets. The focus of the water practice is working to better serve the communities around us and the communities that we’re not currently in.

Stephen Boden: We want our water practice to become the design-build lead east of the Mississippi. That’s important to us.

Municipal Water Leader: What was the motivation behind the project that Burns & McDonnell worked on with the Village of Homewood?

Stephen Boden: The Village of Homewood wanted to switch its water source but still use water from Lake Michigan. It was worried about rate increases and rate uncertainty with its previous water provider. Its existing provider contract expires in 2022, so it saw an opportunity to make some changes and sign with a new provider.

The initial phase of the design involved determining how large a transmission main would be required to provide the necessary volume of water for the village and determining whether a booster pump station would be required to maintain the proper pressure within the transmission main.

The determination was that the village needed to install a 30‑inch transmission main as well as a booster pump station.

Homewood decided on a design-build approach because it is planning to keep to an aggressive schedule according to municipalwaterleader.com

which the new infrastructure must be designed, constructed, and started up by December 31, 2022. That may sound like a long time from now, but there are many steps in the process of changing water sources.

Municipal Water Leader: Where is this community located?

Stephen Boden: Homewood is approximately 30 miles south of downtown Chicago, near the Indiana-Illinois border. We are making our tie-in near the intersection of 183rd Street and Indiana Avenue by Thornton Quarry, which can be seen from I‑294.

Municipal Water Leader: Is the tie-in the only new piece of infrastructure that you are building for Homewood?

Stephen Boden: Yes; the tie-in itself is the project. It will involve 2½ miles of 30‑inch pipe and a booster pump station. The infrastructure that stores Homewood’s water and delivers it to its constituents is already in place.

Municipal Water Leader: How was Burns & McDonnell selected for this project?

Stephen Crede: Burns & McDonnell was one of several companies that was invited via a request for qualifications to submit on this project. We were excited about it and responded. Based on the statement of qualifications we submitted to the village, we were shortlisted. Then we and two other firms were invited to come in and interview.

Ultimately, we believe what swayed the village to go with Burns & McDonnell was not just our team’s experience with transmission mains, but also our ability to perform the project as a design-build, which would help the village keep to its time frame.

Municipal Water Leader: Where are you in that time frame right now?

March 2021 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 29

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Burns & McDonnell staff civil engineer Caleb Apker performing valve confirmation near Homewood's Water Pump Station No. 2.

Stephen Boden: The project needs to be fully operational

by December 31, 2022. Homewood’s contract with its current water provider expires on January 1, 2023. The design commenced in November 2019 and we are now getting into the beginning stages of construction and releasing materials.

Municipal Water Leader: Does weather have a major influence on this sort of construction?

Stephen Boden: The weather that we’re dealing with right now doesn’t affect our current work, but weather can pose problems for the hard installation of piping and for concrete work, affecting both the schedule and the costs. We are waiting for the snow to be gone and for warm weather to arrive; then, we can hit the ground running. That takes a lot of upfront preparation and planning, which is what we’re doing right now.

Municipal Water Leader: What are you changing to keep to this accelerated timeline?

30 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

Municipal Water Leader: Are any nonstandard permits necessary for this project?

Stephen Crede: The route we’re following for the transmission main goes through an old railroad right of way that was purchased by the village with this project in mind.

Over time, the ditches that run along the old railroad bed have become wetlands. Part of our permitting deals with endangered species. For example, we can only take down trees during certain periods so that we do not affect the northern long-eared bat. We’ve taken those environmental considerations into account and have adjusted our schedule and design to accommodate them.

Municipal Water Leader: Have those concerns affected the way you are going to install the transmission pipe or the pump station?

Stephen Crede: Nothing with the booster pump station was affected by those factors, but they did influence our methods of installation and the materials we chose to go with.

Municipal Water Leader: What materials will you be using?

Stephen Crede: The transmission main is predominantly PVC for its entire 2½-mile length. The piping inside the municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BURNS & MCDONNELL.

Stephen Boden: The biggest thing that we changed in our overall approach to this project is that we started to engage permitting agencies a lot earlier than we normally would.

We normally start to engage permitting agencies when the design process is about 90 percent complete, but for this project, we started to engage them early in the process, at 30 percent, so that we could obtain some of those permits earlier than usual. There are still some outstanding permits,

but we should get them within the next month so that we can start construction in April.

ADVERTISEMENT booster pump station will be ductile iron. The standard lifespan of those materials is well over 100 years.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the corrosion control study you are doing for this project.

Stephen Boden: For the corrosion control study, we built corrosion skids, and working with the Village of Homewood, we harvested existing copper and lead service lines that were servicing constituent and citizen homes and installed them in racks so that we could see the effect, if any, that the new water source had on the pipes. The study started in October 2020 and will continue until we go into transition in 2022. We are doing this because there have been instances around the country in which a change in water sources has caused issues with water mains and service lines feeding homes. To avoid any problems of that nature, we are making sure that we meet and exceed the requirements of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency.

We worked closely with that agency to come up with a plan and a testing rig for the study and to implement it. So far, we’ve seen positive trends in our testing.

Municipal Water Leader: So the study observes the effects of the new water source on Homewood’s existing pipes, even though those pipes are not the focus of your current project?

Stephen Boden: The pipe we are installing is made of PVC, which is an industry norm and something that is used throughout the nation. A lot of the village’s underground transmission mains, however, are made of ductile iron, which is also resistant to corrosion. Our concerns about corrosion relate to lead pipes in the service lines. There was a pretty big lead issue in a different state; that’s what we’re trying to avoid.

Municipal Water Leader: Would a municipality like Homewood have concerns about the corrosion of lead pipes under normal circumstances, or do these concerns only arise in the case of a new water source?

Stephen Boden: If you keep the water chemistry the same, the effects on existing infrastructure are minimal or nonexistent, so the village would have never done a study like this if it were not changing water sources. Every municipality throughout the United States, including villages in Chicagoland like Homewood, has requirements for monitoring and testing the copper throughout its system for elevated lead samples.

Stephen Crede: As long as a village like Homewood was following its testing protocol without getting any results that would trigger an action level, there would be no reason for it to need to do a study like this under normal circumstances.

Municipal Water Leader: How did Burns & McDonnell help keep costs for Homewood at a minimum? municipalwaterleader.com

Stephen Crede: It was an iterative process. One of the things that we think is distinctive about how Burns & McDonnell approaches projects like this is that, starting early in the design process, we sat down with the village, walked through the different components of the project, and asked what its preferences were. We went to the 30 percent design level, which is more detailed than a conceptual layout but less than preliminary design, with that wish list from the village. That’s when Stephen Boden and our team of construction cost estimators estimated the real-world costs of the project. Then we went back to the village and walked through the design at 30 percent with the associated costs. The village and Burns & McDonnell were then able to work together to identify changes we could make to the design to save the village money while not diminishing the functionality of the system.

Municipal Water Leader: What changes will this project cause for the residents of Homewood?

Stephen Crede: In general, not much for the residents or the businesses should change. They’re still going to have Lake Michigan water, there will be no change in water pressure, and the water quality will be the same. The difference will be the cost certainty of the water rates that the village will be able to negotiate on their behalf.

Municipal Water Leader: Is there anything else you wanted to add?

Stephen Crede: There is a special culture at Burns & McDonnell. Stephen and I have both worked for other companies, but we have never found this kind of culture anywhere else. Our drive to give back to the communities where we live and work is second to none, whether it’s our commitment to science, technology, engineering and mathematics activities in education or our drive to increase diversity across the company and in our partnerships. These things are driving factors in how we do business. We are not just an engineering company; we are a company that is committed to making our clients successful and to making the communities where we live and work better. M Stephen Boden is a senior project manager in the Chicago construction/design-build group at Burns & McDonnell. He can be contacted at sboden@burnsmcd.com.

Stephen Crede is a design and construction engineering department manager in the Chicago water group at Burns & McDonnell. He can be contacted at screde@burnsmcd.com.

March 2021 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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National Water Resources Association President Christine Arbogast on WRDA 2020

A 2018 gathering in Washington, DC, of the Women in Water organization, which sponsors the Women in Water Scholarship Fund.

Christine Arbogast is seventh from the right.

F

or several decades, Congress has considered omnibus water development acts every 2 or so years; these laws are frequently entitled the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA). On December 27, 2020, President Trump signed P.L. 116‑260, which included WRDA 2020. In this interview, National Water Resources Association President Christine Arbogast tells us about the new legislation and what it means for western water providers and users.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

34 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the Women in Water scholarship fund, which you helped found. municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NWRA.

Christine Arbogast: From high school on, I wanted to be a newspaper reporter. I was the editor of my high school paper and started out as a journalism major in college and was the editor of the student newspaper. I ended up doublemajoring in journalism and political science, and my goal was to be a political reporter.

I started my career as a reporter for two small Colorado newspapers, one of which was located in Durango, Colorado.

I did a lot of reporting on the two local Indian tribes and on water-related stories, including on the Bureau of Reclamation’s Dolores Project in the Cortez area and the controversial proposed Animas–La Plata Project just outside Durango.

I reported for about 4 years, until a gentleman from my hometown, Ray Kogovsek, was elected to Congress. The man who ran his campaign was my college political science advisor, and he advised Ray to hire me as his press secretary.

I thought that it would incorporate a number of my interests and decided to do it for one term—I didn’t want to live in Washington, DC, longer than that.

Colorado’s third congressional district is vast.

Geographically, it’s the eighth-largest congressional district in the country. Natural resources and water are huge issues for the district. Congressman Kogovsek got on the House Interior Committee, which is now the House Natural Resources Committee, and I worked with the legislative assistant who did water. I ended up staying there for 5½ years. When Ray decided not to run for reelection, I came back to Colorado and went to work for the Colorado commissioner of agriculture. I did some special projects with him, including the launch of Always Buy Colorado, which is now called Colorado Proud.

When he returned to Colorado, Ray started a small lobbying firm called Kogovsek & Associates and asked me to come back to work for him. We were different because we were based in Colorado and offered our clients much more reasonable rates than a DC-based firm. Our first clients were some of the water districts we had worked with when Ray was in Congress and the two Indian tribes that I knew so well.

It was then I started attending National Water Resources Association (NWRA) meetings. I was young and I was a woman, which was unusual. People figured I must be someone’s daughter. I got the same reaction at the Colorado Water Congress, which I started attending at the same time.

I have been going to the meetings of the NWRA and the Colorado Water Congress, along with the Family Farm Alliance after its inception, ever since. When I first started attending, I never aspired to be the president of the NWRA, but I was made chair of the federal affairs committee, and I got to be more and more immersed in it.

ADVERTISEMENT Christine Arbogast: Female participants in the NWRA and the Colorado Water Congress often looked around and realized that there were few women. When Cheryl Zittle was in line to become the first woman president of the NWRA in 2017, she and I were at the Colorado River Water Users Association meeting in Las Vegas. Brenda Burman, who was a friend of ours, had just been confirmed as the first female commissioner of Reclamation. We were thrilled and decided we needed to start an organization to promote women in the water field. We started holding gatherings during NWRA meetings. The scholarship idea came from Dawn Moore, who said that she would contribute money to it. We decided to merge the scholarship fund and the women’s group.

Cheryl Zittle, Dawn Moore, Leslie James, Annick Miller, and I form our board of directors. We’ve awarded two scholarships so far; 2021 will be our third year.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BOB WOLFF.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about WRDA 2020. What are some of the major things in it that the folks NWRA represents are interested in?

Christine Arbogast: Most importantly, WRDA 2020 established a fund within Reclamation to address aging infrastructure, which has been a priority of the NWRA for many years. Reclamation has been the traditional vehicle for financing projects. You would get an authorization bill, then an appropriation following the president’s budget request, and away you’d go. Water infrastructure projects were funded up front by Reclamation, and the beneficiaries would sign repayment contracts under the terms of which they would repay some of or all the costs over a long period of time.

Over time, that changed, in part because of growing concerns about deficit spending and the difficulty of appropriating funds. There were also changes in the view and role of the Office of Management and Budget, which wanted to reduce the amount of appropriations that agencies needed to request. There were even questions about whether there was a real federal interest in water infrastructure, which is something that stuck in the craw of the water community. Overall, getting financing has become more difficult.

When it comes to aging infrastructure, there are arguments about how much responsibility belongs to Reclamation and how much belongs to the districts that operate and maintain the infrastructure. This year’s WRDA bill opened the door for some ability to address that.

Because WRDA is always strongly bipartisan and always passes, it has become a vehicle for other water policy, especially as smaller pieces of legislation have become more difficult to pass. However, there’s always some resistance to adding Reclamation-related provisions into it because it is traditionally a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers bill.

Municipal Water Leader: Were there any disappointments about things that did not make it into WRDA 2020? municipalwaterleader.com

Lake Nighthorse, located 3 miles outside the city of Durango, is the storage vessel for the Animas–La Plata Project. Its water source is the Animas River, which flows through the city. Christine Arbogast describes the project’s completion as one her proudest achievements. The project provides water to Durango, to three cities in northwestern New Mexico, and to the two Colorado Ute Indian Tribes, whom she represents.

Christine Arbogast: There was some disappointment that WRDA 2020 did not address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The PFAS issue is complicated.

Normally, you find the source of a contaminant and eliminate or effectively treat it. However, the source of PFAS is often military operations, so there are interests and stakeholders involved from outside the usual water community. It’s proven to be a difficult problem to solve from the scientific, economic, and political perspectives.

There have been attempts to address it from several angles, including in the National Defense Authorization Act. There were also disappointments related to the expansion of the revolving funds. There were provisions and a bill sponsored by Senator Martha McSally that didn’t make it into WRDA. There was a lot of authorizing stuff that got left on the table, but some strides were made. What didn’t get done in the 116th Congress sets the table for the 117th.

Municipal Water Leader: What is on the NWRA’s agenda for 2021, especially considering the new administration and the new composition of Congress?

March 2021 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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ADVERTISEMENT Christine Arbogast: Our immediate focus, which is a constant focus, is infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure. Infrastructure is something that President Biden talks about. President Trump talked about it as well.

Our priority is to make infrastructure an action item, not just a buzzword.

Based on everything that I’ve read and heard from President Biden, I think the administration is going to work with Congress to put something broad on the table like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 that followed the financial collapse of 2007–2008.

Nothing comprehensive was put on the table by the Trump administration, but things were introduced in Congress. There was a lot of talk of infrastructure, but there wasn’t a big package like the ARRA. Infrastructure efforts were more subtle and somewhat chunked up, with transportation bills separate from water resources.

Over the last few years, there have been significant plus-ups in the appropriations process for Reclamation and the Army Corps. It was infrastructure investment. Reclamation’s budget, which stayed flat at $1 billion for years and years, started climbing up to $1.3 billion. In 2020, it was almost $1.6 billion.

But that increase still was not on the scale we need.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your outlook on how the Biden administration’s environmental agenda may affect the western water community?

36 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | March 2021

Municipal Water Leader: How can you most successfully make your case about specific policies to the policymakers on Capitol Hill?

Christine Arbogast: I have always believed as a lobbyist that my most convincing policy arguments are not based on what I think or what I believe the effects of a policy are. They come from the people who have to perform their jobs and their duties according to the laws that policymakers pass.

The stories of the real-life effect of a government action are the best lobbying tool you have. The 535 members of Congress cannot be experts on western water, not just because not all of them are from the West, but because it’s a specialized field. When you speak to policymakers about a specific decision, you need to do so in a way that is easy to comprehend. The easiest way to comprehend something is to be able to imagine yourself in the shoes of someone who has to deal with that action.

The other top priority is telling the truth—being honest about what you’re asking a policymaker to do. If you don’t tell the truth, you have no credibility, and without credibility you’re not going to carry the day.

There are a lot of new policymakers, and there will be more as the political appointees at the subcabinet level are filled out in the various departments. For those of us who have been doing this for a long time, it is an opportunity for us to refresh our skills and build relationships. The change in administration also demonstrates how vitally important it is to address western water policy in a bipartisan way. The same holds true for Congress. With an evenly split Senate and a very narrow margin for the Democrats in the House, I am confident as well as hopeful that bipartisan solutions are possible. M

Christine Arbogast is the president of Kogovsek and Associates and the president of the National Water Resources Association. She can be contacted at christinekanda@aol.com.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF GIL WALTER.

Christine Arbogast: President Biden signed some executive orders that attempt to change regulatory reforms that the Trump administration put in place. I am not well versed on the exact details of how those various reforms might be altered, reversed, or shelved. That process is affected by when those new regulations were proposed and finalized.

The Waters of the United States rule and the new National Environmental Policy Act rule will be treated differently.

The same may be true of things that have just come out in the last 2–3 months. In some instances, the Congressional Review Act may apply. In other instances, the rules may have to be completely rewritten. All those details will have to be studied by legal experts who know which mechanism applies to each of those rules.

Now, we have to figure out what our strategy is going to be for each of those topics. There are going to be things we like and things we don’t. We will have to figure out which changes in the regulatory reforms that were enacted by the previous administration we’ll have to focus on for our membership and the western water community, including water providers and their beneficiaries. We will focus on the changes that most profoundly affect the day-to-day delivery of safe drinking water and ag water. We’re not going to be able to fight over every single detail. Just as we did when the new rules were developed by the last administration, we’re going to have to look at the proposals and figure out which parts of this we are going to spend energy and political capital on.

I am really pleased that President Biden, with his long experience working through congressional processes as a United States Senator, is our new president, but President Trump’s administration did achieve some of the things that have been western water priorities for a number of years, and we primarily got to those priorities through the regulatory process. Just as we participated in the development of those reforms, we will have to participate in whatever changes the new administration puts on the table. We’ll do the best we can to make sure that the final outcome is the least harmful outcome for western water’s work to preserve the quality of life and the prosperity of the West.

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