Municipal Water Leader May 2016

May 2016 Volume 2 Issue 5

Water in the Cradle of Liberty—Still Innovators After All These Years: A Discussion With Boston Water and Sewer Commission’s John Sullivan

Top of Their Game

By Kris Polly The very best part of my job as editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader magazine is meeting and speaking with the men and women in the municipal water sector. The public nature of their industry tends to promote higher performing, capable people. This personal observation was underscored during our interview with Mr. John Sullivan, chief engineer of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission. I was very interested in speaking with Mr. Sullivan as his father and grandfather had essentially held the same chief engineer position. “My family has been in this business for more than a century,” he told me. Mr. Sullivan’s family background, his three degrees, and his 44 years of on-the-job experience combine to make him one of the sharpest individuals I have ever met in the water business. With the exception of removing some side conversation and a few pretty good jokes, the published interview is nearly unedited. Though the interview was conducted over the phone, I had the distinct impression that Mr. Sullivan answered every question with nothing more than a cup of coffee in his hand. He is an exceptionally knowledgeable individual and at the very top of his game.

Continuing our theme of exceptional individuals at the top of their game, Ms. Paula Zelenko, mayor of the city of Burton, is a strong and effective leader who has helped her city out of financial crisis while addressing its infrastructure problems. Mr. Thair Peterson tells our readers about the rich history of the development of the Colorado River Aqueduct and the 75th anniversary

of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California receiving Colorado River water. An engineering marvel, the Colorado River Aqueduct has provided water for millions of people. Mr. Stephen Martinko, Mr. Jim Sartucci, and Ms. Sarah Beason do an excellent job explaining the status of the Water Resources Development Act currently being considered in Congress. Ms. Melissa Meeker, executive director of the WateReuse Association, describes the mission, vision, and values of her organization. Ms. Gloria Cadavid of the Office of the General Manager of DC Water discusses the launch of Bloom, a unique soil conditioner produced from biosolids by DC Water’s new CAMBI wastewater treatment process. This exciting new technology allows DC Water to create a revenue source from what was previously a disposal expense. Finally, Mr. Ken Komiske, director of utilities for the city of Norman, Oklahoma, explains the city’s unique situation in which the customers vote on their water, sewer, and sanitation rates and how the city has created a successful pipe replacement program.

We hope you enjoy this issue of Municipal Water Leader magazine and find some information that may be helpful to your particular situation.

Kris Polly is editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader and Irrigation Leader magazines. He is also president of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations, marketing, and publishing company 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 may be contacted at Kris.Polly@waterstrategies.com.

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Municipal Water Leader

MAY 2016

C O N T E N T S 2 Top of Their Game

VOLUME 2 ISSUE 5 Municipal Water Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by Water Strategies LLC 4 E Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Valentina Valenta, Writer Robin Pursley, Graphic Designer Capital Copyediting LLC, Copyeditor SUBMISSIONS: Municipal Water Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions. However, the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved.

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Copyright 2016 Water Strategies LLC. Municipal Water Leader relies on the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources and water industry 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, 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.

Cover Photo: Boston Water and Sewer Commission's Chief Engineer John Sullivan at the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

Municipal Water Leader

By Kris Polly

4 Water in the Cradle of Liberty—

Still Innovators After All These Years: A Discussion With Boston Water and Sewer Commission’s John Sullivan

12 Mayor Profile: Burton, Michigan

Turns an Infrastructure Crisis Into a Water System Success Story

DISTRICT PROFILE 14 A Story of the West’s Pioneering

Spirit: The 75th Anniversary of Colorado River Aqueduct Deliveries to Southern California

By Thair Peterson

17 Metropolitan’s Role in the Birth of Kaiser Permanente Health Care

By Thair Peterson

22 Congress Working Aggressively to Pass a Bipartisan WRDA in 2016

By Stephen Martinko, Jim Sartucci, and

Sarah Beason

ASSOCIATION PROFILE 26 Looking at Water Differently—

All Water Is Water Supply: An Interview With Melissa Meeker, WateReuse Association

INNOVATORS 30 The District of Columbia Is Breaking New Ground by Making a New Soil: What Is So Good About BloomTM?

36 Pipe Bursting: Norman, Oklahoma,

Gets Out of the Trenches to Replace Sewer Lines With Less Excavation Cost and Disruption to Customers

and Service

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Water in the Cradle of Liberty—Still Innovators After All These Years: A Discussion With Boston Water and Sewer Commission’s John Sullivan

M

r. John Sullivan is the chief engineer of the Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC). Mr. Sullivan has served on the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority Advisory Board since 2005 and currently serves as commissioner on the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission. He also serves on the board of directors for both the National Association of Clean Water Agencies and the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies.

The BWSC is the largest retail water and wastewater utility in New England. It owns and operates the city of Boston’s drinking water distribution, wastewater collection, and stormwater drainage systems.

Municipal Water Leader’s editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, spoke with John Sullivan about the BWSC’s innovative approach to infrastructure replacement, its successful water management strategy, and the future of our country’s water utilities.

Kris Polly: Please tell us about the mission of the BWSC and its service area. How many miles of water and sewer lines do you manage, and how many customers do you serve? What kind of treatment works do you operate? What is the source of your drinking water?

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John Sullivan: The BWSC was created by the state in 1977 to operate within the confines of the city as an independent entity because of the lack of adequate maintenance on the water and sewer systems serving the city of Boston. It was formed for the sole purpose of establishing an enterprise-funded utility for the benefit of the city of Boston, because decisionmakers understood that they needed a sound, economical, and efficient water supply, distribution system, and wastewater collection system for sewage as the foundation for a modern city.

We operate about 1,000 miles of water main, ranging in size from 4 to 48 inches, and roughly 1,500 miles of sewers and drain lines, ranging in size from 8 inches up to 20-by-15-foot conduits.

We don’t operate our water or wastewater treatment works. We purchase our water wholesale from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA).

The city has purchased its water and sewer services from the state since the late 1800s. Boston originally developed the water sources, but the state assumed control of the system in 1895 so it could also distribute the water to communities outside the city of Boston on a regional basis.

The sources of our drinking water are the Quabbin and Wachusett Reservoirs, which are located about 65 miles outside the city. They are pristine sources of water and are so well protected that we don’t even need to filter our water. The water is treated for disinfection purposes, including corrosion control, and the addition of fluoride, but there is no filtration on the system. Our water is one of the best supplies in the country.

Our service area is about 48 square miles, which is roughly the size of San Francisco or Washington, DC. We serve about 660,000 residents in the city of Boston and about 500,000 commuters who come into the city everyday. The MWRA serves about 2.5 million people.

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Kris Polly: Please share your background, training, and career highlights with our readers.

John Sullivan: I started my career at the BWSC 44 years ago, graduating in 1972 from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, with a civil engineering degree.

I also have a master's of business administration and a master's of science emergency management. I am a registered professional engineer in the commonwealth of Massachusetts, and a certified operator of drinking water supplies in the commonwealth.

Notably, my father worked for the BWSC’s predecessor for 40 years, retiring as chief engineer. My grandfather started with the same utility in 1911 and served as its chief engineer for 52 years. So, my family has been in this business for more than a century.

Kris Polly: Please explain how the MWRA serves the commission in the role of wholesale provider.

annually. Under this mandate, we were able to remove and replace all the smaller pipes that were causing us problems.

It’s important to realize that we still operate pipes in our system that date back to 1848. The larger pipes are in excellent shape. In fact, we still operate the original 30‑inch transmission main that feeds under the Boston Common. What we have found is that when the city was laying the original pipes in the 1850s, and again after the Great Boston Fire of 1872, the wall thickness of those pipes—roughly an inch and half in thickness—is so substantial that although corrosion did occur, as it has with all iron pipes across the country, the pipe remained quite viable. This is also significant because the engineering knowledge we use to calculate infrastructure viability today was not readily available to the city engineers when the original pipes were installed, which may account for why they installed such thick pipes. You can also find similar pipes and water systems in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

John Sullivan: As I mentioned, the MWRA is a state authority that provides clean drinking water and wastewater treatment services to 61 communities in and around Boston, as well as communities in the western part of the state. The MWRA takes water from the large reservoirs and treats it at the treatment plant. It monitors the water that goes out to more than 2 million people.

After the water supply is used by the communities, the spent water or wastewater is returned through a system of large interceptors to the MWRA, which in turn transports it to the Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, the second-largest wastewater treatment operation in the country. It can handle, with wet weather flows, over a billion gallons of wastewater per day.

Kris Polly: The Boston Globe writes, “In Boston, he [Sullivan] oversees more than 1,000 miles of pipe. Despite its age, the system has an average of just 35 water main breaks a year, which is significantly lower than the national average.” That’s an enviable record. Please share with our readers the tools and techniques you employ to keep the water and sewer systems reliable.

Currently, 95 percent of our system has been replaced or rehabilitated with cement mortar lining. That is why our record of water main breaks is so low. When we do have a water main break, we remove a section of the pipe, perform a thorough analysis of the pipe, test it for corrosion, and determine the best way to replace it if required.

John Sullivan: Since the early 1960s, as the city was undergoing a large urban development phase, Boston started replacing and rehabilitating its water mains.

But progress was too slow, so as I mentioned, in 1977, the BWSC was formed to undertake and manage the rehabilitation of the water delivery and sewage collection systems.

The BWSC is required to raise its rates to meet the operation and maintenance needs of its systems. We are required to develop a three-year capital improvement plan Municipal Water Leader

Kris Polly: Please share with our readers Boston’s innovative asset management approach to pipe replacement and rehabilitation of the distribution system.

John Sullivan: In 2010, we completed a major asset management study of our water system. We did a risk analysis on all the pipes and determined the life cycle of every one of our pipes. So before they break and cause problems for the city, we have the tools we need to determine when we need to be thinking about replacing 5

and rehabilitating them. We do a lot of predictive analytical work in our asset management program. A pipe doesn’t need to be replaced simply because it is old. It needs to be replaced or rehabilitated based on a thorough assessment of the factors that drive the pipe toward the end of its life cycle.

Kris Polly: Please explain your vision of the role modern information technology plays in managing a large urban water utility like the BWSC. Please share some relevant examples illustrating your philosophy. Â John Sullivan: We are lucky today because we have computers to assist us with the analytical work. For example, we replaced all the water meters with a smart meter reading system. We read those meters every hour, and the data are sent to our computer system for analysis so that staff can review it. If we see an increase in consumption over a three-day period, we contact the customer to determine where there might be a leak. This

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means we can immediately work on controlling leaks and the costs associated with those leaks.

These data are posted to our website in graphs, and every homeowner is able to view the pattern of his or her water use. This empowers our customers by putting the control of the costs of water use and sewer services in their hands. If we ever have a problem with water supply and need to enact strict conservation measures, we will be able to monitor how the water is being used and adjust accordingly.

We will also be using a new wastewater collection technology soon. Because of the increased rainfall we are having to due climate change, we are putting in sensors to monitor the levels of water in the various sewers. We have eight rain gauges throughout the city that are reading in 5-minute increments during rain events. During a severe storm, we are able to determine in 15 minutes where we would have problems with sanitary sewer overflows in the collection system, so we can mobilize the trucks quickly to avert risks to public health.

We will also be monitoring deposition in large sewers so

Municipal Water Leader

that if it occurs, we will be able to get out and clean them before they become a maintenance problem.

Kris Polly: Your stewardship at the commission stretches over a number of years. You’ve worked with strong mayors like the late legendary Tom Menino and the current mayor, Mayor Walsh. Can you tell us how municipal executive leadership figures in water management and the way people perceive and respond to water needs?

John Sullivan: The BSWC was formed under Mayor Kevin White. He fully supported our development because he knew that he wouldn’t be able to raise the rates properly under wavering political climates unless we had an independent entity to tackle the infrastructure problem.

He understood that strong, powerful cities need good infrastructure. Infrastructure is the backbone of our city.

Mayor Menino was a tremendous supporter of replacing and rehabilitating our infrastructure wherever it was needed in the city, including popular spots, such as the North End and Beacon Hill. Mayor Walsh is also very supportive of our efforts to maintain our infrastructure, and he supports our rate increases because we continually show the benefits of our maintenance to the system and the economy. We have no problems supplying water to all the new buildings in the city, nor do we have any problems with the collection and storm drainage system, because our mayors understood how important it is to have strong infrastructure.

program, we were able to significantly reduce our nutrient and sediment loads at a very reasonable cost to our ratepayers.

Kris Polly: You recently traveled to Flint, Michigan, to advise on the water crisis there. Can you please tell our readers what you believe are the major lessons of water crises like the one in Flint? What do you think we can do to better foresee these challenges and put measures in place to prevent them?

John Sullivan: Because Boston has such a successful infrastructure replacement program, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency called Mayor Walsh and asked me to visit Flint, Michigan, to help the city get its water system under control. When I went to Flint, I shared reports and standard operating procedures that we use in Boston.

Kris Polly: As a nation, we’ve been working on combined sewer problems for decades. What is the status of combined sewer overflows in Boston and the surrounding metro area? What are the major technological responses, and what lessons have you learned that might be of value to others?

John Sullivan: The MWRA, which is responsible for our water treatment, took responsibility for the region’s entire combined sewer overflows (CSO) project. The project cost $900 million, and it and took 82 construction contracts to complete the task. We completed all the work needed to control our CSOs this past December.

We eliminated CSOs in areas where there would be direct contact with the water, such as bathing beaches. We did this by installing large tunnels like you see in some of the major cities or by complete separation of the sewers. In other areas, we enhanced the system by using partial sewer separation. We still have some CSOs during major storms, but the wastewater is discharged to areas where people do not have contact with the water, such as shipping channels.

We also use green infrastructure to minimize CSOs. By balancing the components of our CSO reduction Municipal Water Leader

We discussed Boston’s successful program for lead pipe replacement and other successful maintenance programs.

There is a great report prepared by the state of Michigan that concluded the crisis in Flint was caused by government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delays, inaction, and noncompliance with environmental regulation. I agree—this was a failure of people to oversee and operate a system properly. We have all the treatment and monitoring techniques available to us today that would have prevented the crisis in Flint.

There are many cities like Boston that have undertaken the necessary steps to ensure properly running systems; however, I believe there are also many places across the United States that will face problems similar to Flint. Our nation’s cities have old water infrastructure. The pipes 7

are corroded. Many treatment plants are outdated. The situation in Flint could happen anywhere there is aging infrastructure and a lack of strategy to properly operate or replace the system.

We also have a highly skilled but aging workforce that is rapidly retiring. Our city’s water and sewer systems have been predominantly managed by the same team that has worked together their entire lives. When they retire, their replacements are often ill-equipped to successfully manage all the nuances and scenarios associated with water treatment and delivery.

Moreover, infrastructure replacement is not something that can be completed in a few years. Nor is it something that should be rapidly undertaken following an emergency

like Flint. You can’t throw $300 million at the problem and think it is fixed. Infrastructure replacement is an ongoing operation. It is also a local issue. The ratepayers have to pay for the systems, and there are some cities, like Flint, that lack an adequate ratepayer base to fund infrastructure replacement.

We have 53,000 water utilities in this country. We need to discontinue operating independently. We need to act regionally, which means that 2 or 3 water utilities ought to work together to fix their problems. This reduces capital costs and allows smaller utilities to take advantage of the expertise provided by the engineering team of a nearby city rather than forego the expertise because they cannot afford the salaries.

Kris Polly: You are a member of many prestigious water organizations nationally and serve on many boards of these 8

organizations. In other words, you’re a national expert.

You also have years of on-the-ground accomplishments in Boston. Please tell our readers what you believe are the greatest challenges for water managers over the next 25 years—first in Boston, and then across the nation—and how we can best address them.

John Sullivan: Water scarcity is a major problem in many areas of this country. The city of Boston has enough water to sustain its population if it doesn’t rain for four years, but other cities are less fortunate. However, we are still very concerned about water management. Wasting water is never an option, no matter how abundant the supply.

Our nation’s cities also need to find ways to pay for their infrastructure replacement, but many cities have not yet figured out how to do that.

In order to raise rates to fund infrastructure replacement, ratepayers must see the value in the system. We have been able to successfully raise rates in Boston because our ratepayers receive great customer service and understand the importance of having a strong water delivery and treatment system. I don’t believe that people across the country understand the true value of water. Most people take it for granted and expect others, such as the federal government, to pay for it. It is the job of each utility to communicate the value of water and wastewater infrastructure to its constituency.

Resilience is important. We can’t prevent flooding, but we can manage how quickly we recover and get a system back online if it is compromised. Climate change is not going to go away. Our job is to find ways to manage its effects on our water supply and infrastructure systems. Every utility should have an adequate emergency response to flood damage. The city of Boston has been refining its emergency response to flooding for years, and that is why we are able to recover our drinking water and wastewater systems quickly if there are damages to pipes and storm drainage during a major weather event.

I believe that organizations such as the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Water Works Association, and the Water Environment Federation are all doing their best to promote infrastructure replacement, conservation, and reuse at the national level.

Our utilities have bright futures ahead of them, but there is a lot going on and they need to pay attention to the big picture.

All photos courtesy of Boston Water and Sewer Commission.

Municipal Water Leader

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M A Y O R

P R O F I L E:

Burton, Michigan, Turns an Infrastructure Crisis Into a Water System Success Story An Infrastructure Crisis

The city of Burton, Michigan, is not a typical city. The city is spread out like a township but incorporated as a city. Burton does not have a traditional downtown area with parking ramps, tall buildings, and big sidewalks. Instead, Burton has pockets of business districts surrounded by residential districts.

When Paula Zelenko became the mayor of Burton in 2011, the city was in the middle of a periodic review by the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The mayor recalls, “We had been limping along with the repair of our infrastructure for several years, because we have been experiencing reductions in revenue. The housing market crashed, and property values were reduced by over 40 percent. Folks were losing their jobs. Unemployment was high. And, our state shared revenue funding was being cut as well. We went from 110 employees to 78. We had a lot of layoffs. The employees remaining were doing the jobs of 3 or 4 people. So, we were struggling financially.

Then, DEQ told us that our water infrastructure, particularly in one section of the city, was really becoming unstable.”

Responding Decisively and Effectively

The mayor knew that Burton really needed to do something quickly or the water system wouldn’t be stable enough to meet the state’s inspection or pass certification.

In addition, safe drinking water had become the number one priority for the city, but in an age of layoffs and reduced revenue for infrastructure improvements, the city didn’t see how it could afford to begin a replacement program.

Mayor Zelenko contacted the consulting firm Stantec, which had put together a capital improvement program for the city a couple of years earlier. She asked Stantec to come in and talk about how the city’s water infrastructure was crumbling faster than assumed. Stantec was familiar with the city’s water infrastructure. The city believed Stantec could locate some funding for Burton in the form of grants or low-interest loans. Stantec helped drive the initiative to find the funding for the water infrastructure replacement.

The city applied for and received a state revolving fund low-interest loan for drinking water repair and replacement and has been engaged in a five-year, five-phase project that

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costs over $25 million.

In the years since, the city has received over $1 million in principal forgiveness from the state because like neighboring Flint, it is considered a disadvantaged community. The biggest priority for Mayor Zelenko has been how to reduce costs and get the best bang for the taxpayers.

The City and the Mayor Learn About PVC Pipe

Mayor Zelenko explains, “I am a strong believer in open procurement, not just bidding out the materials, but also bidding out multiple types of material for pipe, so that we have alternatives to supply safe clean drinking water. As an elected official, it is my job to develop the most costeffective projects and programs for my taxpayers while still providing safe, clean drinking water. The problem for us was that our county, which is the authority recognized by the state to manage and report on these infrastructure systems (including water, sewer, and drainage), did not allow the use of plastic pipe, or polyvinyl chloride (PVC).”

The mayor related that Genesee County believed that PVC was an inferior product to, for example, ductile iron pipe. But, the city of Burton has found that ductile iron pipe has disadvantages; the city has corroding ductile iron pipe that has only been in the ground for 12 years or less. Metal pipes have biofilm on the inside, and if it is disturbed, the water can leach lead and copper from the pipes. These metals then get into the drinking water system. Once the levels of metals in the drinking water exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards, a city will have a host of problems, like those Flint has.

Mayor Zelenko is a member of the Genesee County Water and Wastewater Advisory Board, which is composed of members throughout the county who come together on a monthly basis to learn about what is going on with water infrastructure in the area.

Mayor Zelenko said, “It is a really good group of people. We started learning about PVC and found that some members of the group had some really entrenched ideas and myths about PVC. Some believed that it leached toxins into the water system and that it was a weak material. That may have been true with previous forms of PVC, but we did a lot of research on the type of PVC that we wanted to use, classification 909. We Municipal Water Leader

brought in researchers and experts on all kinds of pipe materials, not just PVC, to educate us about the advantages and disadvantages of all kinds of products. After we conducted this extensive research, the alternative materials subcommittee unanimously recommended to the advisory board to allow communities to use class 909 PVC, and the advisory board voted unanimously in favor. So now we have communities in Genesee County that are eligible to use the class 909 PVC. We are monitoring it very closely and have found that this class of PVC pipe has not leached any toxins. There is a proven history of sustainability with this material throughout the country. So, the committee and the advisory board decided to move forward with allowing the use of PVC for pipe replacement.”

The use of PVC for the city of Burton cut the cost of material in the replacement by $2.2 million. For a disadvantaged community with declining revenues, that was a significant savings.

The county allows its communities to use PVC pipe for water mains only, not for small service lines. The county requires that the service lines from the mains to homes or businesses be copper. (Copper no longer uses solder that contains high volumes of lead, and the brass fittings that are used with the copper parts no longer contain lead.)

This combination results in extremely low exposure to lead.

Some homeowners in the community have been using PVC pipe for home plumbing for over 30 years. The mayor did not find any studies that indicated that toxins had been leached into the drinking water system from PVC. According to Mayor Zelenko, “The inside of the PVC pipe is smooth. It does not need to be coated. When water runs through a rougher interior, such as iron or concrete, it becomes turbulent and can dislodge the material of the metal pipe into the water system.”

PVC Reduces Corrosion Risks and Increases Water Safety

One of the key considerations in replacing old pipes is how well alternative pipe material will perform in terms of corrosion. Corrosion results in the loss of pipe material, the thinning of pipe walls, and ultimately, the increased probability of breaks.

Mayor Zelenko said, “PVC became the choice for us because all the research we had done indicated that it was safe. Many other communities throughout the country are using it, including San Diego, California. San Diego uses PVC pipe exclusively. City of Burton Utilities Superintendent Dave Marshke came to us from the San Diego County Water Authority and stands by the use of PVC. He has a lot of experience with it and knows the different classifications, the molecular structure, and what to use. PVC is also very resistant to the corrosiveness of our soil.” In addition, the service life of PVC is estimated at 100 years, compared with 20 years for ductile iron.

Municipal Water Leader

Genesee County is the birthplace of General Motors, and the county is home to a lot of automotive manufacturing. The mayor pointed out that the biggest source of lead in the area is from the soil and the dust because of manufacturing. In addition, the topography is like a bowl, and dust settles in the bowl. There is some very acidic soil throughout the county, which eats away at concrete and iron pipe very quickly. The mayor says, “We have some ductile iron pipe that has been in the ground for less than 12 years and it is already corroding. Unlike ductile iron pipes, PVC pipes stand up in our corrosive soils and are clearly more cost effective from a repair and maintenance standpoint. Our operations and maintenance side of the business achieves significant cost savings from using PVC.” The city is no longer in the financial crisis it was in during 2011 and 2012. Now, the city concentrates on leveraging money to the best of its abilities.

Mayor Zelenko points out, “I raised six daughters and brought my experience caring for and guiding my family to my job at the city of Burton. Changing the thinking and the culture is often the most difficult thing that we are faced with. My job is often about showing people and helping them to understand that there has to be a better way to get things done. Better is not always easy. I am very proud of how far this city has come and how dedicated our employees are to changing our community for the better.

Our city council has also been a great support in helping us be progressive with the direction of our city.”

Think Outside the Box

When asked how she’d advise other mayors around the country, Mayor Zelenko responded, “It may sound like a cliché, but I would tell them to try to think outside the box. The best thing we did was take the extra money we had and spend it all on a consulting firm. Stantec has been excellent—we could not have done it without their help.

They helped find us the loans and grants and helped get us through all of the steps that we needed to complete to draw down that money. That was critical for us. I never knew that a grandmother would have to learn so much about water piping and infrastructure, but I hope that my education and the lessons I learned can be adopted and used by other cities across America facing similar challenges.”

Ms. Paula Zelenko has served as the mayor of Burton, Michigan, since January 2011. In 1991, Mayor Zelenko was elected to the Burton City Council and served on the council until 2001. Then, she was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives and served the 50th district until 2006.

Mayor Zelenko returned to the Burton City Council in 2008 and served until December 2010. You can reach Mayor Zelenko at (810) 743‑1500.

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A Story of the West’s Pioneering Spirit:

The 75th Anniversary of Colorado River Aqueduct Deliveries to Southern California

DISTRICT FOCUS

By Thair Peterson

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S

eventy-five years ago, the course of Southern California was changed forever as it received its first water deliveries from a newly constructed Colorado River Aqueduct.

The arrival of Colorado River water in June 1941 would help trigger an economic boom and introduce California’s unique culture and lifestyle around the world. It fulfilled a promise made to voters in the depth of the Great Depression to solve a potentially dire water situation for a region whose dreams were bigger than its local water supplies.

In the 1920s, population was soaring and groundwater levels were plummeting.

William Mulholland warned that the Los Angeles Aqueduct would no longer meet the city’s growing needs. Surrounding cities already had a population equal to Los Angeles’, but their largely agricultural needs were even greater. Lawsuits over water rights changed ownership without increasing supply. There were fears that once the water ran out, the region would revert to desert.

The only viable source was 300 miles away at the Colorado River, and getting that water would require an aqueduct. In 1923, surveyors from Los Angeles scoured 25,000 square miles of unmapped desert lands, seeking a route. But the cost was too great for one city to go it alone. A new state law was enacted to create a new regional entity, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which held its first meeting in December 1928.

Southern California’s commitment to the aqueduct turned Boulder (now Hoover) Dam from a oncemodest project to a monumental engineering marvel standing several hundred feet high. But funds for the Colorado River Aqueduct still needed to be approved.

The $220 million aqueduct bond campaign of 1931 was unprecedented, covering 13 cities and 2 counties with a full-court press of billboards, radio, newspapers and mass rallies. Hundreds of civic leaders were joined by newspapers, congressmen, and thousands of volunteers in support of the project. Proponents

First water through the Colorado River tunnel into Gene Reservoir, San Bernardino County. MA-192, January 7, 1940.

warned that the existing groundwater overdraft was 172 million gallons per day and trumpeted the thousands of jobs to be created by this, one of the largest infrastructure projects of the time.

Though America was in the depths of a depression, Californians saw the need for and the value of the project. The bond passed by a 5‑to‑1 margin— in some cities, it was 10‑to‑1 or more. The bold vote of confidence captured the imagination of an economically battered nation. When the collapse of the municipal bond market threatened to send interest rates to project-killing levels, Metropolitan convinced the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) and Congress to allow RFC to buy the bonds.

Like a superstar athlete, the project set many records at the time. In an era when engineering was king, the Colorado River Aqueduct was royalty.

It required its own road system and phone system, not to mention enough water for a city of 15,000 people. It had several hundred miles of power lines and, during the first five years alone, used more Municipal Water Leader

than 350 million kilowatt-hours of energy.

Ultimately, 35,000 men labored on the aqueduct, divided between Metropolitan employees and those working for major construction firms. They were more than just co-workers; they came together as a family, celebrating joys and sharing in times of loss.

When construction began in January 1933, Metropolitan tackled the biggest challenge first: the blasting of 29 tunnels measuring 92 miles. It was one of the biggest tunneling projects ever attempted, with some of the longest tunnels in the world. These hard-rock tunnelers (the “hard rockers” of their day) vied to outdo each other in record setting.

The 13‑mile San Jacinto tunnel, in particular, was one of the most difficult tunneling projects. Outsiders said it was insurmountable. The project was beset by floods reaching thousands of gallons per minute and a 1937 labor strike over closed-shop demands. But through the sheer determination and can-do spirit of these men, by late 1938, the mountain was conquered.

The “aqueduckers” also erected 63 miles of open-air canals (the Colorado River Aqueduct’s most identifiable feature) under grueling desert heat, plus nearly 90 miles of siphons, conduit, and pipelines. They built five pumping plants powerful enough to lift water more than 1,600 feet in all. Never before had such large amounts of water been pumped to such heights. The massive, Cal Tech–designed Colorado River Aqueduct water pumps were the most efficient in history and could push 90,000 gallons per minute up the side of a mountain.

In January 1939, water first flowed into the east end of the aqueduct and began its march from Lake Havasu across the desert as construction continued. By the end of the year, the water was flowing into Southern California’s first major reservoir, which would soon be named for W.B. Mathews, Metropolitan’s first general counsel.

While construction on the 242‑mile main aqueduct was completed, Metropolitan still faced the challenge of a 150‑mile distribution system, which required building pipelines and tunnels in heavily developed areas. It needed to account for the complex local conditions of 13 different cities, while also having the flexibility for future expansion.

On top of that, in late 1938, less than a year before the scheduled opening, Metropolitan’s board of directors decided that water reliability wasn’t enough—they also would need a water softening and filtration plant to make Colorado River water quality superior to anything pumped from Southern California wells. Softening would remove the calcium and magnesium elements from river water. Filtration would provide extra protection against waterborne diseases and control objectionable tastes, odors, and discoloration. (The water treatment plant would be named for Metropolitan’s General Manager and Chief Engineer F.E. Weymouth, who died within weeks after Colorado River Aqueduct deliveries began.)

Colorado River Water Bond billboard at Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue, Los Angeles, California.

September 10, 1931.

Pasadena Water Department General Manager Morris S. Jones (left), and Metropolitan’s R. B. Diemer at Pasadena’s Sunset Reservoir for first flow of Colorado River water, Pasadena, California. MA-226, June 17, 1941.

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Inside of Steel – West Thousand Palms Siphon, Riverside County.

March 18, 1936.

Metropolitan’s Ellis Davey (left) and LADWP’s B. W. Weaver turn a 30-inch valve to allow Colorado River water into Los Angeles City’s Ascot Reservoir, June 20, 1941. Photo courtesy the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Between the challenges of constructing the state-of-the art treatment plant and the fullscale testing of the distribution system, the scheduled date for delivering Colorado River water was pushed back from autumn 1939 to 1941.

By early 1941, America was in a national security emergency, watching carefully the tragedies unfolding on the world stage, and it was felt that a celebratory event to commemorate the opening of the Colorado River Aqueduct might be inappropriate. Instead, on June 17, a valve was turned from the new Weymouth Water Softening and Filtration Plant for the first time, and water flowed to the city of Pasadena. By the end of July, water would flow to Anaheim, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Compton, Fullerton, Los Angeles, Santa Ana, Santa Monica, and Torrance. Long Beach, Glendale, and San Marino would take delivery later.

Less than five months later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The aqueduct provided crucial war support, bringing reliable water supplies to the region’s burgeoning war industries and providing desert training grounds for General Patton’s armed forces.

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When a severe drought hit the region in the 1940s and 1950s, the rest of Southern California increasingly began to see the wisdom of sharing in the benefits and responsibilities of the Colorado River Aqueduct. Metropolitan expanded its service area to include San Diego and Orange Counties and grew to encompass all of Los Angeles County, the Inland Empire, and much of Ventura County.

Time and again, the Colorado River Aqueduct spirit of investing in reliable water projects manifested itself. In 1960, Metropolitan agreed to become the biggest customer of the new State Water Project that supplies water from Northern California to farms and families throughout much of the central and southern parts of the state. The 1977 drought spurred investment in conservation and water recycling, and the drought of the late 1980s and early 1990s led to diversification beyond imported water supplies as part of Metropolitan’s Integrated Water Resources Plan.

The current five-year drought has prompted Metropolitan to look to new opportunities to ensure water supply reliability, including launching the nation’s biggest conservation and turf rebate program with a record $450 million investment. At the same time, the agency continues exploring major initiatives in regional water recycling and a long-term water fix for the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, a conduit for imported supplies from the State Water Project.

Through it all, the Colorado River has remained a water supply bedrock. Seventy-five years after it began providing water, the Colorado River Aqueduct continues to provide the vital infrastructure that planners decades ago realized would be essential for the growth and prosperity of the communities served by Metropolitan and its 26 member agencies today.

Thair Peterson is a principal public affairs representative at Metropolitan. A former veteran reporter, he’s been at Metropolitan for 15 years.

You can reach Mr. Peterson at (213) 217‑5628 or tpeterson@mwdh2o.com.

Municipal Water Leader

Colorado River Aqueduct Map, 1934.

Metropolitan’s Role in the Birth of Kaiser Permanente Health Care

By Thair Peterson

U

nknown to most people, Metropolitan Water District’s Colorado River Aqueduct project played a groundbreaking role in the development of prepaid employee health insurance and the rise of Kaiser Permanente.

In January 1933, Metropolitan faced the prospect of providing medical facilities for huge numbers of employees. The cost of on-the-job injuries would be covered by the 1917 Workers Compensation law, but that did not solve the problem, as General Manager/Chief Engineer F.E. Weymouth informed Metropolitan’s board of directors.

“Employees [often] require medical care on account of illness or accidents when not actually at work,” Weymouth wrote. “In order to take care of cases of this kind, it is deemed advisable to make a small charge for rendering this service.”

Employees would have a nickel per day taken out of their paycheck. The medical services would “cover all cases of sickness . . . and all injuries” that were not related to alcohol or “chronic or venereal diseases.”

However, this cooperative arrangement applied only to Metropolitan employees and not to those on the payroll of the major construction firms doing much of the aqueduct work.

Enter Dr. Sidney Garfield, who opened Contractors

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General Hospital in October 1933 near Desert Center to treat contractor employees, and who, along with his staff, would make the rounds of contractor camps.

Insurers were not referring many patients and did not pay enough for those they did refer. Collecting fees from men making $4 to $5 per day was not working, either.

By mid-1934, Garfield was going broke. His nurse, Betty Runyen, had not been paid in seven months.

Then a major insurer, Industrial Indemnity, suggested a prepayment plan through which it would forward a portion of its workers comp premiums directly to Garfield and cut out the paperwork.

But what about the expenses not covered by workers comp? His solution, like Metropolitan’s, was to have workers deduct a nickel per day out of their paychecks.

The contractors were enthusiastic, and 95 percent of contractor employees signed up.

Enter Henry J. Kaiser, the one-third owner of Industrial Indemnity. Garfield took Kaiser’s son Edgar around Metropolitan’s Mojave Desert facilities, explaining the concept of prepayment and accident prevention. Kaiser was sold. Garfield was tasked with taking over medical care for the Coulee Dam project, and a partnership began that would lead to Kaiser Permanente health care and the advent of the health maintenance organization, or HMO.

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T

THE T HMEE T ME

ICT STR ICT DI ISTR D

LITAN WA PO TAN W TER O ATE RP O L I R RO

YEARS OF WATER DELIVERY

IA

IA

OF F O

YEARS OF WATER DELIVERY 2016 1941 2 1 0 16 194 SO N ONR F SO UTHE R I N CAL R UT HERN CALIFO

EngineeringaaMarvel Marvel Engineering It is easy to forget the sheer audacity of it all.

It is easy to forget the sheer audacity of it all.

The Colorado River stopped 300 miles east of the Southern The Colorado RiverCalifornia stopped 300 milesplain. east of the Southern coastal California coastal plain.

Bridging this gap required erecting an aqueduct in the middle Bridging this gap requiredoferecting an aqueduct in the middle the desert. of the desert.

No roads, no telephone lines, no electricity, and certainly No roads, no telephone lines, no electricity, and certainly no air conditioning. no air conditioning.

And doing it in the middle of the biggest economic collapse And doing it in the middle of thehad biggest economic collapse that the nation ever seen. that the nation had ever seen.

It was the 1930s equivalent of a moon shot.

It was the 1930s equivalent of a moon shot.

Surv ey team exploring possibl e aque duct routes, 1927.

S urv ey team exploring possible aqueduct routes, 1927.

St a rt of aqueduct wo rk cel ebrat i on, Cabazon, CA., 1933.

St art of aqueduct wo rk cel ebrat i on, Ca bazon, CA., 1933.

Aqueduct dri l l i ng cont est wi nners, 1934.

Aqueduct dri l l i ng cont est w i nners, 1934.

THE METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THE METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Aqueduct tu n n e l w o r k e r s , 1 9 3 4 .

Aqueduct t unn e l w o r k e r s , 1 9 3 4 .

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Congress Working Aggressively to Pass a Bipartisan WRDA in 2016

POLICY FOCUS

By Stephen Martinko, Jim Sartucci, and Sarah Beason

B

oth chambers of Congress are working aggressively to pass bipartisan Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2016 legislation this year. Now is the time for entities interested in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) waterway and maritime navigation projects, water resources policy, or funding for maritime transportation infrastructure projects to engage with Congress.

Current State of Play for WRDA 2016

On Wednesday, May 25, the House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee approved its bipartisan version of WRDA 2016. Described as a “pamphlet bill” by T&I Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA), the House’s $5 billion WRDA bill is an abbreviated version of prior WRDAs and focuses on traditional WRDA elements, such as authorizations for the Corps’ maritime transportation infrastructure improvement and maintenance projects and support for flood protection and environmental restoration needs.

As a reminder, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved its WRDA bill, S. 2848, by an overwhelming majority on April 28.

The House’s WRDA bill, unlike its Senate counterpart, does not focus on drinking water and wastewater systems or provide financial assistance to Flint, Michigan.

Significant Provisions in the House WRDA Bill

The House WRDA bill prioritizes returning to the regular, biannual process of Congress authorizing projects and activities related to the key mission of the Corps, including developing and maintaining the nation’s waterway infrastructure and supporting effective and targeted flood protection and environmental restoration needs. The legislation follows the process reforms established in the water resources bill two years ago, the Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) of 2014, and includes provisions on Corps project authorizations, modifications, deauthorizations, and feasibility studies; the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF); dredging; enhanced partnerships with stakeholders; data and transparency; and water supply issues.

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Project Authorizations, Modifications, Deauthorizations, and Feasibility Studies The House WRDA bill authorizes 28 Corps Chief ’s Reports submitted to Congress since the enactment of WRRDA 2014. Of the 28 projects, 8 are navigation projects: Brazos Island Harbor, Texas; Calcasieu Lock, Louisiana; Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire; Piscataqua River, Maine; Port Everglades, Florida; Little Diomede Harbor, Arkansas; Charleston Harbor, South Carolina; and Craig Harbor, Arkansas.

It also authorizes 29 feasibility studies for future civil works projects, modifies previously authorized projects, expedites feasibility studies for 8 projects, deauthorizes $5 billion in previously authorized projects to offset the newly authorized projects, and sunsets projects authorized by the bill if funds have not been obligated within 7 years of the bill’s enactment.

The committee adopted, as part of the Manager’s Amendment, a provision prioritizing the WRRDA 2014 requirement under section 1013 that the secretary contract with the National Academy of Public Administration to review the Corps’ process for preparing, negotiating, and approving project partnership agreements and submit the report to Congress.

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Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund

The legislation includes several provisions related to the HMTF. Most notably, the House bill proposes to take the HMTF out of the annual appropriations process, moving HMTF spending from discretionary to mandatory starting in 2027. HMTF funds have long been withheld to offset other spending.

The House provision would permit the Corps to use all collected funds for HMTF for their authorized purposes.

House T&I Committee Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR) described this as “a critical provision to ensure that, in the future, funds collected in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund will be used for their intended purpose—harbor maintenance.” However, it is anticipated this provision could be controversial with leaders of the Budget and Appropriations Committees and may be subject to a point of order on the House floor.

The bill would also make permanent a provision providing for a 10 percent allocation for the operation and maintenance costs of “emerging harbors,” which handle less than 1 million tons of cargo annually, and would modify the definition of a “donor port” from the Donor Port and Energy Transfer Port grant program created by WRRDA 2014, reducing the threshold for annual HMTF collections for donor ports from $15 million to $5 million.

The committee also approved amendments extending the authorization of $50 million in appropriations each fiscal year through fiscal year (FY) 2020 to support donor and energy transfer ports and authorizing additional appropriations for each year in FY 2021 through FY 2025 if the established targets are met during FY 2016– FY 2020.

Inland Waterway Trust Fund

Another amendment adopted by the committee would direct the U.S. Government Accountability Office to analyze alternative models for managing the Inland Waterway Trust Fund, including project schedules and fund expenditures for inland waterways projects. The study would consider the costs and benefits of transferring management of the Inland Waterway Trust Fund to a not-for-profit private company or government-owned corporation. The U.S. Government Accountability Office study must be submitted within one year of the bill’s enactment.

Dredging

Several provisions also focus on dredging issues.

Specifically, the House WRDA bill requires a study on the costs and benefits of expanding, reducing, or maintaining the current federally owned hopper dredge fleet and establishes a maintenance dredging database with data on

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the volume of dredged material removed, cost, involved parties and vessels, and number and amount of bids. In addition, the committee adopted an amendment that would permit the Corps to enter into agreements for operation and maintenance costs for alternative projects to maintenance dredging if the alternative project would lower the overall costs of maintaining the channel.

Enhanced Partnership With Stakeholders

Building off WRRDA 2014’s section 7001 Report to Congress on Future Water Resources Development, the House’s WRDA 2016 asserts that the report will be used “to determine authorization needs and priorities for purposes of water resources development legislation.” It also emphasizes the need for stakeholder engagement during the report’s preparation, calling for guidance on the process to be provided to stakeholders.

Prior to initiating a feasibility study for a proposed project, the bill calls for stakeholder meetings, if requested, to review a preliminary analysis of the project’s federal interest; costs, including a cost estimate for a feasibility study; benefits; and environmental impacts.

Additionally, the legislation provides that nonfederal interests may also request technical assistance “relating to any aspect of a feasibility study if the non-federal interest contracts with the Secretary to pay all costs of providing such technical assistance.”

Data and Transparency

The House bill includes several provisions to advance initiatives under WRDA 2007 that focused on improving transparency and providing public access to certain data.

Section 135 requires the implementation of an electronic system for submitting and tracking permit applications and requests for jurisdictional determinations within two years of the bill’s enactment. Section 136 requires all Corps data on “the planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of water resources development projects” and “water quality and water management of projects owned, operated, or managed by the Corps of Engineers” to be made publicly available “as quickly as practicable after the data is generated.”

Beginning in FY 2018 and biennially thereafter, a report must be submitted, in conjunction with the president’s budget submission, to the relevant congressional committees that describes the metrics used in developing the civil works budget and how projects are prioritized.

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Water Supply Issues

Although the House WRDA bill does not devote as much attention to water supply issues as the Senate WRDA bill, it does address water supply conservation efforts for areas that are experiencing, or in the past year have experienced, a drought emergency. For these areas, the secretary is to evaluate whether water supply conservation measures would be appropriate and, if so, contract with a nonfederal interest to provide approved water supply conservation measures, such as storm water capture and releases for groundwater replenishment, storage, or increased supply. The nonfederal interest would be responsible for paying only “separable costs associated with the evaluation, implementation, operation, and maintenance of an approved water supply conservation measure.”

As part of the adopted Manager’s Amendment, the House T&I Committee also approved a provision that would require integrated water resources planning when conducting feasibility studies for water resources development projects. If local or regional water management plans exist or are under development for the purpose of stormwater management, water quality improvement, aquifer recharge, or water reuse, the secretary must work with local public entities and nonfederal sponsors to incorporate these plans and avoid adversely affecting the plans’ purposes.

Key Players Remain Committed to Passing WRDA in 2016

With the House and Senate WRDA bills both in play, the Senate and House committee leaders are better positioned to achieve their goal of completing a WRDA bill every two years, which means passing WRDA this year.

The House bill reiterates this objective with the inclusion of a statement on the sense of Congress that addresses the importance of passing WRDA bills “on a routine basis [, which] enables Congress to exercise oversight, ensures the Corps of Engineers maintains an appropriately sized portfolio, prevents project backlog, and keeps United States infrastructure competitive.” As such, this provision concludes that “Congress should consider a [WRDA] at least once every Congress.”

Stephen Martinko is a government affairs counselor in K&L Gates’ public policy and law practice. He concentrates on federal legislative and regulatory advocacy, engaging on a wide range of policy issues with a focus on transportation and infrastructure, maritime, and energy matters. His diverse public policy and management experience includes service as executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh Commission, deputy staff director of the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and chief of staff to Congressman Bill Shuster (R-PA), chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Stephen can be reached at stephen.martinko@klgates.com.

Jim Sartucci is a government affairs counselor in K&L Gates’ public policy and law practice. He has more than 13 years of practical experience on Capitol Hill, working inside the legislative process on issues including maritime, Coast Guard, Homeland Security, transportation, oceans, fisheries, and science programs and policy. Prior to joining the firm, Jim spent 9 years working for Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), for whom he served as legislative director. Jim can be reached at jim.sartucci@klgates.com.

Sarah Beason is an associate in the firm’s Washington, DC, office. Sarah can be reached at sarah.beason@klgates.com.

Expected Timeline of WRDA Consideration

Members of Congress are seeking to pass WRDA 2016 before the summer recess, scheduled to begin July 16. With the release of the House WRDA, Chairman Shuster has indicated he hopes the House will consider WRDA by June.

The Senate is expected to consider its bill later this summer.

As the House and Senate bills contain significant differences, particularly concerning drinking water and wastewater systems, a conference on the bills will need to reconcile the nontraditional elements of the Senate’s WRDA with the House’s more traditional approach.

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ASSOCIATION PROFILE

LOOKING AT WATER DIFFERENTLY

All Water Is Water Supply: An Interview With Melissa Meeker, WateReuse Association

M

s. Melissa Meeker is the executive director of the WateReuse Association and chief executive officer of the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation.

Ms. Meeker has more than 25 years of experience in water resources management, with an emphasis on alternative water supply development.

Throughout her career, Ms. Meeker has demonstrated a unique grasp of the dynamics surrounding the water industry, from identifying research needs and technological trends to understanding the state and federal legislative and regulatory processes. She has a proven track record of working with decisionmakers to develop powerful alliances that result in demonstrated benefits in research, fundraising, and advocacy. Ms. Meeker previously served as executive director of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and as deputy secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. She has a master’s degree in environmental resource management from Florida Institute of Technology.

Municipal Water Leader’s writer, Valentina Valenta, spoke with Ms. Meeker about the mission of the WateReuse Association, its role in shaping water resources management policies at the federal and state levels, and the future of reuse in different communities across the country.

Valentina Valenta: Please tell our readers about the WateReuse Association and its mission, vision, and values.

Melissa Meeker: WateReuse is a trade association that is composed of public utilities, businesses, commercial enterprises, and nonprofits. We represent more than 100 communities and about 50 million utility customers around the country. Our sole focus is on water reuse, which gives us a unique voice in Congress and around the country when we perform outreach and advocacy activities.

The big-picture vision of WateReuse is a world where everybody has a safe, reliable, locally controlled water supply that sustains economic development and growth, provides a high quality of life, and meets the

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needs of protecting our environment.

Our mission is to educate policymakers and the public about water reuse and to advocate for laws, policy, and funding that increases the implementation of water reuse projects and programs.

Valentina Valenta: Please share your background and experience and how you came to the association.

Melissa Meeker: I have over 25 years of experience in water management issues. My focus has been alternative water supply development. I have been very involved in planning water reuse symposiums and making presentations to these groups. This is my first role with a nonprofit organization, but I bring a unique skillset and perspective to WateReuse through my extensive regulatory and public utility background.

Valentina Valenta: You were executive director of the SFWMD, one of the largest public water agencies in the country and also the partner with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in restoring the Everglades. Could you please tell our readers about the most important water management lessons from this experience and how integrating the world’s largest ecosystem restoration project changes water management?

Melissa Meeker: My job provided a precursor to where the water industry should be going, and is currently going. The most important thing I learned at the SFWMD is the interconnectivity of everything we do. For instance, when we are responding to a flood control issue, we may think we are only responding to the aspects associated with flood control, but the action you take in response has a direct effect on groundwater levels and on future water supply. Water management decisions cannot be made in silos.

I have always believed that our water supply activities cannot be approached singularly, and the Everglades Restoration project is a great example.

When I was involved in the Everglades Restoration project, I found that we were very focused on restoring Municipal Water Leader

the Everglades and reducing nutrient inflows and increasing flows downstream to deal with the saltwater wedge, but the number one way to increase flows is to reduce groundwater demand upstream. We have to look at the whole system, which I describe as a one-water connected philosophy.

The Everglades laid the groundwork for me that no amount of water should be wasted. All water has a use. Our job is to figure out the right way to treat it and the right place to put it.

Under the Water Resources and Reform Development Act of 2014, the Corps was provided with greater White House Roundtable – December 2015. authority to look at developing they have clean water. Today, we are doing a better job alternative water supplies. Any time we create wetlands educating the public and helping them to understand or restore wetlands, we are affecting downstream water where their water comes from. The drought in the West supply or aquifer recharge—which is, in effect, water and the water quality issues in the East will show us supply. We can accomplish multiple water resources the goals that we can achieve by thinking about water objectives if we look at each of the Corps’ missions as differently. This is not a technology issue. The technology connected and affecting one another. to increase water reuse already exists. The issue is about public perception and embracing the philosophy of Valentina Valenta: Please tell us about water reuse. interconnected water management.

Can you characterize the importance of water reuse as a source of water in this country, and how important do you Valentina Valenta: Can you please give our readers a expect it to be in the future? percentage breakdown of the uses of reused water?

Melissa Meeker: In the last couple of years, there Melissa Meeker: Based on U.S. Environmental has been a phenomenal focus on water reuse. The Protection Agency estimates, there is a little more than attention directed toward water reuse is being driven by 30 billion gallons of municipal wastewater produced every climate issues, including the extended drought in the day, and less than 10 percent of that is intentionally reused.

West. Additionally, increasing regulatory pressure related In Florida, for example, which is our largest user of reused to water quality issues in the East have prompted a water, the focus is on irrigation. Irrigation for landscapes discussion about water systems and systems management. and golf courses averages about 55 percent, agriculture I believe that we can address all our water challenges by averages about 10 percent, groundwater recharge is at looking at water differently.

14 percent, and industrial use is about 13 percent. In Water reuse generally refers to treated domestic California, agricultural reuse is at 30 percent, landscape wastewater that is used more than once before it is passed irrigation is at 18 percent, groundwater recharge is at back into the water cycle. As we look at water supply 13 percent (boosted by the world’s largest project in shortages, water reuse can help us become more climate Orange County), industrial use is at 7 percent, habitat is at independent. We are always going to have wastewater, 4 percent, and a mixture of other uses are at 20 percent. but we may not always have snowpack, a situation that recently occurred in California.

Valentina Valenta: How is water reuse progressing in We have created a challenge over the years by doing terms of direct potable reuse, and where do you see the what utilities do best—meeting the needs of their trend moving with reuse for potable water supplies? individual systems without talking to the public about the role of water reuse in meeting the community’s Melissa Meeker: We have both direct and indirect needs. For many years, public utilities have been engaged reuse projects all over the country. This is the driver of the in unplanned reuse. The public often doesn’t realize future. We are going to see some groundwater recharge. that indirect reuse is happening. They only know that Municipal Water Leader

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We will see the integration of more wetlands. I believe we are going to increase all our indirect opportunities.

There will also be many communities that move forward with direct reuse projects. Texas implemented a number of direct potable reuse projects during severe drought but, in one case, returned to indirect reuse when water supply conditions improved.

Valentina Valenta: Please give your perspective on the most important reforms in law or policy that are needed to advance water reuse in the United States?

Melissa Meeker: There are a number of policy initiatives that we are specifically interested in, but funding may be the most significant issue. It is also the toughest to achieve. We no longer have earmarks.

We have a lot of budget issues at the federal level. Our communities don’t know if they will get federal support in the future for their proposed projects. There is also a strong need for additional research into reuse, which is both expensive and time consuming. These two federal issues are hampering progress across the board for the water resources industry.

We would also like to see the administration talk to the public about where their water is coming from and share with them all the benefits of reuse and alternative water supply. It is important to educate the public about why we all need to be thinking about water resources management holistically.

Valentina Valenta: What objectives is the association advocating for in this Congress?

Melissa Meeker: The two key policies that we are focused on right now are infrastructure financing and updating the Bureau of Reclamation’s title XVI program.

In terms of infrastructure financing, we would like to see the State Revolving Fund program maintained, at the very least, and preferably increased. We would like Congress to adequately fund the Water Infrastructure Finance Act program. There has been some discussion about creating another water resources financing stream, but we need to increase the State Revolving Fund and fund the Water Infrastructure Finance Act program before we create new programs.

Reclamation’s title XVI program was developed to fund infrastructure and reuse projects in the West, but it has not funded one new project since Congress enacted the earmark ban. Moreover, old projects that may no longer be viable continue to remain on the authorization list. Title XVI is a good program that needs to be reformed to reflect the realities of the 21st century. We have proposed making title XVI an open competitive grant program for projects to restore its effectiveness.

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Reuse master control system – Tucson Water, Tucson, Arizona.

We work closely with members of Congress to ensure that we have bipartisan support for reuse, and we impress upon our decisionmakers that infrastructure funding is a nonpartisan issue that affects all of our communities. We not only act as a resource to congressional offices, but we also work to bring the administration and state governments together to provide education about the value of reuse across the country.

Valentina Valenta: In a previous issue of Municipal Water Leader, we explored water planning in Colorado. Here’s a statement from a Colorado water planning document: “Additionally, because the South Platte relies heavily on return flows, expanded reuse is often simply a reallocation of water from agriculture to municipal uses, thus reducing the water available for agriculture, as well as environmental and recreational purposes.” Perhaps another way to say this is that returning flows is also reuse. How important is this phenomenon as a limit to reuse in water appropriations states and elsewhere?

Melissa Meeker: Return flows are certainly a form of reuse. Colorado’s water law does require that upstream municipalities, such as the Denver metro area, discharge treated wastewater to the South Platte River. The downstream users, which are mainly agricultural, gain beneficial use from the return flows. Much of the water supply in the Denver metro area originates in the Western Slope. When that water supply comes over the Eastern Slope through a series of tunnels, it is considered nontributary to the South Platte, and they can use that water over and over again. There are also groundwater supplies that are considered nontributary as well, so there are many opportunities to have water irrigation systems in the area. Some of the districts are also provided with an offset, which means they can discharge their treated wastewater into the river and withdraw the same amount for Municipal Water Leader

potable use.

We need to remember that water management is always local, and each area of the country has specific issues that are best addressed by the interests and economic drivers of the city and constituency in which the water is used. There are different ways to create and enhance reuse projects, and we help communities to understand their needs so they can maximize the benefits of reuse.

the stigma associated with wastewater. We also bring the states together with the administration to find ways to rebrand the message to our communities about reuse.

Reuse is not an emergency measure to be incorporated into the water supply portfolio only during drought.

People need to understand that conservation is never going to solve our water supply problems. We need to think of reuse as a permanent part of any water supply portfolio.

Valentina Valenta: What other challenges to water reuse do you see, now and in the future, and how can we best solve them?

Valentina Valenta: Lastly, please tell us about the merger between the Water Environment Research Foundation and the WateReuse Research Foundation.

Melissa Meeker: Reuse has been very important to a number of districts in the West, but one of the reasons that water reuse is not a bigger part of our entire country’s portfolio of water supply is that it is still characterized as a waste product.

My key focus is to show that there is no such thing as a wastewater stream. We have the technology to treat wastewater to all kinds of standards. We have the ability to reuse water multiple times for multiple purposes, so we need to think about when it is most appropriate and necessary to use potable water from traditional water sources and when another water source and quality may be more appropriate and cost effective to use.

Since many states consider wastewater a waste product rather than a product that can become the highest quality of water supply, we work with the states first to remove

Melissa Meeker: We recently merged the Water Environment Research Foundation (a wastewater and stormwater research organization that focuses on resource recovery, such as nutrients and energy) and the WateReuse Research Foundation (which is focused solely on reuse research, such as beneficial use) in order to carry out a more holistic vision for water that was once wasted but is a critical resource going forward. The focus of this merger will be on how we can best help utilities maximize the beneficial uses and revenue that result from using water multiple times for multiple applications. Most importantly, this merger represents our many years of hard work to demonstrate to our communities and decisionmakers the benefits and value of thinking about water differently.

Through the adoption of a one-water connected philosophy, all water is water supply.

Purple Pipe, which carries recycled water in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Municipal Water Leader

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THE INNOVATORS

The District of Columbia Is Breaking New Ground by Making a New Soil: What Is So Good About Bloom™?

D

C Water is pioneering a new solution to the biosolids challenge. The utility is changing its perspective on what has always been a waste product, converting it to a resource called Bloom.

Bloom is DC Water’s brand name for its Class A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)–certified Exceptional Quality (EQ) biosolids. This is a new and unique soil amendment, and it is the first product created by DC Water. DC Water was the first utility in North America to commission the thermal hydrolysis process, CAMBI, which converts sewage received from the district and its surrounding jurisdictions into renewable energy and EQ biosolids.

What is so special about Bloom, according to Gloria Cadavid, marketing and business development manager at DC Water, “is that it is a nutrient-rich soil amendment that is pathogen free, moisture retaining, and also weed resistant. The many properties of the product make it unique in the market.”

From a sustainability standpoint, Bloom is an excellent example of resource recovery with a triple-

DC Water’s CEO and General Manager George Hawkins unveiling the new Bloom™ soil amendment at the product’s launch in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2016.

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TM

bottom-line benefit. “Under the old model, biosolids were viewed as a problem, a waste product that you had to get rid of. But DC Water is changing the paradigm for the industry by converting what used to be a liability into an asset—a value that the water utility is extracting for ratepayers. This is DC Water’s vision,” said Ms. Cadavid.

DC Water is looking to commercialize more than 400 tons of solids per day that are produced at the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. Bloom is a high-quality product that is produced all year long.

From an environmental standpoint, Bloom users will sequester carbon and reduce the need for using chemical fertilizers.

From an economic standpoint, Bloom will reduce the operating costs of transportation and beneficial reuse contracts that cost ratepayers millions of dollars a year.

From a social standpoint, Ms. Cadavid explained, “Bloom is local (it is made in the district), it is perfectly suitable for urban gardening, and down the road, DC Water foresees opportunities to bag the product, potentially creating jobs for local DC residents.”

Bloom Is One of DC Water’s Sources of Nonratepayer Revenue

Bloom Is Made From Class A Biosolids

Once DC Water treats all the sewage from the District of Columbia and surrounding jurisdictions, it becomes Bloom.

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Bloom Is a Soil Conditioner

A soil conditioner is a product that is added to the soil to change its physical properties in order to support plant growth, for example, to change its ability to hold essential nutrients; its pH; or its water holding capacity, or what is called soil compaction.

Currently, DC Water is tracking the trials it is conducting using the Bloom product on different types of plants. DC Water has found that Bloom is an excellent source of nutrients such as nitrogen, which is readily absorbed by plants. Bloom has also been found to improve the water holding capacity of soil, which gives it a drought-resistant property, and it is specifically beneficial to soils in areas that are becoming increasingly arid due to climate change. So, Bloom is a soil con ditioner made from high qua Bloom has excellent nutrients to lity Class A biosolids. support plant growth and also Bloom provides ess ential has drought-resistant properties. plant nutrients, inc luding nitrogen and phosph Those qualities are the essence of orous.

It’s dark and earthy in color because it’s loaded soil amendment. with carbon, which is great for you r soil.

Ms. Cadavid explained that By using Bloom, you can look forward to greater yield and “Bloom is as an excellent soil better drought resista nce. conditioner and can be used for Bloom is ideal for gro wing commercial soil blending off the vegetables and flow ers in your garden, giving you r lawn a boost belt after the CAMBI thermal and remediating poo r urban soils. hydrolysis process.

In other words, Bloom is a DC Water product.

Sales help reduce ope direct from the CAMBI process, rating costs and the carbon footprint Bloom is already an excellent soil of DC Water’s Blue Plains resource recovery facility. conditioner. There’s no need to Contact us. add anything to the product. It is 202 787 4296 ready to be used. However, we are bloom@dcwater.com currently curing the product after is bloomsoil.com comes off the belt for 30 to 60 days to reduce the pH, ammonia levels, and moisture content. In addition, we are working with Virginia Tech TM

What is Bloom?

Many publicly owned water utilities are facing the problem of escalating rates for residents. For DC Water in particular, water and sewer rates have doubled over the last decade and will continue to increase in the foreseeable future. So, DC Water believes it has a responsibility to look elsewhere for nonratepayer sources of revenue to help mitigate the financial burden on ratepayers.

DC Water has a newly formed marketing team whose mission is to look for additional sources of nonratepayer revenue. Bloom will generate that type of revenue.

According to Ms. Cadavid, “It has great market potential with largescale soil blenders, and in other applications—and again, it will not only be a source of operational cost savings for DC Water, but will generate additional revenue to help mitigate rate increases.”

Biosolids are basically a nutrientrich material. There are two types of biosolids—Class A and Class B. According to the EPA, the difference in the classifications is based on the density of pathogens in the biosolids. To meet the EPA’s requirements for being classified as Class A or Class B, the biosolids have to fall below certain levels of pathogens and metals and vector attraction.

According to Ms. Cadavid, “Bloom is classified as an Exceptional Quality Class A biosolids, which means that it is essentially pathogen free.”

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on two different blends—a topsoil mix and a woody mulch soil conditioner.”

DC Water is also partnering with large-scale commercial soil blenders to test the different applications for Bloom and to test other mixes for bioretention, for example.

DC Water’s CAMBI Digesters Provide the Advanced Technology for Bloom

In October 2015, DC Water commissioned the only CAMBI system in North America and the largest one in the world by volume treated. DC Water treats approximately 300 million gallons per day of enriched water (wastewater). There are many nutrients in the water.

The process for treating the enriched water is as follows: Operators screen the sewage for large items, and those items are landfilled. Then the water goes through a sedimentation process in which larger particles settle out. The solid particles are then thickened and blended together. Carbon and nitrogen are removed from the remaining water, which is then filtered, disinfected, and discharged back into the Potomac River.

The solids from the sedimentation process that are thickened and blended together are sent to the highpressure cooker. This step makes the solids more easily digestible by beneficial microbes. The microbes produce

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a methane gas and can generate renewable energy— potentially as much as 13 megawatts of electricity, which reduces DC Water’s carbon footprint by about one-third. One-third of the plant is powered by the methane produced from the CAMBI process.

The high heat (the thermal hydrolysis) sterilizes the solids, and the remaining material from this process is dewatered and becomes Bloom, a pathogen-free Class A biosolids that can be used for all kinds of applications, including agriculture, or it can be blended into soil for use in urban settings.

Prior to CAMBI, DC Water was producing on average 50 tractor trailers of Class B biosolids; with CAMBI, that amount is reduced by more than half, which not only saves ratepayers money but also reduces the utility’s carbon footprint in terms of transportation.

DC Water Is Pursuing a Marketing Strategy for Bloom

Since launching Bloom in May 2016, DC Water has received many inquiries about where people can purchase this product. Currently, the utility is running a pilot program with large commercial soil blenders, the District of Columbia government, and some nonprofit organizations. The pilot partners will take Bloom in bulk and report out on how they blended it

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region.” DC Water is keeping nutrients away from the water, which is good for people’s health, and is putting them into the soil because it is good for the soil and the growth of plants. This product will allow DC Water to save millions of dollars in operating costs, which directly translates into cost savings for the ratepayer. DC Water has a large capital expenditure program. Bloom will allow DC Water to mitigate those rate increases in future years.

Bloom Is Innovative While Building on the Successes of Others

and how they applied it. Since it is a new product, Bloom staff are learning a great deal—they need to know how it performs, what the application rates are, what the best and most beneficial uses for the product are, and what the local market for the soil conditioner is.

DC Water has plans to bag the product and sell it at local gardening stores, but according to Ms. Cadavid, “that will likely take a few years because the objective currently is to find the best application for the product in bulk, for example, as top soil, in turf, and in agriculture.

In the meantime though, Bloom staff is working with community gardens and schools to increase its presence in the community and to get the customers familiar with the product before it arrives on the shelves.”

Bloom Is DC Water’s New Biosolids Management Strategy, Founded on Economics and Resources Principles

Bloom is DC Water’s new biosolids management strategy. Historically, DC Water relied on beneficial reuse contracts through which the biosolids are trucked away from Blue Plains over long distances to Virginia, for example, and the product is given away to farmers for free. The goal for Bloom is to change this model to get extra value for DC Water's ratepayers and to garner added benefits for the local community.

DC Water’s marketing team is developing strategies for launching the product in markets within the region and eventually nationally.

DC Water’s general manager, George Hawkins, often says, “We have the largest recycling process in the entire

Municipal Water Leader

Bloom is a first in North America because the biosolids are produced by the CAMBI process. However, capitalizing on the biosolids resource is not a new concept.

Ms. Cadavid explained, “Milwaukee has its own biosolids product, which has been around for more than 90 years.

Similarly, Tacoma, Washington, has an award-winning biosolids product. DC Water is getting many inquiries from other municipalities looking to implement a CAMBI system.” In terms of marketing the new Bloom product, the marketing staff say they have a lot to learn from what other municipalities have done in the past.

Currently, Bloom staff are working mostly at the commercial level. DC Water is excited and looking forward to bringing the product to local stores. The marketing team is also looking forward to hosting a big event in 2017, where the product will be given away so that people can try it out. In the meantime, the Bloom team will continue experimenting with different blends of the product.

Ms. Gloria Cadavid joined the Office of the General Manager at DC Water in 2015, where she currently serves as marketing and business development manager. She came to DC Water from Veolia Environmental Services, where she was a senior associate. In this role, Ms. Cadavid managed operational improvement programs with utilities in Washington DC, Los Angeles, New York City, and Georgia. Ms. Cadavid has master's degrees in sustainability management from Columbia University and public policy from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor's degree in business administration and Spanish from the College of New Jersey. You can contact Ms. Cadavid at Gloria.Cadavid@dcwater.com.

All photos and images provided by DC Water.

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THE INNOVATORS

Pipe Bursting: Norman, Oklahoma, Gets Out of the Trenches to Replace Sewer Lines With Less Excavation Cost and Disruption to Customers and Service

W

ater and Sewer Customers Set the Rates The city of Norman is unique in that it is the only city in the state of Oklahoma, and only one of a handful of cities in the United States, where customers vote on their water, sewer, and sanitation rates. Thus, it is essential that the city educate its water and sewer customers so that they can make the best decision possible when voting to increase the costs of their utility bills.

Prior to 2001, the city experienced sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) during storm events and many problems in the sewer collection system. The city of Norman, like many cities throughout the United States, came under a consent decree that requires reductions in SSOs and updates to the collection system.

Infrastructure Is Critical The nation is deepening its understanding of the critical nature of maintenance and investment. The importance of such activity is often understood in terms of its effect on economic well-being. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) recently completed a study of the effect of the infrastructure investment gap on family income. The study found that the current deficit in infrastructure expenditure reduces income for a typical American family by as much as $3,400.

“Poor infrastructure means more congestion on our roadways, broken water lines, and power outages, and an inability to get our goods to market,” said Mr. Greg DiLoreto, PE, chair of ASCE’s Committee for America’s Infrastructure. “From lost time, to inconvenience, to spending money to fix our cars or a flooded basement, it’s a very real cost that we’re paying.”

The U.S. Conference of Mayors notes that 80 percent of U.S.

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This photo shows the flexibility of the fused high-density polyethylene (HDPE) as it waits to be drawn into service.

economic activity is generated in the nation’s cities and that for every $1.00 invested in public water and sewer infrastructure services, approximately $8.97 is added to the national economy (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2008).

In today’s economy, families and businesses alike are sensitive to quality of life in deciding where to live and work. A city with inadequate water infrastructure is unlikely to be a destination for good jobs and high earning potential. Smart cities must compete on water and wastewater systems to thrive.

Customers Approve Funding for Correction of the Sewer Collection Systems The city of Norman has learned the critical role of water infrastructure. In 2001, the residents of Norman voted to approve a $5-per-month fee that would be added to their utility bills to help pay for the correction of the sewer collection system. According to Mr. Ken Komiske, director of utilities for the city of Norman, “As a result of this levy, the city has been able to collect about $2.7 million per year from its ratepayers to help fund its capital improvement program.

This money must be spent on infrastructure replacement and rehabilitation.”

Depending on the location, the city replaces 30,000 to 45,000 feet (approximately 7 miles) of sewer line every year.

Mr. Komiske explained that priorities were integral to the effort. “The city began the program by replacing the oldest and most corroded sewer lines and will eventually replace the entire sewer system in each neighborhood, including the manholes.”

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Pipe Bursting—It’s Not What One Would Imagine The city of Norman replaces sewer pipes using a process called pipe bursting, which operates similarly to a tunnelboring machine. Mr. Komiske explained that “pipe bursting essentially makes pipe replacement trenchless.”

Pipe bursting is a process whereby a line or cable is inserted into the old pipe and then the new pipe is pulled through the old pipe. A cutting head is used to split apart the old pipe in order to pull the new pipe into position.

According to Mr. Komiske, “Pipe bursting has allowed the city to replace 8‑inch pipes with 10‑inch pipes, if needed.”

The process for installing the new pipes means that backyards, where most sewer lines are located, do not have to be trenched or dug up anymore. The new pipes can also be connected immediately to the service collection system.

According to Mr. Komiske, “No home is out of service for longer than 12 hours during the pipe replacement and service reconnection.”

Upgrading Pipe Materials, Reducing SSOs, and Staying Ahead of the Game Most of the old sewer pipes were made of cement, terracotta, or cast iron. The city of Norman is replacing all those pipes with high-density polyethylene (HDPE).

According to Mr. Komiske, “Since 2001, the city has decreased its SSOs by almost 90 percent. Reducing overflows is a total sewer line maintenance commitment.

Crews constantly flush and clean sewer lines, have an annual root control program and an active FOG [fats, oils, and grease] program that work in parallel to the replacement projects. Replacing sewer lines is an ongoing program. The city has replaced roughly 75 miles, or 15 percent, of the sewer lines throughout the city over the past 12 years.” The city’s goal is to replace the sewer lines

A stack of HDPE pipe. All sections of the sewer system are televised to check for any particular problem areas before replacing the area.

After the new sewer pipe is installed, the city re-televises the area to check the condition of the service connections and the installation of the new pipe Municipal Water Leader

A length of fused HDPE and its flexibility as it waits to be drawn into service. It is being drawn into the hole as it replaces or bursts through the existing pipe.

every 50 or 60 years to maintain the functionality of the whole system.

A Success Story Many cities now use the pipe bursting technology because it is nonintrusive and does not require trenching.

Workmen can go into residential backyards and replace sewer lines without disrupting large areas of grass and soil.

“Utility workers don’t have to dig up an entire pipe. They simply dig two small holes, one on each end of the pipe,” says Mr. Komiske.

Another benefit of the ongoing sewer line replacement is that the HDPE material used for the new pipes, like polyvinyl chloride, is fused together creating one giant pipe without seams. The old terracotta pipe was typically made in 4- to 8‑foot sections and was connected by joints. Those joints allowed roots and other debris to enter the pipe.

HDPE pipes are fused together with a special machine and are as continuous and smooth as a garden hose. The properties of HDPE make the pipes very flexible, so they can be snaked underground and through the existing sewer pipe.

In addition, many cities, including Norman, are using HDPE pipes for sewers because it allows utilities to replace infrastructure on schedule and less intrusively, and it provides cost savings to the ratepayer. The city of Norman is justifiably proud of this technology. “We are using the right technology and the right materials. We have been very successful,” Mr. Komiske proudly stated.

Mr. Ken Komiske is the director of utilities for the city of Norman, Oklahoma. Prior to his position with the city, Mr. Komiske worked for United Water in various locations throughout the United States. He has been in the water business for 40 years. You can reach Mr. Komiske at Ken.Komiske@NormanOK.gov.

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NWRA Western Water Seminar Registration August 3-5, 2016 ~ Sun Valley Resort ~ Sun Valley, Idaho

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2016 CALENDAR

May 3–6 Association of California Water Agencies, Spring Conference & Exhibition, Monterey, CA May 20 Agribusiness & Water Council of Arizona, Annual Meeting, Tempe, AZ June 8–10 U.S. Water Alliance, One Water Summit 2016, Atlanta, GA June 13–14 Idaho Water Users Association, Summer Water Law & Resource Issues Seminar, Sun Valley, ID June 14–15 The Water Council, Milwaukee Water Summit, Milwaukee, WI June 15–17 Texas Water Conservation Association, Mid-Year Conference, Horseshoe Bay, TX June 19–22 American Water Works Association, Annual Conference & Exhibition, Chicago, IL Water Leadership Workshop, Milwaukee, WI June 22–23 June 22–24 WESTCAS, Annual Conference, Santa Fe, NM June 27–July 1 ESRI, User Conference, San Diego, CA June 29–July 1 Groundwater Management Districts Association, Summer Session, Yakima, WA July 10–13 National Association of Clean Water Agencies, Utility Leadership Conference &

46th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO August 3–5 National Water Resources Association, Western Water Seminar, Sun Valley, ID August 23–25 Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts, Groundwater Summit, San Marcos, TX September 23–24 Water Quality Association of Wisconsin, Annual Convention, Wisconsin Dells, WI ___________________________________________________________________________ To include your event in the calendar, e-mail Municipal.Water.Leader@waterstrategies.com.