EPA Guidance Provides New Options for Meeting TMDL Goals
The goal of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program is arguably simple - to develop watershed level conservation plans designed to restore impaired waters and attain applicable water quality standards – but its development and implementation has not been simple. In an attempt to bring new clarity to the process of incorporating TMDLs into stormwater permits, the EPA issued a revised guidance document last November entitled “ Establishing Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Wasteload Alloc...
Optioneering Helps MidCoast Water Transform Gloucester Water Network into a Reliable, Efficient System
MidCoast Water delivers water and sewerage services to 40,000 households in the Manning, Great Lakes, and Gloucester communities of New South Wales in Australia. It also supplies 8 billion liters of water a year to Karuah in the south, Crowdy Head in the north, and Gloucester in the west. In 2011, MidCoast Water accepted responsibility for the operation of the aging water and sewer networks in the Gloucester Shire Council area. The Gloucester water distribution network, parts of which date ba...
The Beauty Beneath: Notable Water and Sewer Networks Recognized
The Be Inspired Awards, awarded annually at Bentley Systems’ Year in Infrastructure Conference, are something like the Academy Awards of the infrastructure world—they recognize and celebrate design and construction achievements that often go unrecognized by the very citizens whose lives are being improved by applied practical genius. As Norman Maclean said, in the context of correctly loading pack mules, “To all those who work come moments of beauty unseen by the rest of the world.” The Year...
Sewage Pollution a Culprit in Indian River Lagoon
Dr. Brian Lapointe, Research Professor for the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University has spent decades studying the impact of humans on aquatic ecosystems. Photo courtesy of Florida Atlantic University, Harbor Branch. Science points to proliferation of septic tanks in loss of seagrass and wildlife The Indian River Lagoon is a narrow channel of brackish water that extends nearly 160 miles down the spine of Florida’s Atlantic coast. Although not as well known to...
Developing a Stormwater Trash Control Strategy
There are many types of trash and debris found in stormwater and they each have an effect on our environment and infrastructure. If your community is interested in developing a trash control strategy, here are six key points that should be considered:1. Identify all outfalls and estimate trash loads – This may seem obvious, but you need to build a database of all outfalls and estimated trash loads for each drainage basin. Only then will you know the true extent of the problem and have a base...
WaterCAD Helps Sabesp Identify Optimal Hydraulic Strategy, Solving Water Supply Issues
Sabesp MA is a mixed-capital company that provides water and sewage services to the 364 municipalities in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It is considered one of the largest water and sewage service providers in the world, supplying potable water to 27.7 million people. Two pump stations, Vila Bela and Jardim da Conquista, pump water from the Rio Claro aqueduct, each through an 800 millimeter pipe. The Vila Bela pump station supplied the Jardim da Conquista tank with an average flow of 708 li...
Philadelphia Water Streamlines Operations with Enterprise Data Management System
The Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) is a municipal utility providing a population of nearly 1.7 million people in three eastern Pennsylvania counties with integrated water, wastewater, and stormwater services. The utility is responsible for planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the necessary infrastructure. By integrating the rapidly growing ProjectWise data management system with the city’s geospatial database and Capital Program Integrated Tracking (CAPIT) database,...
Is Green Infrastructure Diminishing Innovation?
Since the Environmental Protection Agency, and in turn state and local regulators, have gone all in on green infrastructure (GI) and low impact development (LID) concepts a seemingly regrettable consequence has emerged. Topics specific to the broader adoption and implementation of GI have monopolized our collective dialog on stormwater management of late. The predominantly positive press and barrage of GI heavy conference agendas seemingly suggest that if we apply GI far and wide then water q...
Water Network Analysis Reduces Need for Further Infrastructure Investments
In an age characterized by growing populations and crumbling infrastructure it’s natural to look to new technology solutions for salvation. In many parts of the world, big investments in new infrastructure seem both highly desirable and unattainable—as much as new solutions are needed, the brutal fact of limited resources often limits investment to rehabilitations or new structures that are affordable and constructible within local means. Three water network projects highlighted at the Be Ins...
Sewer Heat Recovery Provides Low-Cost Recycled Energy
In every urban area, heat that humans have generated to shower, wash clothes, cook, and so on flows underground — in the sewers, making them very warm. Today, sewers represent the largest source of heat leakage in buildings. Even toilet water, which is at room temperature, is warm compared to the ground. Sewer air, pipe material (and thus conductivity), surrounding soil type, and other factors also affect the final temperature of waste water, according to Genevieve Tokgoz, Project Engineer in th...
Video: Crashes Drop Measurably After Rural Road Safety Improvement Project on US 521 in Lancaster County
Barnstable Superior Courthouse
June Issue 2026
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