Underground Construction - December 2019 - 10

NEWSLINE LATEST INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS
forcing families to use more expensive and dirtier
fuels to heat their homes.
"With winter bearing down on us, residents of
New York need affordable, reliable energy and after
Governor Cuomo denied permits for access to natural gas to supply these communities it seems that
he is looking to add insult to injury by taking punitive
measures against National Grid," Harbert said.
Based on the 2017 U.S. Census American
Housing Survey, 57 percent of New York state's 7.4
million households use natural gas for space heating
while 23 percent still use fuel oil. The total number
of NY households using natural gas for space
heating has grown more than 475,000 since 2009.

2 Injured After Sewer Flows
Cause Sinkhole in Road
A car in Louisiana was swallowed by a sinkhole
when the roadway collapsed, injuring the
occupants of the car.
News outlets report the roadway caved in at a
major intersection in Bossier City Thursday leaving a
10-foot deep hole in an eastbound turning lane.
City Spokeswoman Traci Landry says the two
people in the car had non-life threatening injuries.
Department of Transportation and Development
Spokeswoman Erin Buchanan says the cave-in was
caused by water flow issues in the sewer. She says
there's water flowing where it shouldn't.
Buchanan says the road will be fixed once the
department determines where the water is coming
from and how to stop it.

Justices Mull Clean Water Act's
Reach to Wastewater Permits
The Supreme Court seems uncertain about how
to decide a Hawaii case that may determine if a
sewage treatment plant needs a federal permit to
send treated wastewater deep underground.
The case -Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund - is being
watched closely because it may decide about the
reach of the landmark Clean Water Act (CWA). A
verdict is expected in the case by June.
Justices heard arguments in November about
whether a sewage treatment plant needs a federal
permit when it sends wastewater deep underground, instead of discharging the treated flow
directly into the Pacific Ocean. Studies have found
the wastewater soon reaches the ocean and has
damaged a coral reef near a Maui beach.
Several justices appeared to be searching for a
compromise between environmental groups on
one side, and the Trump administration and the
local Hawaii government on the other. Trump's

DECEMBER 2019 | UConOnline.com

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently
reversed the agency's long-standing position.
Sewage plants and other polluters must get
a permit under the CWA when pollutants go
through a pipe from their source to a body of
water. The question in this case is whether a
permit is needed when the pollutant first passes
through the soil or groundwater.
Maui injects 3 million to 5 million gallons a
day of treated wastewater into wells beneath the
Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility, which
sits about a half-mile from the Pacific shoreline.
Environmental groups in Hawaii sued Maui after
studies using dyes to trace the flow showed more
than half the discharge from two wells was entering
the ocean in a narrow area. They won a ruling from
the federal appeals court based in San Francisco.
The justices seemed concerned that a ruling for
Maui would provide what Justice Stephen Breyer
called a "road map" for polluters to evade federal
permit requirements.

Kentucky Infrastructure
Project Awarded Engineering
Design Feat of the Year
A Kentucky-based sewer collection system improvement project has been awarded by the Design-Build
Institute of America (DBIA) during its 2019 National
Design-Build Project/Team Awards competition.
The $78 million Southwestern Parkway
Combined Sewer Overflow (CSO) Basin project
receiving the Best in Engineering Design Award and
a National Award of Excellence (water/wastewater).
The project is a component of Louisville and
Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District's
(MSD) federal Consent Decree to mitigate CSO
discharges to local waterways. The total scope of
the Consent Decree includes 8 water improvement
projects with a final budget of $1.15 billion.
Located in Shawnee Park, part of Louisville's
Olmsted Park System listed on the National Register
of Historic Places, the project consisted of the design
and construction of a large "capture and release"
system to temporarily store CSO's during wet weather
events and gradually release them back to the collection system for treatment when capacity is available.
New facilities included a 20-million-gallon storage
basin; associated washdown systems; a 30 million
gallon per day effluent pump station; CSO diversion
structures; and associated conveyance piping.
Preservation of Olmstedian design features
in Shawnee Park - in particular the pastoral,
undulating surface of the Great Lawn - made it

vital that the project team design and construct a
facility virtually invisible to the public. To achieve
this, the basin was constructed below the surface of
the Great Lawn with a walk-out operational access
point concealed by park topography.
Outreach efforts resulted in support for a project
that reduces CSOs while providing community
enhancements, including restoration of a historic
structure. facility improvements, drainage enhancements via the creation of multi-purpose fields; and
a new open-air pavilion and restroom structure.

American Water
Donates $40,000 to
Aquatic Sciences Program
American Water, the largest publicly traded U.S.
water and wastewater utility company, and its charitable foundation announced a $40,000 donation
to the Center for Aquatic Sciences in support of
its Community and Urban Science Enrichment
(CAUSE) summer camp program.
Camden, N.J.-based American Water and its
American Water Charitable Foundation described
the contribution as an expansion of its partnership
with the Center for Aquatic Sciences.
"All of us share a commitment to environmental
stewardship and a passion for educating children
about water quality and water conservation," said
Carrie Williams, president of the charitable foundation. "As neighbors on the Camden Waterfront, we
also share a commitment to providing opportunities
and building education programs for the students
of Camden today and for generations to come."
CAUSE, which focuses on intense academics
and mentoring for a manageable number of youths
is the flagship program of the Center for Aquatic
Sciences and has been serving youth since 1993.
Since its inception, 100% of students have graduated
high school. It has reached more than 300 teens as
interns, and more than 3,000 children as campers.

USDA Investing in Coastal
Maine Sewer Improvements
The federal government is providing money for a
project to upgrade aging sewer infrastructure in
one of Maine's coastal communities.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the
Boothbay Harbor Sewer District will receive a
$254,000 grant and $596,000 loan to replace
about 2,000 feet of sewer lines and extend a main.
The work will improve services to residents of
Boothbay Harbor, Boothbay and Southport.
The USDA says the extension will allow more
residents to connect to a public sewer system.

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Underground Construction - December 2019

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