In other news, below:
-- CarteGraph heads to Florida, Arizona for user groups
-- Unico mining approval includes extensive water treatment
-- New Jersey American Water to host ceremony for new Springfield facilities
PICO Holdings Inc. announces agreement to supply water for a new community in Lincoln County, Nev.: LA JOLLA, Calif., April 22, 2005 (PRNewswire-FirstCall) -- PICO Holdings Inc. subsidiary Vidler Water Co. Inc. and the Lincoln County Water District have entered into an agreement to sell water to a developer participating in a project to build a large area housing development.
The developer is one of the purchasers of about 13,300 acres of land that was recently auctioned by the Bureau of Land Management in Lincoln County. It is anticipated that the planned mixed-use development to be built will include about 50,000 homes.
Under the agreement, Lincoln/Vidler has agreed to sell the developer an initial amount of 2,100 acre-feet of water for $15,750,000, which represents a price of $7,500 per acre-foot. The developer has agreed to pay 20% of the purchase price by June 15, 2005, and the balance by August 9, 2005.
The developer has up to 10 years to purchase an additional 7,240 acre-feet of water, as and when supplies are permitted from existing applications. The initial price of $7,500 per acre-foot will increase at 10% each year. In addition, the developer will pay a commitment fee equal to 10% of the outstanding balance of unpurchased water each year, beginning August 9, 2006, which will be applied to the purchase of water.
Under the agreement between the Lincoln County Water District and Vidler Water Company, the proceeds from the sale of water will be shared equally after Vidler is reimbursed for expenses to develop the water resources.
Vidler Water (www.vidlerwater.com), a water development business, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PICO Holdings (www.picoholdings.com), a diversified holding company based in La Jolla, Calif. Vidler is the largest private sector owner of water rights and water storage assets in Arizona and Nevada.
CarteGraph heads to Florida, Arizona for User Groups: DUBUQUE, IA, April 22, 2005 -- CarteGraph Systems -- which develops software and provides service solutions for the collection, management and analysis of asset data for public works departments -- is excited to announce its May User Groups scheduled for Florida and Arizona. CarteGraph will host a session on May 11 in Sarasota, Fla., and another group on May 25 in Tucson, Ariz.
CarteGraph User Groups are complimentary sessions designed to provide a forum for users to share experiences with peers, exchange best practices, and learn about new products and services.
"After establishing several regional user groups in 2004, our clients' response was so favorable that we've scheduled over 20 of these regional events across the country in 2005," commented Paul Duster, client services director at CarteGraph.
You can check for upcoming User Group events in the Client Support Center by visiting www.cartegraph.com. Mark your calendars and reserve the week of Oct. 3 for the Annual CartêGraph User Conference to be held in Dubuque, Iowa.
Unico wins approval for large-scale operations at Deer Trail Mine and Mill: SAN DIEGO, April 21, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Unico Inc. announced that the State of Utah's Division of Oil, Gas and Mining (DOGM) has granted its formal approval of the company's Large-Scale Mining Operations and Reclamation Plan for the Deer Trail Mine in Marysvale, Utah.
As part of its large-scale mining application, the company posted a $136,100 reclamation surety bond in the form of a Certificate of Deposit issued by Wells Fargo Bank. Ownership of the CD is retained by Unico as part of the reclamation contract. The reclamation surety covers the area of disturbance on both private and Forest Service land affected by mining operations at the Deer Trail Mine.
Mining will be done all underground with the exception of the processing of the dumps from the upper Deer Trail Mine area. The underground mining operations are to be conducted via the PTH tunnel, and ore will be brought to the surface from the PTH portal. Ores will be transported to the mill site, about .75 miles east of the Deer Trail Mine, where they will be crushed and processed. The final concentrates will be bagged and shipped to be custom smelted by outside sources.
Through its operations, all water will be recycled through the concentrating process, additional water coming from the freshwater makeup pond or decanted water from the surface of the tailings pond. Water from Cottonwood Creek will be used in the milling circuit.
The current area of disturbance filed by the company is 12.81 acres including ponds, dumps, mining and processing facilities. The company has the ability to increase this amount as the demands of the project dictate. The tailings are stored in a HDPE lined pond approved by the Division of Water Quality. The mine also has an approved Air Quality permit.
NJ American Water to host ribbon-cutting event for new Springfield Well Field and Water Treatment Plant: LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ, April 21, 2005 (PRNewswire) -- New Jersey American Water will proudly hold a ribbon cutting ceremony to debut its new Springfield Well Field and Water Treatment Plant in Union County on Monday, April 25 in Springfield, N.J.
The Springfield project allows for the recovery of about 4 million gallons a day of unused groundwater supplies that were out of service previously due to water quality and reliability issues. The project included the rehabilitation and reactivation of 11 ground water wells and the construction of a groundwater treatment plant.
The Springfield supplies will help to increase capacity, drought mitigation and reliability for New Jersey American Water's Northern New Jersey water distribution systems. The total cost of the project was about $12 million. Company representatives will be present to answer questions regarding the project and to conduct tours of the new facility.
New Jersey American Water is the state's largest water utility, serving over two million people in 176 communities throughout the state. It is part of American Water (www.amwater.com), which is a unit of RWE Thames Water, whose parent company is RWE AG of Germany.
For additional news briefs, see:
-- "WaterBriefs: Antibacterial research should focus on facts, not fear": ALSO in this report (April 15, 2005): Cytec hikes prices on water treatment chemicals; Beverage reports out for France, East Asia; U.S.-Russia filter in Space Technology Hall of Fame; MWD authorizes groundwater recovery projects; ACWA enters solar energy partnership; PennFuture lauds $625M environmental bond; Home Depot, Lowe's asked to sell non-toxic lawn pesticides; Citect wins Cincinnati Water Works project; Ecolab's quat sanitizer offers disinfection solution; Calif. to offer desalination, groundwater grants...
-- "WaterBriefs: Aqua America unit builds wastewater business with two acquisitions": ALSO in this report (April 1, 2005): Pirnie-McGuire Environmental merger done; Ohio county wins biosolids EMS certification; Koch Industries sponsors DC watershed cleanup; Judge scraps Nestle deal to buy half-billion gallons of spring water; Insituform pipeline tunneling unit honored; UK aids P&G clean water effort in Haiti; AchemAmerica focuses on process technologies at Mexico City event; Aqua-Aerobic breaks ground to expand; WEF, others commemorate World Water Day...
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