CDC Reports Reduction in Waterborne Disease Rate
Waterborne disease rates for drinking water are at their lowest in almost 30 years, according to a recent report from the Center for Disease Control (CDC), which. attributed the reduction in part to water utilities' work in producing drinking water that surpasses federal quality standards.
"The CDC's report confirms that the hard work of dedicated water professionals has improved public health," said American Water Works Association Executive Jack Hoffbuhr. "Consumers can rest assured that water utilities will continue to provide the clean, safe drinking water necessary for a healthy lifestyle."
In its report, Surveillance for Waterborne-Disease Outbreaks - United States, 1997-1998, the CDC attributed 17 outbreaks of waterborne disease to water supplied by the nation's 55,000 water suppliers during the years 1997 and 1998. CDC also noted that the number of outbreaks for the three years 1996, 1997 and 1998 was lower than any single two-year period since 1971. According to CDC, one of the keys to this significant public health advance is the work of community water suppliers to "ellipseproduce drinking water substantially better than EPA standards requireellipse"
Surpassing the USEPA's drinking water quality standards has been the goal of the Partnership for Safe Water and AWWA's QualServe program. The Partnership for Safe Water is a joint voluntary effort to increase drinking water quality through a collaborative, rather than adversarial and regulatory, approach. AWWA is joined in the Partnership by the USEPA, the National Association of Water Companies, the American Water Works Research Foundation, the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies and over 200 water utilities.
AWWA has also worked with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) to establish the QualServe program, which consists of peer review and self-assessment components to help utilities identify what they do well, and where improvements can be made. The program is unlike an audit or a report card in that it is specific to each utility participating in the program. Utilities receive an agenda for improvement, which becomes an action plan utilities implement to enhance their performance. In this way, QualServe aids utilities in attaining maximum efficiency and better customer service and providing high-quality drinking water to consumers.
"By working together, drinking water professionals have improved drinking water quality and advanced public health," Hoffbuhr added. "Through collaboration and a commitment to excellence, they will continue to advance public health for years to come."
Project to Restore Queens Lake, Ravine
URS Corp. has been selected by New York City's Department of Environmental Protection to design the Oakland Ravine stormwater treatment system in Queens, NY.
The project is designed to renovate Oakland Ravine and Lake, a 20-acre park and lake site in northeast Queens that has been beset by environmental problems. The project also will relieve the flooding conditions that have plagued neighborhoods bordering the park.
Over the years, the park has suffered from lake water-quality degradation, ravine erosion and the loss of vegetation and wetlands. Project elements include replanting the ravine, installing a stormwater-fed irrigation system and new storm sewers in adjacent areas, and constructing new public walkways and signage. In addition, newly constructed wetlands will alleviate lake eutrophication problems by reducing the nutrient load to the lake.
Construction of the four-year project is expected to start in April 2002. Total cost of the project is estimated at $60 million.
Utility Plans DAF Upgrade
Roy F. Weston has been awarded a contract, valued at $1.75 million, by the Western Berks Water Authority (WBWA), Berks County, Penn., for design/build services to improve the authority's water treatment plant. The WBWA serves the Boroughs of Shillington, Wyomissing and West Reading.
Weston will install two Waterlink Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) systems to improve treatment effectiveness and achieve a rated capacity of 8 mgd for the plant. The company will also construct support structures for the DAF systems and provide all electrical, instrumentation, startup and permitting services. The upgrades are expected to substantially improve the taste and odor of the drinking water.
The Waterlink DAF clarification process was pilot tested two years ago and received approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection for the WBWA upgrade.
Gannett Fleming Inc., based in Camp Hill, Penn., is the authority's engineer and will serve as program manager on the project.
Sewage Spill Shuts Down Beaches in Miami Area
A 25-mile stretch of beach was closed in the Miami, Fla., area in mid June after a marine contractor drove a concrete piling through a 54-inch underwater sewage main. The ruptured main poured more than 25 million gallons of raw sewage into Biscayne Bay.
The sewage was rerouted through a World War II-era pipe that hadn't been used since 1981 as the Miami-Date County Water and Sewer Department repaired the damaged line. Drinking water was not affected by the spill, but residents of Miami Beach and nearby Bal Harbour were asked to conserve water to reduce flow into the sewer system.
Rerouting the sewage through the old line created a few new problems. The pipe dumps sewage 2 1/2 miles offshore, spreading contamination into ocean waters well beyond the area originally affected, according to the Miami Herald.
Azurix Switches Tactics
Water and wastewater treatment company Azurix Corp. has announced that it is shifting its focus away from asset-ownership and more toward providing services to municipal and industrial customers.
Chairman and CEO Rebecca Mark said growth in services would help reduce the dominance of Azurix by its British water utility subsidiary, Wessex Water, whose rates were cut 12 percent in April by British regulators.
"We want to very aggressively grow the services side of our business which is less capital intensive,'' Mark told the company's inaugural stockholder meeting.
Mark said Azurix expected to achieve rapid growth in the water and wastewater services business, especially in North America, as more municipalities and industrial companies opted to outsource water operations.
Mark said Azurix planned to ease back on acquisitions and grow its services business around existing operating units, especially Azurix North America, formerly Philip Utilities, which it acquired in May 1999.
Mark said Azurix North America had annual revenues of $120 million in 1999 and was expected to grow dramatically this year.
"We're seeing growth numbers that are in excess of 20 percent,'' she said.
