In other news below, see:
-- Zenon receives order for first N.Y. drinking water plant
-- Kadant cheers $5 million order from China for stock-preparation systems
-- MWH adds two executives to Pasadena office
-- HydroFlo forms fifth portfolio company
-- Smith Controls offers underground valve solution for water utility provider
-- Cadence Network now in control of 200,000 North American sites
-- ADS celebrates 30th anniversary and creation of the industry
-- CarteGraph showcases new embedded GIS product at ESRI User Conference
-- Stockholm World Water Week to focus on water, sanitation and development solutions
St. Paul implementing SPL asset management program
SAN FRANCISCO, July 18, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- SPL WorldGroup, a leading provider of mission-critical software solutions for the global utility market, today announced that the City of St. Paul, MN, has recently gone live in many of its divisions with SPL(R) Enterprise Asset & Work Management (SPL EAM). The city has looked to SPL EAM to maintain and track capital assets valued at $4 billion within the Department of Public Works (PW), St. Paul Regional Water Services (SPRWS), and the Parks Department's Forestry Unit.
"Regional Water is live with the system as well as several divisions within Public Works and we couldn't be more pleased with SPL's implementation process," explained Steve Schneider, General Manager of SPRWS. "We're excited about realizing maximum efficiencies with SPL as the Department of Public Works and the Parks Department Forestry Unit continue a staged roll-out to their remaining divisions. In all, Saint Paul will have more than 300 users on the system once all of our divisions are live."
The City of St. Paul had identified a priority need for a comprehensive asset management solution to replace numerous disparate and outdated legacy systems in order to reduce redundancies and improve and modernize maintenance practices. To ensure the system would comprehensively meet the needs of all involved agencies, the selection process consisted of creating an unprecedented team of 100 city and SPRWS employees at all levels to rigorously review and evaluate SPL and competitors' products in the crucial areas of functionality and ease of use. SPL EAM was overwhelmingly chosen by the team as the superior solution.
"We underwent a strategic IT master planning process aimed at maximizing the management of the city's infrastructure maintenance via an integrated maintenance management system," commented Steve Schneider, general manager of SPRWS. "Among all software vendors evaluated, SPL demonstrated the greatest commitment to our project."
"The city of St. Paul is a prime example of a progressive municipality strategically choosing and implementing an integrated EAM/CMMS system to help them realize greater efficiencies over the long run," commented Richard MacDonald, senior vice president of product management at SPL. "Their commitment and dedication to providing their citizens with better services through astute planning, makes us proud that they chose to implement SPL."
SPL (www.splwg.com) delivers software applications that help utilities with solutions in customer care and billing, enterprise asset and work management, mobile workforce management, and outage and distribution management are specifically designed for energy, water, and service companies.
Zenon receives order for first N.Y. drinking water plant
OAKVILLE, ON, Canada, July 18, 2005 -- Zenon Environmental has received a purchase order for its first drinking water treatment plant in New York State. This plant uses both of the company's main products, which together will deliver a total of 20 million gallons, or 94,635 cubic meters, of drinking water per day using two separate Zenon systems.
One system, the larger of the two, will incorporate the ZeeWeed 500 series of membranes while the other will use Zenon's 1000 series of membranes. Both are hallmarks of the company's hollow-fibre immersed technologies.
John G. Hock, P.E., manager of the Westchester Joint Water Works, stated, "Together with our consulting engineers, Hazen and Sawyer PC, we determined that the Zenon membrane vacuum type filter system was best suited to treat the water from Rye Lake. This decision was made after first reviewing traditional filtration systems and then evaluating different membrane systems."
The new plant will also become a showcase touring facility for other municipalities thinking of building a Zenon drinking water treatment plant. Rye Lake is an offshoot of the Kensico Reservoir, which also supplies New York City residents with drinking water. The Westchester Joint Water Works plant will be an ideal reference showing the benefits of Zenon's membrane systems that include, among other things, consistently reliable water quality.
This will be the largest membrane drinking water treatment plant in New York State.
The design phase is virtually complete with construction expected to begin in the fall of 2005. The plant will be finished by the end of 2007.
Zenon Environmental Inc. (www.zenon.com) is a world producer of advanced membrane products and services for water purification, wastewater treatment and water reuse to municipalities and industries worldwide. Canada's Top 100 Employers ranked Zenon in their top 100 list for the last five years.
Kadant cheers $5 million order from China for stock-preparation systems
ACTON, MA, July 18, 2005 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Kadant Inc. has received about $5 million in orders for stock-preparation systems from Ningxia Meili Paper Industry Co. Ltd., a Chinese producer of a range of paper products, from linerboard to fine stationery. The company's Kadant Black Clawson Inc. subsidiary will supply two systems for recovering usable fiber from recycled paper and three systems for processing virgin pulp. The equipment, expected to ship in early 2006, will increase production capacity of coated whiteboard, a packaging material suitable for the printing of color graphics.
"Once again, a major paper producer in China has chosen Kadant's advanced systems for the production of its premium-grade products," said William A. Rainville, chairman and CEO of Kadant. "These contracts were in our pipeline awaiting financing approval from the Chinese government. China's growing pulp and paper industry continues to offer excellent opportunities for applying Kadant's leading stock-preparation technologies to the efficient production of a range of high-quality paper grades."
Kadant Black Clawson Inc., based in Mason, Ohio, is a leading fiberline process equipment supplier that designs, manufactures, and services equipment used in paper recycling, chemical pulping, and paper machine approach-flow applications.
Kadant Inc. (www.kadant.com) is a leading supplier to the global pulp and paper industry, with a range of products and services for improving efficiency and quality in pulp and paper production, including paper machine accessories, and systems for stock preparation, fluid handling, and water management. Our fluid-handling products are also used to optimize production in the steel, rubber, plastics, food, and textile industries. In addition, we produce granules from papermaking byproducts for agricultural and lawn and garden applications. Kadant is based in Acton, Mass., and, with the addition of Kadant Johnson in May 2005, has annual revenues of about $270 million and roughly 1,500 employees worldwide.
MWH adds two executives to Pasadena office
BROOMFIELD, CO, July 20, 2005 -- MWH Inc., a global consulting firm, announces the additions of Dr. Sudhir Mohleji and Michael Hoover -- with a combined 60 years water and wastewater engineering experience -- to its Southern California office located in Pasadena, CA. Dr. Mohleji has 28 years of experience in water and wastewater engineering and spent 12 years of his career with MWH in the 1990s managing the San Diego Program Management Team. Hoover brings over 35 years of water and wastewater engineering experience.
In his new role, Mohleji will help utilities and municipalities throughout Southern California find engineering and business solutions to their most demanding water and wastewater challenges. His expertise includes wastewater facilities and master planning, program management, asset and infrastructure management, and conceptual design and assessment of wastewater treatment plants. In addition to the San Diego Program, his past project work includes the Flushing Bay Water Quality Facilities Plan for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection; utility privatization studies at Camp Pendleton, CA; and a wastewater sampling and monitoring program for the Palestine Water Authority.
Hoover's new role will be as National Leader of Residuals Practice, leading a national effort to assess, monitor, and market new and existing technologies for effective management of residual solids and compounds removed from water and wastewater. He is currently serving as Program Manager for one of the largest biosolids projects in U.S. for the Inland Empire Regional Composting Facility in Southern California. Previously, he directed the planning, design and construction of two major water supply projects in California, the Los Angeles Aqueduct Water Filtration Plant and the West and Central Basin Water Reclamation Programs.
MWH has experienced significant growth in Southern California as utilities and local governments expand their infrastructure to support population and demand increases. MWH Regional Manager, Roger Austin, commented, "MWH has a long history of building California's critical infrastructure. The added expertise of Dr. Mohleji and Mr. Hoover will enable us to continue to deliver innovative water and wastewater projects to even more local communities."
MWH (www.mwhglobal.com) is a private, employee-owned consulting firm with over 6,000 employees worldwide. The firm provides engineering design and remediation, construction, procurement, program management, and technology solutions for the environmental, land, water, wastewater, energy and power markets of the Americas, Europe, Middle East, India, Asia and the Pacific Rim.
HydroFlo forms fifth portfolio company
RALEIGH, NC, July 18, 2005 -- HydroFlo Inc. announced the newest addition to its portfolio of businesses, Advanced Water Recycle Inc. (AWRI). The latest corporation will combine resources from each of HydroFlo's current portfolio companies to provide customers with water recycling and reuse.
AWRI will initially concentrate sales efforts of its technologies across the United States coast lines and all ports. To achieve the acceptable levels of contaminant free water in compliance with Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, AWRI will utilize multiple aspects of each of HydroFlo's current portfolio companies. AWRI will make use of HydroFlo Water Treatment's aeration and new HDAF units to offer the proper ventilation and conditions for the pretreatment of wastewater. Metals and Arsenic Removal Technology will provide its ARTI-64™ technology and other purification methods to assist with the final purification of the water. Safety Scan Technology will offer water testing equipment for the various stages of the process. Ultra Choice Water will offer financing to assist in the payment process for customers. The combined technologies will turn untreated storm water, ground water, water run-off, sewage, wastewater and any pretreated water into potable drinking water.
A coastal region of North Carolina has fostered the initial interest for AWRI services. This particular request is to start treatment of 70 million gallons of water per day for the next 10 years. This has propelled HydroFlo to take action and offer the necessary services to assist the region with their treatment difficulties. The Florida Senate Bill 444 has also provided an area of need for water treatment by offering a funding level allotment of $100 million annually.
Based on recent EPA studies, Americans drink more than 1 billion gallons of tap water per day. Over 98% of that water is groundwater. HydroFlo management conceded that statistics like these are overwhelmingly in support of creating a more efficient method to treat wastewater. Dennis L. Mast, CEO of HydroFlo, commented, "I am pleased to finally put a company name to the process I have envisioned and strived to create for over a decade. With North Carolina coastal region's recent request for suitable water treatment and the passing of the latest Florida Senate Bill (444), the time has come for this company to provide this essential service. We look forward to establishing open lines of communication with government agencies that have this need. We also excitedly anticipate expanding the business of this company to add value to the HydroFlo investment portfolio."
The mission of Raleigh, N.C.- based HydroFlo (www.hydroflo.us) is to locate, develop, and fund innovative technologies and businesses and utilize these acquisitions to make pure water available to the world by means of disinfection, purification, and removal of contaminants under the belief that water can overcome hunger, disease, poverty, and improve the overall quality of life on earth. Its other portfolio investment companies include: HydroFlo Water Treatment Inc. (www.hydroflo-inc.com), Metals & Arsenic Removal Technology Inc. (www.martiinc.com), Safety Scan Technology Inc. (www.safety-scan.com), and Ultra Choice Water Inc.
Smith Controls offers underground valve solution for water utility provider
ERLANGER, KY, July 18, 2005 -- To enable a leading British water utility provider to operate two gate valves located in underground sewage shafts, Smith Flow Control supplied the company with two Flexi-Drive remote valve operating devices. The Flexi-Drive units greatly simplify valve operation and remove the need for a confined space work crew.
The two valves are situated between 26-33 ft (8-10 meters) below ground; one is used regularly to control sewage flow, while the other is only used in emergencies to prevent sludge overflows.
"For safety reasons manual operation of the valves was not practical," said the design engineer on the project. "We would have required a confined space work crew every time we needed to operate the valves, which is simply not practical on a day-to-day basis. We looked around for a viable solution and the Flexi-Drive turned out to be the best option. Since installation the two units have proved very useful," he added.
Each Flexi-Drive system is made up of three elements: an operator station above ground, a valve station actuator below ground, and a unique, patented cable drive system. Due to the properties of the helically wound steel drive cable, turning the handwheel of the operator station simultaneously operates the valve actuator. The cable can transmit drive up to 200 ft (60 meters) away and can accommodate up to 540 degrees of bends. This allows it to be passed around corners and through tunnels, walls and floors.
A further advantage of the Flexi-Drive is that the gearing system can be 'piggy-backed' to enable more than one valve to be operated at a time from a single operator station.
For more information, visit the Smith Flow Control website: www.smithflowcontrol.com. The company has offices in Witham, Essex, United Kingdom; Erlanger, Ky., and Rijswijk, The Netherlands.
For more information, see: Simplified Underground Valve Operations for Thames Water.
Cadence Network now in control of 200,000 North American sites
CINCINNATI, OH, July 18, 2005 -- With business leaders listing energy management as one of the "top three threats" to business growth, Cadence Network continues to provide a competitive advantage to more and more multiple site organizations. Today, Cadence Network CEO Jeffrey Hart proudly announces that the firm has brought over 200,000 sites into its watch.
The Cincinnati firm, founded in 1997, is the leading energy and operational expense management firm in the United States, and works with multiple site business and government entities to reign in operations expenses -- the third largest cost of doing business. Now at work in over 200,000 locations, more sites than ever before are being proactively monitored for billing errors, spending anomalies, and usage waste. "Reaching this milestone is a testimony to Cadence's accuracy and consistency." said Hart, "Customers use Cadence for its ability to produce results and tremendous savings."
Recently, through its utility invoice audit systems and processes, Cadence discovered that the kilowatt demands for one store of a 5,000 store chain was about three times as much as the other stores of similar size and kilkowatt/hour usage. After Cadence performed an on-site visit, the discovery was made that the store's meter continued to accumulate kilowatts forty-five minutes after being reset, charging additional unused kilowatt to the store. Armed with this data, Cadence acquired a rebilling for the chain from its vendor, which resulted in a $246,000 cash refund.
"Good news travels fast. Word is spreading throughout the industry of Cadence's ability to create savings for multiple site companies." Hart said, "We continue to provide CEOs and CFOs the strategic results they need to gain control of their operational expenses. Cadence Network is a significant competitive advantage to operations management and even fulfilling stringent Sarbanes-Oxley regulations."
Cadence Network Inc. (www.cadencenetwork.com) delivers comprehensive utility, telecommunications and lease facility expense management to chain stores, multiple site businesses and government. Its people, services and software proactively enable business and government to gain control over electric, gas, water, waste, lease and telecommunications expenses by streamlining such services as invoice auditing and payment, rate analysis, and procurement. It's an EnergyStar Partner of the EPA.
ADS celebrates 30th anniversary and creation of the industry
HUNTSVILLE, AL, July 18, 2005 -- On June 29, ADS celebrated their thirtieth year in the wastewater collection system flow monitoring business. Peter Petroff founded ADS on June 29, 1975. He was a rocket scientist with NASA who had the vision to see the possibilities of putting together Intel's new Dynamic Memory Chips, (DRAMs) with state of the art sensors to build a modern data logger. Solving the problem of trying to make sense from dozens to hundreds of monitoring stations, all using strip charts, Petroff invented one of the first commercial products to use Dynamic Memory.
Sales of sewer data loggers and related services over the last thirty years likely exceed a billion dollars. ADS Environmental Services has continued this rich tradition of leading the industry with innovative technology in both hardware and software solutions throughout these thirty years. Celebrating the success of the industry, and their thirtieth year, ADS is releasing a new Scattergraph Poster at the WEF Collection System Specialty Conference. ADS' commitment to the use of Scattergraphs in collection system data analysis is another example of ADS' technological strength and industry leadership.
"The poster is designed as an educational resource for wastewater professionals -introducing basic principles and exploring practical applications," states Pat Stevens, Vice President of Engineering for ADS Corporation. "Scattergraphs are a powerful tool for displaying depth and velocity data, providing insight into sewer conditions, and determining performance of flow monitors."
The examples in this poster were selected from thousands of flow monitoring locations evaluated by ADS each year. The flow monitoring data originate from 24 cities in 16 states in sewers ranging from 10 to 120 inches in diameter. For more information on the diagnostic capabilities of scattergraphs or to request a Scattergraph Poster from ADS go to ww.adsenv.com/scattergraphs.
ADS Environmental Services (www.adsenv.com), a division of ADS Corp., is a technology and service provider and a reliable source of knowledge to the global wastewater collection system industry. Monitors manufactured, installed, and maintained by ADS measure over 4 billion gallons of flow daily across the globe. ADS delivers value to its customers by providing industry-leading solutions for flow monitoring, data analysis, reporting, and field services. These customers rely on Underground Intelligence�¥ from ADS to manage planning and rehabilitation, satellite community billing, regulatory compliance, O&M, and model calibration.
CarteGraph showcases new embedded GIS product at ESRI User Conference
DUBUQUE, IA, July 18, 2005 -- CarteGraph Systems, Inc., will be showcasing a look at its new ArcGIS® embedded products at the 2005 ESRI User Conference in San Diego from July 26-28. Conference attendees, both government and utilities organizations, along with ESRI partners, are encouraged to stop by booth number 1823 to receive a sneak peek of the new products in the CarteGraph GIS Suite.
The CarteGraph GEODATAengine and GEODATAdesktop focus on exploiting advantages of its flexTECHNOLOGY -- fully customizable software -- to the geodatabase and make true public works management embedded in ArcGIS a reality.
The new GEODATAengine provides the user with multiple geodatabase connections as well as view and edit functionality for geodatabase fields in the CarteGraph software with no redundant data entry. The software establishes live connections to the geodatabase. Other features include allowing the user to automatically create new fields in CarteGraph from the geodatabase, geocoding, maps in reports and maps in the citizen request module, CALLdirector.
The new GEODATAdesktop provides CarteGraph flexFORMS inside of ArcGIS. It also allows for true public works management inside of ArcGIS, highlighting fully functional pavement, sewer and water utilities management.
State and local governments can better leverage their investment in ESRI ArcGIS, while also benefiting more from CarteGraph Maintenance Management.
CarteGraph will officially release the new ArcGIS embedded products for purchase, including GEODATAengine and GEODATAdesktop, in October at its 2005 User Conference in Dubuque, Iowa.
CarteGraph (www.cartegraph.com), a public works asset management software and service provider, offers solutions dedicated to the collection, management and analysis of asset data and GIS integration for Public Works and Utilities departments. It's products are used worldwide by a diverse group of over 1000 organizations including small towns, large cities, counties, states and federal agencies, and private firms.
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Stockholm World Water Week to focus on water, sanitation and development solutions
STOCKHOLM, July 18, 2005 -- Timed just weeks in advance of the United Nations' five-year review of progress towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the annual World Water Week in Stockholm, held from Aug. 21-27, will present concrete examples of how problems of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and gender inequality can in large measure be solved with water and sanitation as the key entry points.
Since development has occurred differently throughout the world, and regional climates and conditions vary greatly, the 2005 World Water Week in Stockholm will examine the two primary ways of meeting future water and sanitation related development needs -- the "soft" path and the "hard" path. Experience has shown that both paths -- often through astonishingly simple projects and participatory approaches -- can give results:
-- The "soft" path: The Central American Handwashing Initiative supported by USAID, UNICEF, the World Bank and five countries in the region demonstrated that effective partnerships among government departments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), women's groups, the private sector and the media can contribute to effective hygiene promotion and behavioural changes that are essential to combat diarroheal disease and create public awareness.
-- The "hard" path: Improved water storage capacity makes national economies more resilient to rainfall variability and boosts economic growth. In Kenya, improved resilience to the effects of floods and droughts could make its GDP grow annually at a rate of at least 5-6% -- the amount needed in order to start effectively reducing poverty -- rather than the current 2.4% annual growth rate.
-- "In many cases, a mix of 'hard' approaches such as technology and 'soft' tools such as community participation may be needed." says Mr. Anders Berntell, Executive Director of the Week's host, the Stockholm International Water Institute. "Tailoring solutions to situations will be a key focus during the week."
-- Facts don't lie: poor countries with access to improved water and sanitation services enjoyed an annual average growth of 3.7% GDP; those without grew at just 0.1%. Over1,300 leading experts on water, sanitation, environment and development issues -- from more than 100 countries -- will meet in Stockholm to present concrete cases of just how such gaps can be bridged.
With more than 60 organizations and programs convening or co-convening workshops, seminars and side events, the international "consensus" coming out of the World Water Week in Stockholm has an indirect effect on decision-making internationally and nationally. Among the collaborators intensifying their involvement in 2005 are the European Union (EU), through the EU Water Initiative, the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council and UN-Water, the forum that brings together the 24 different UN agencies and programs working with water and sanitation.
Many issues will be discussed during the week, among them climate variability, corruption, financing, gender equity, large-scale infrastructure, sanitation, water pollution abatement and more. The 2005 Stockholm Water Prize best represents the multifaceted nature of the events, when India's Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and Sunita Narain accept the 15th jubilee award and US$ 150,000 on Aug. 25 from His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden. CSE's work, pioneered by the late Anil Agarwal, has shown great respect for science and technology, and always with a social conscience which puts people first.
Participants in Stockholm will include experts from businesses, governments, the water management and science sectors, inter-governmental organizations, NGOS, research and training institutions and United Nations agencies.
For more information, visit www.worldwaterweek.org.
The Stockholm International Water Institute (www.siwi.org) is a policy institute that contributes to international efforts to find solutions to the world's escalating water crisis. SIWI advocates future-oriented, knowledge-integrated water views in decision making, nationally and internationally, that lead to sustainable use of the world's water resources and sustainable development of societies.
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In earlier newsbriefs, see:
-- "WaterBriefs: U.S. wastewater treatment equipment markets to reach $1.3 billion" -- Also in this report (July 15, 2005): Emerson acquires Solartron Mobrey; American Water launches pilot water loss management program; Earth Tech gets top safety honors Vermont OSHA; Pa. watershed groups awarded $1.1M in Chesapeake Bay watershed grants; Insituform Technologies to talk sewers on The History Channel; CVF's Biorem picked to run Toronto odor control pilot system; TTCM China wins three contracts for Szechuan Province pipeline; ThermoEnergy closes on equity for Long Island Sound cleanup...
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