WaterBriefs: RJN prepares manhole rehabilitation protocol for Trinity River Authority

In other news below:
-- Aqua America closes on five more acquisitions for 18 year-to-date
-- Sensus bolsters AMI leadership team
-- Telvent Miner & Miner to offer ArcFM solution to China market
-- McMahon Associates Inc. pushed 'quality' envelope
-- ETV air pollution stakeholder teleconference set for Oct. 10
-- Infiltration credit in ASHRAE Standard 62.2 open for comment
-- Spheric Technologies awarded patent for manufacturing metal oxides, hydrogen
-- Siemens Water Technologies offers resin analysis service
-- Pionetics awarded sixth patent for water cleansing technology
-- Municipio de Tampico wins 2006 BE Award
-- Water industry veteran Gelosa to retire from Ashland Inc.
-- Black & Veatch's Peter Hyde receives China's 'Friendship Award'
-- Hatch Mott MacDonald acquires Simcoe Engineering Group Ltd.

• RJN Group prepares manhole inspection, rehabilitation protocol for Trinity River Authority -- WHEATON, IL, Oct. 5, 2006 -- RJN Group Inc. recently entered into a contract with the Trinity River Authority (TRA) of Texas to provide engineering consulting services for TRA's Central Regional Wastewater System 2006 Manhole Inspection and Rehabilitation Project. Services for this project includes: Review of TRA's existing manhole inspection protocol; Development of an updated / new manhole inspection protocol to meet TRA's future needs; Manhole inspection in accordance with established protocol; Development of a protocol for Manhole rehabilitation; and Manhole rehabilitation design. The project began in July 2006 and continue through December 2006...

• Aqua America closes on five more acquisitions for 18 year-to-date -- Company also expands service territory with new growth ventures in NC and IL -- BRYN MAWR, PA, Oct. 5, 2006 -- Aqua America Inc. announced earlier today that it completed four water system acquisitions and purchased another wastewater services business. The latest acquisitions, with a combined purchase price of nearly $600,000, add to previously announced transactions for the third quarter, resulting in a total of five utility acquisitions and three in the wastewater services and disposal business for the quarter and bringing the company to a grand total of 22 acquisitions in 2006...

• Sensus bolsters AMI leadership team -- PITTSBURGH, PA, Oct. 5, 2006 -- Sensus Metering Systems Inc. is pleased to announce the creation of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) organization. With the acquisition of the assets of Advanced Metering Data Systems, LLC, better known as "AMDS", Sensus has gained the core capability to deliver the most comprehensive AMI technology on the market. A group of industry veterans now lead this organization, merging the expertise from AMDS and Sensus to provide a common and comprehensive strategy for Sensus AMI. Doug McCall is the new AMI Marketing Director; Marc Reed is the Director of Communications Technology; Gregg Larson is the new Director of AMI Operations; and Mark Hardee is Controller, AMI. All four gentlemen report George Uram, Vice President Electric and AMI...

• Telvent Miner & Miner to offer ArcFM solution to China market -- FORT COLLINS, CO, Oct. 5, 2006 -- Telvent Miner & Miner (TM&M) and Telvent China are together working to bring a localized version of ArcFM to the Chinese utility market. The two offices have recently completed the translation of ArcFM into Chinese characters. With this effort, utility users will be able to navigate the graphical user interface in the local language. ArcFM 9.1.2 is operational with the ArcGIS^® Chinese language package from ESRI China. By offering a localized version of ArcFM, Chinese utilities can take advantage of having a complete GIS utility solution for modeling, editing, maintaining, and managing facility asset data in an enterprise system...

• McMahon Associates Inc. pushed 'quality' envelope -- FORT WASHINGTON, PA, Oct. 4, 2006 -- McMahon Associates Inc., a full-service transportation engineering and planning firm with over 30 years of service, has undergone a review of its business practices in an effort to improve the firm's performance in the field of professional engineering and construction services. Called an "Organizational Peer Review" (OPR), the voluntary study was conducted under the auspices of the national American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) and involved a four daylong review of McMahon's operations and procedures by a trained team of engineering and construction services professionals. The peer review serves to both identify problem areas and to reinforce effective business practices...

• EPA-ETV program announces APCT Stakeholder Teleconference -- ETV Air Pollution Control Technology Center event set for Oct. 10 -- WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 4, 2006 -- The ETV Air Pollution Control Technology (APCT) Center, operated in cooperation with RTI International, will host a semi-annual teleconference of the APCT Stakeholder Advisory
Committee on October 10, 2006. The teleconference will be held from 2-4 p.m. EST. Agenda items include discussions on verification activities related to indoor air products, baghouse filtration products, and mobile sources. For more information or to participate in the teleconference, please contact Andrew Trenholm, RTI, at (919) 316-3742 or atrenholm@rti.org...

• Infiltration credit in ASHRAE Standard 62.2 open for comment -- ATLANTA, Oct. 4, 2006 -- The role of an existing infiltration credit in ASHRAE's residential ventilation standard is open for public comment. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.2-2004, Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Low-Rise Residential Buildings, provides the minimum requirements necessary to achieve acceptable indoor air quality for dwellings. Proposed addendum j would eliminate the section describing the infiltration assumptions that are present in the standard...

• Spheric Technologies awarded patent for manufacturing metal oxides, hydrogen -- PHOENIX, AZ, Oct. 4, 2006 -- Spheric Technologies Inc., marketer of patented microwave powdered metal processing systems, and producer of advanced oxides and other ceramic powders, announced it has been awarded a patent for "Process and Apparatus for Manufacturing Metal Oxides and Byproduct Hydrogen" (U.S. Patent 7,105,079). The company's process is less expensive and environmentally cleaner than conventional chemical processing methods used to obtain technical-grade oxides. With Spheric Technologies' process, the resulting high-purity powders have uniform particle size and density, making them useful in a wide variety of applications. More than $2 billion worth of high-purity metal oxides were used in 2005 for a wide range of industrial applications...

• Siemens Water Technologies offers resin analysis service -- WARRENDALE, PA, Oct. 4, 2006 -- The Water Technologies division of the Siemens Group Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S) offers an ion exchange resin analysis service. The service includes testing the customer's resin in our laboratory to determine the quality and to help diagnose any water treatment system operating problems. When a customer experiences ion exchange system performance problems, such as premature resin exhaustion or poor water quality, Siemens Water Technologies recommends testing the resin. The test verifies whether the resin is fouled and should be cleaned or replaced, or whether there are other performance-related issues that need to be addressed...
Also see: "Permutit Power Products from Siemens Water Technologies accurately measure, manage water flow at nuclear power facilities"

• Pionetics awarded sixth patent for water cleansing technology -- Unique LINX System now available in Asia and Europe -- SAN CARLOS, CA, Oct. 4, 2006 -- Pionetics, a developer of drinking water treatment products, today announced that the company's electrically regenerated ion exchange (LINX™) system for cleansing water has been award a patent in Brazil. Pionetics now holds six patents internationally, including ones in the United States, China, Germany, France and Korea, and has patents pending in several other countries. Its patents cover its water cleansing device and the process by which contaminants are removed in the LINX Drinking Water System. The system's electrically powered ion exchange cartridge removes impurities -- including perchlorate, nitrites, nitrates, arsenic III and V, potassium and 90% of total dissolved solids...

• Municipio de Tampico wins 2006 BE Award -- Mexican city improves government with 3D technology for cadastre administration -- EXTON, PA, Oct. 4, 2006 -- Municipio de Tampico, in Tamaulipas, Mexico, has won a 2006 BE Award for its Integrated System of Cadastre Administration project. The award category was "Geospatial: Mapping and Cadastre." The city's project was part of a broader program to improve government and its services. The program's goal was to reengineer administrative processes and introduce modern information technology to help government better meet the needs of its citizens.
One area of particular concern was cadastre administration. This function has a direct impact not only on future infrastructure development, but also on the ability to assess property values and collect taxes. Because it lacked a GIS solution, the municipality was forced to rely on outdated maps and manually acquired information, much of which was incorrect. As a result, its information was only about 30 %complete...

• Gelosa to retire from Ashland Inc. -- Water technologies veteran celebrates nearly quarter century of expertise -- COVINGTON, KY, Oct. 4, 2006 -- Len R. Gelosa, senior vice president of Ashland Water Technologies, Ashland Inc., will retire after 24 years of service effective Jan. 1, 2007, the company announced today.
Ashland Chairman and Chief Executive Officer James J. O'Brien praised Gelosa's leadership as head of the company's water businesses. Gelosa first joined Ashland in 1971. From 1980 through 1991, he held senior positions in other global chemical companies before returning to Ashland in 1991 as vice president of Marketing and Technology, Drew Industrial. In 1993, he was promoted to vice president/general manager of Drew Industrial. Gelosa was promoted to his current position in 2004...
Also see: "Cappeline to retire from Ashland Inc."

• Black & Veatch's Peter Hyde receives China's 'Friendship Award' -- BEIJING, China, Oct. 4, 2006 -- Peter Hyde, chief engineer with Black & Veatch's global water business, has been honored with the "Friendship Award" conferred by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs in China. Hyde collected the Award on Sept. 29 at a ceremony held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. The ceremony was presided over by Vice-Premier Hui Liangyu. Hyde was nominated by the Songliao Water Resources Commission for work he performed for the commission as the international team leader on the Songhua River Flood Management Sector Project. This is an Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded project that seeks to reduce flood damage through improved integrated river basin management and upgrading of flood protection infrastructure, including heightening and reinforcing of 540 km of flood control dikes and the rehabilitation and upgrading of existing reservoirs for wetland management and water storage...

• Hatch Mott MacDonald acquires Simcoe Engineering Group Ltd. -- MILBURN, NJ, Oct. 4, 2006 -- Hatch Mott MacDonald has acquired the water and wastewater engineering firm Simcoe Engineering Group Limited, an Ontario, Canada-based firm with offices in Pickering and Kingston. Through this acquisition, Hatch Mott MacDonald, with a staff of over 1,200 in North America including over 160 in Ontario, will add more than 20 people with expertise in water and wastewater engineering (click on "Press Releases" to view this item)...

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