• Wins strengthen company's position as North America's leader in water and wastewater services; highlight public-private cooperation
CHICAGO, IL, Feb. 3, 2010 -- Veolia Water North America (Veolia Water) starts 2010 with four public-private partnership (PPP) wins, representing significant environmental cooperation between the public and private sectors.
Though diverse in their size and scope, the four PPP contracts demonstrate real commitment to helping communities address their environmental challenges while helping ratepayers and municipal leaders with reduced costs during difficult economic times. The four contracts are collectively valued at approximately $75 million.
"Veolia Water North America continues to be on the right track as it enters 2010," said Laurent Auguste, president and CEO, Veolia Water Americas. "The company is unwavering in its mission to provide sustainable solutions and value to support the increasingly difficult challenges for cities in the 21st century. Despite these economic hard times, we continue to grow our business by taking care of customers and by focusing on account management, numerous contract renewals and new business development."
As the benchmark innovator for public-private partnerships, Veolia Water moves into 2010 positioned to help communities address the contemporary trends of population growth, more stringent environmental requirements, cost-effectiveness and economic development.
The 2009 contract wins include:
In Lithia, Fla. (near Tampa), Veolia Water was selected by Tampa Bay Water in a competitive procurement to engineer, procure the new equipment and provide construction management services (EPCM) for a new ozonation process to enhance sulfide removal at the Lithia Hydrogen Sulfide Removal Facility, which is operated by TBW partner Hillsborough County. The total contract budget is estimated at approximately $40 million.
In Gloucester, Mass., Veolia Water entered into a partnership to handle operations and maintenance of the city's potable water and wastewater treatment facilities. Under the terms of the five-year, $15-million contract, Veolia Water will partner with the city to improve drinking water quality and water infrastructure for the city's wastewater and water treatment facilities. The city will continue to retain control of all its assets and all employees from the old facility will be retained.
In Novato, Calif. (in Marin County north of San Francisco), Veolia Water entered into a five-year partnership for startup, operation and maintenance of the District's new wastewater treatment facilities, and the decommissioning of the old wastewater facilities. The five-year contract is valued at approximately $10 million and includes the option for two 3-year renewals. Veolia Water's guaranteed price for five years will provide the District with cost savings in excess of $7 million and guarantee environmental compliance to district ratepayers. In addition, all eligible municipal employees were provided job opportunities with Veolia Water in Novato and their current status as members of the Teamsters' union will be honored.
In Port Angeles, Wash. (north of Seattle), the National Park Service (NPS) retained Veolia Water to operate and maintain a new $65M water treatment plant on the Elwha River. Per the five-year, $5 million contract, Veolia Water operates and manages the 53 MGD surface water treatment facility to mitigate any negative water quality impact from the removal of two dams, aimed at supporting the repopulation of Chinook salmon, an endangered fish species. In addition to maintaining water quality and meeting performance standards, Veolia Water's overall responsibility includes mitigating negative impacts to fish passage caused by the dam decommissioning.
"These public-private partnerships all offer tremendous benefit to taxpayers, from environmental and water quality improvements to cost savings and greater public control," said Auguste. "They offer an excellent example of how the strength of the public and private sectors can forge great environmental benefits for the public good. We're looking forward to continuing our record of success as we start 2010."
Based in Chicago, Veolia Water North America is the leading provider of comprehensive water and wastewater partnership services to municipal and industrial customers, providing services to more than 14 million people in approximately 650 North American communities. The company is part of the Veolia Environnement companies in North America, with 30,000 North American employees providing sustainable environmental solutions in water management, waste services, energy management, and passenger transportation.
Veolia Water, the water division of Veolia Environnement, is the world leader in water and wastewater services and technological solutions. Its parent company, Veolia Environnement (NYSE: VE and Paris Euronext: VIE), is the worldwide reference in environmental services. With more than 336,000 employees, Veolia Environnement recorded annual revenues of $50 billion in 2008. Veolia Environnement is in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World) and Dow Jones STOXX Sustainability Index (DJSI STOXX). Visit the company's Web sites at www.veolianorthamerica.com and www.veoliawaterna.com.
###
