The Southern Delivery System (SDS), one of the largest water infrastructure projects completed in the United States this century, has begun delivering water to homes and businesses in Colorado Springs, Colo. The commencement of water delivery culminates decades of planning and nearly six years of construction.

McKim & Creed, Inc. has won a Grand Award of Engineering Excellence from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) for its engineering work on the WaterHub at Emory, an ecological water reclamation treatment facility at Emory University.

Aegion Corp. has announced that Frank Firsching has been named president of its Infrastructure Solutions platform and will have direct responsibility for the overall growth and profitability of the North America and European Insituform business, Underground Solutions, Inc. and Fyfe/Fibrwrap North and South America.

On Wednesday, three Michigan officials – one who ran Flint’s water treatment plant and two from the state Department of Environmental Quality (Michigan DEQ) – were charged with allegedly mishandling information related to the Flint water crisis.

This is not an article about why water and wastewater utilities should consider a public-private partnership (P3) to deliver urban stormwater infrastructure projects. As you surely know, a P3 appeals to many municipalities for their ability to leverage private sector expertise and efficiencies — and shoulder financial risk — for delivery of what would traditionally be a public sector project.

The American Water Works Association recently announced that Steve Via has been promoted to Director of Federal Relations of the association. Via was formerly AWWA’s Regulatory Affairs Manager.

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell recently announced nearly $95 million will be distributed from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to all 50 states, U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia to support conservation and recreation projects in local communities.

While the crisis in Flint, Mich., can be traced to an unfortunate and confounding sequence of human errors, it has also prompted a national discussion about the extent of our nation’s water infrastructure needs. It has placed a particular focus on the challenges involved with replacing the millions of lead service lines that still carry drinking water from the public water system to homes in many U.S. cities.

A contractor for San Jose Water Company in San Jose, Calif., has taken delivery of more than 3,000 ft of zinc-coated iron pipe from AMERICAN Ductile Iron Pipe, making it among the nation’s first utilities to install zinc-coated pipe.

Since the conversion of its foundry to lead-free operations in 2001, Neptune Technology Group has produced nearly 32 million lead-free bronze alloy meters that have proven themselves in the field. These lead-free meters have met NSF/ANSI 61, Annex F standards for lead performance, NSF 372 for lead content, and the most recent Safe Drinking Water Act regulations.