Municipal Water Leader January 2020

Volume 7 Issue 1

January 2020

Dr. Tim Petty: How the Water Subcabinet Promotes Progress

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Dr. Tim Petty: How the Water Subcabinet Promotes Progress

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Contents

January 2020 Volume 7, Issue 1 5 A Vision for 2020

By Kris Polly 6 Dr. Tim Petty: How the Water Subcabinet Promotes Progress 12 T he Bureau of Reclamation: Priorities for 2020 and Beyond 18 M aintaining Cooperation on the Colorado River

28 A bove and Beyond Regulatory Requirements: Rogue Valley Sewer Services 32 E nsuring the Quality and Reliability of Concrete Pressure Pipe 36 P ublic-Private Partnership Helps Protect Prized Western River

By Helen Taylor

SUBMISSIONS: Municipal Water Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions. However, the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only upon request. For more information, please contact our office at (202) 698-0690 or municipal.water.leader@waterstrategies.com.

ADVERTISING: Municipal Water Leader accepts one-quarter, half-page, and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or municipal.water.leader@waterstrategies.com.

CIRCULATION: Municipal Water Leader is distributed to irrigation district managers and boards of directors in the 17 western states, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials, members of Congress and committee staff, and advertising sponsors.

For address corrections or additions, please contact our managing editor, Joshua Dill, at joshua.dill@waterstrategies.com.

Copyright Š 2019 Water Strategies LLC. Municipal Water Leader relies on the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources professionals who provide content for the magazine. However, the views and opinions expressed by these contributors are solely those of the original contributor and do not necessarily represent or reflect the policies or positions of Municipal Water Leader magazine, its editors, or Water Strategies LLC. The acceptance and use of advertisements in Municipal Water Leader do not constitute a representation or warranty by Water Strategies LLC or Municipal Water Leader magazine regarding the products, services, claims, or companies advertised.

MunicipalWaterLeader.com

Coming soon in Municipal Water Leader: February: Energy Recovery and Renewables Do you have a story idea for an upcoming issue? Contact our editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

4 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

MuniWaterLeader

COVER PHOTO:

Dr. Tim Petty, Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, U.S. Department of the Interior Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of the Interior.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.

24 A head of the Curve: Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District’s Innovation

STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Tyler Young, Writer Stephanie Biddle, Graphic Designer Eliza Moreno, Web Designer

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A Vision for 2020

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020 is here, and the world of water is setting its sights high. From the federal government in Washington, DC, to our nation’s regional associations, trade associations, and municipalities, the men and women of our industry are preparing to improve and expand infrastructure, build resiliency, protect the environment, and plan for the future.

In our cover interview, we speak with U.S. Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tim Petty, whose portfolio covers large-scale federal water and energy resources projects. Dr. Petty and other assistant secretary–level officials have formed a water subcabinet that meets regularly to discuss and efficiently implement the administration’s water policy agenda.

We also speak with Brenda Burman, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, about her agency’s plans to modernize infrastructure, construct new storage facilities, develop new hydrological forecasting technology, and involve stakeholders. Commissioner Burman, who has made a tremendous effort to be accessible, has taken part in over 1,400 meetings during her relatively short tenure.

Jim Broderick, president of the Colorado River Water Users’ Association, updates us on the implementation of the Drought Contingency Plan and gives us a preview of the Colorado basin states’ development of their 2026 water use guidelines.

By Kris Polly Richard Mueller, president of the American Concrete Pressure Pipe Association, tells us of the benefits of concrete pressure pipe and how his association helps its member companies manufacture state-of-the-art pipe.

We also feature two award-winning municipalities.

Oregon’s Rogue Valley Sewer Services was recently awarded the Water Environment Federation’s (WEF) Municipal Stormwater and Green Infrastructure Award for its program management, which pulls in members of the community to go above and beyond statutory requirements on water quality.

Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District was recognized by WEF as well as by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences with the Franz Edelman Award for its real-time sewer control system and green infrastructure.

From the president’s desk to the nation’s construction sites, big plans are in the works, and the leaders of the water industry are making them happen. If the stories in this issue of Municipal Water Leader are any indication, 2020 is shaping up to be a great year. M Kris Polly is editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader magazine and president and CEO of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

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Dr. Tim Petty: How the Water Subcabinet Promotes Progress

California's Shasta Dam is known as the keystone to the Central Valley Project.

D

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

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Tim Petty: I have been assistant secretary for water and science in the U.S. Department of the Interior for nearly 2 years.

During the Bush administration, I was deputy assistant secretary for almost 4 years under Secretary Kempthorne.

Then I went back to the Hill and spent 9 years with Senator James Risch of Idaho. When the Trump administration came in, I went through the normal process of getting selected and confirmed and started in January 2018.

I was born and raised in northeastern Indiana on a family farm. I attended public school there, did my undergraduate studies in geoscience at Purdue University, and got a master’s in international business administration at the University of Maryland Global and a PhD from the University of Alaska Fairbanks’s School of Engineering and Mining. My dissertation was in water science and policy. You can find my research, which is mainly on surface hydrology, in three published articles that are available on Google Scholar.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION.

r. Tim Petty, assistant secretary for water and science in the U.S. Department of the Interior, is responsible for the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and consequently, for a wide variety of issues related to water infrastructure, water resources, energy, ecosystems, and natural disasters. This broad scope naturally brings Dr. Petty into contact with many other federal agencies. In order to better coordinate their vital tasks, Dr. Petty and other officials at the assistant-secretary level have assembled an informal water subcabinet that meets monthly to discuss, plan, and execute water-related projects.

In this interview with Municipal Water Leader, Dr. Petty explains how the coordination enabled by the water subcabinet leads to progress and shares his outlook on 2020.

ADVERTISEMENT Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your work at Interior and your responsibilities as assistant secretary for water and science.

Tim Petty: The water part of water and science is Reclamation. The science part is USGS. USGS has about 8,000 employees and staff in all 50 states as well as the islands that Interior is responsible for. Reclamation manages water in the 17 western states.

Municipal Water Leader: What are your top issues for 2020?

Tim Petty: The primary issues for Reclamation are water infrastructure, water resources, and title transfer. For USGS there are three top priorities: energy and energy resources; biology ecosystem corridors; and hazards, including earthquakes and volcanoes. The Presidential Memorandum on Promoting the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West, which came out in October 2018, provides further specific areas of work. Each section breaks down key components and water basins, including the Columbia River basin and basins in California.

Part of that memorandum that will be critical for the Colorado River is section 3, which deals with forecasting and modeling. Work on that will be undertaken by both Reclamation and the USGS. In November 2019, the USGS announced that it was implementing its nextgeneration water monitoring program in a second large water basin, the Upper Colorado basin. The first was the Delaware River basin on the East Coast. That program will involve partnering with a lot of other federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce; the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA); and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FARRAGUTFUL.

Municipal Water Leader: How will those new forecasting and modeling activities change the operations of water agencies in the West?

Tim Petty: It’s going to be a huge resource for all the different water agencies—not only Interior, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the USDA, the U.S. Departments of Energy and Commerce, NOAA, and the Army Corps as well.

Good examples of what Reclamation is trying to forecast include how snowpack affects spring runoff, how heavy rainstorms affect inundation, and drought.

That is done basin by basin. Last summer, the Mississippi basin had more water than it knew what to do with, while right next door, the Colorado basin was still in a 19-year drought cycle. Forecasting is aimed at understanding how weather and water resources will affect each of those basins.

The U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the water subcabinet that you form a part of.

Tim Petty: It started when a number of officials at the assistantsecretary level realized that we needed to connect with other federal agencies. It’s so easy for each of the agencies and assistant secretaries to get consumed by the work at hand and wall themselves in. As a new assistant secretary in early 2018, I wanted to make it a priority to ensure that I was able to pick up the phone and call other officials at my level in other agencies. David Ross had just become associate administrator of the water division of the EPA, and within a month or two, Bill Northey was appointed under secretary for farm production and conservation at the USDA. We started meeting on a monthly basis. Pretty soon, Dr. Tim Gallaudet at NOAA heard about our meetings and wanted to join. Then R.D. James at the Army Corps started joining us, followed by Daniel Simmons from the Department of Energy, who was confirmed in early 2019. Our goal is to meet monthly at the assistant secretary/ under secretary level, joined by critical deputies or plus ones, with the purpose of trying to solve problems, which is this administration’s task. With no official title of any sort, this group has become known as the water subcabinet.

In section 2 of the president’s October 2018 memorandum, he mandates that one agency should be designated the coordinating lead for the Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act compliance requirements of each relevant major water project. The water subcabinet is helpful because as assistant secretaries and undersecretaries, we can discuss who the best lead is and can commit to helping make sure the whole project is successful.

The water subcabinet is also important because some federal agencies have missions that are apparently at odds with each other. If you look at their bylaws and requirements, Reclamation is required to hold water and the MUNICIPALWATERLEADER.COM

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Folsom Reservoir, in California, uses forecast-informed operations for the purposes of flood management.

Army Corps is required to dump water. Those congressional mandates put us at odds and can create conflicts. Yet that’s absolutely the opposite of the way that things should be.

We’ve got to be working together. Meeting regularly helps ensure we do that.

Municipal Water Leader: What have been some of the primary focus areas of the water subcabinet?

Tim Petty: They include water infrastructure, water supply, and water quality. Data modeling and forecasting is also important. We also have different geographic priority areas at different times of year, including the Great Lakes, Florida, the East Coast, the West Coast, the Midwest river basins, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Municipal Water Leader: How has your coordination through the water subcabinet helped foster progress in some of these areas?

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Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the Federal Action Plan for Improving Forecasts and Water Availability.

Tim Petty: The federal action plan came out in June 2019.

NOAA is the lead agency for forecasting and modeling, and Dr. Tim Gallaudet of NOAA and I were the cosigners of this document. In the document, we gave ourselves milestones and metrics and committed to meeting them by specific dates and times. It includes everything from water forecasting and water management toolsets down to specific projects and

PHOTO COURTESY OF HDR.

Tim Petty: We recently finished the biological opinions from both National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Central Valley Project in California, which took multiple years. As I mentioned before, we agencies collectively designated an employee from one agency to be the coordinating lead in this process. We’re also working on a biological opinion for the Columbia River and a National

Drought Report, and we recently signed a memorandum of understanding between Reclamation and the EPA that ties into some of our Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act projects. EPA has, for several decades, provided resources and funding for these projects. Now that Reclamation is able to coordinate with it more closely, this coordination will transform water infrastructure projects.

Another good example of progress was the response to a tunnel collapse in Wyoming this summer. More than 100,000 acres of irrigated land was in peril. The relationship between USDA and Interior, and the coordination the water subcabinet provided, enabled us to address the problem in record time and help the agricultural community and the irrigators. Working together in the water subcabinet also helps us be more effective in our communications with the states, with governor’s offices, and with local entities.

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The Colorado River from the Moab Rim, Utah.

dams. As part of the action plan, we are working on control manuals and finding new ways to work with the Army Corps to manage water. For example, while the Army Corps might usually be in the business of dumping water to avoid the risk of flooding, if we know that we’re going into a drought season, we should instead save that water and use it for other purposes, including species habitat.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF USGS AND THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you tell us about some of Interior’s plans to help build drought resilience?

Tim Petty: That actually brings us back to forecasting and modeling. We are working with USDA on the National Integrated Drought Information System and its remote sensing tools, as well as supplying water to drought-affected areas.

Earlier this year, we worked on a draft water reuse plan with the EPA, which was the lead agency on the project.

The draft plan, which is out now, ties into Reclamation’s WaterSMART program as well as the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act passed by Congress several years ago. Water reuse is critical, especially in drought-stricken basins like those in California. We toured some desalination projects there. The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy has been helpful in implementing those projects, because it has the resources and technology to implement water reuse, both for grey water and potable water. If we continue to figure out the energy and

technology factors, the cost of desalinization will continue to decline. Agriculture is one of the biggest water users by volume; if we can start using reuse water for agriculture in the future, it will be a game changer.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future?

Tim Petty: My vision of the future comes from the great men and women who are part of Reclamation and USGS. They are the ones who are on the ground and who know what’s going on and what the needs are. I listen to them and bring those ideas all the way up to the secretary and the president’s office and implement them. The western water memorandum that the president signed came out of the needs of multiple agencies. We needed some leadership to get us across the finish line. My vision is to improve how we manage water resources in the future, benefiting both people and ecosystems and keeping communities moving forward. M

Dr. Tim Petty is assistant secretary for water and science in the U.S. Department of the Interior.

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The Bureau of Reclamation: Priorities for 2020 and Beyond

Construction on the Navajo-Gallup pipeline project.

Commissioner Burman and state representatives sign Drought Contingency Plan–related agreements at the Hoover Dam spillway house in May 2019.

F

rom its roots at the turn of the 20th century, the Bureau of Reclamation has grown to be the nation’s largest water supplier and its second-largest supplier of hydroelectricity.

It operates 492 dams, 338 reservoirs, and 53 hydroelectric plants and delivers water to 10 million irrigated acres across the western United States, giving it a foundational role in U.S. agriculture and in the history of the West.

Under the leadership of Commissioner Brenda Burman, Reclamation is focusing on modernizing existing infrastructure, expanding storage capabilities, promoting title transfer, and leveraging cutting-edge science and forecasting technology. It has also just released a bold new logo that visually represents the strength of water and of Reclamation’s employees and infrastructure across the West.

In this interview, Commissioner Burman gives Municipal Water Leader a panoramic view of Reclamation’s priorities for 2020 and the bold technological and infrastructural means it is pursuing in order to guarantee reliable water supplies in the West for generations to come.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be commissioner.

12 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Municipal Water Leader: Who was the commissioner when you were deputy commissioner?

Brenda Burman: John Keys recommended me for the position. Then he retired, and I worked for Bill Rinne as acting commissioner and then for Bob Johnson.

In all three—John Keys, Bill Rinne and Bob Johnson—I noted the incredible pride they had in Reclamation, in its employees, and in the work it was doing. I’m similarly proud of our work today and of our tremendous employees, who work every day to make reliable water a reality for future generations in the West.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RENDA CONTRACTING.

Brenda Burman: I am honored to be the 23rd commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation and to be working for the American people under President Trump and Secretary Bernhardt. It’s a real honor to be in this position. When I look at my background, I think I have been working my whole career to get to this job.

I started, oddly enough, with the National Park Service in New Mexico, building trails out in the desert. You realize quickly in the New Mexico desert how exceedingly dry it is.

Everything you do has to be calculated around whether there is a water supply and how you can conserve water. That’s where I fell in love with the Southwest and its water issues. After

another stretch with the Park Service at the Grand Canyon, I decided to go to law school and work on water issues.

After graduating, I worked first in Wyoming and then in Phoenix for a water and energy firm, Salmon, Lewis & Weldon, where I worked on many natural resource issues, including tribal water settlements. I spent a lot of my early career working on Indian water rights settlements— agreements between neighboring communities that ensured water supply for tribal nations and their neighbors. That was incredible work, full of conflict but also incredible resolutions.

That led to working on Capitol Hill for Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona for almost 4 years. We focused not only on Arizona, but on water issues that touched California and the West as a whole. During that time, I forged the relationships that ended up bringing me to the Department of the Interior. I was deputy commissioner at Reclamation back in 2006 and then worked as deputy assistant secretary for water and science. While Interior works across the nation and internationally on important water issues, I’ve always gone back to the western United States—it is a region with special needs, and it’s where I’ve always enjoyed working.

ADVERTISEMENT I also appreciated the diverse backgrounds and perspectives each brought. John Keys was an engineer, Bill Rinne was a biologist, and Bob Johnson is an economist. They each leveraged their backgrounds to understand what Reclamation needed at the time to be relevant and important to the West.

They each also left their own lasting impact. John Keys—an amazing man— was ever proud of the infrastructure Reclamation had built and was working on. He had a real vision for how that infrastructure would sustain the western United States for generations to come. He truly cared for people; he strove to meet everyone involved in the department and would remember each of their names. He also had an incredible ability to work with everyone, regardless of background, perspectives, or areas of conflict.

Bill Rinne had such a disarming way about him. He could walk into the tensest negotiation and calm everyone down.

He was so honest and straightforward that people couldn’t help but trust him.

It didn’t matter if he was talking with a farmer, a water district manager, someone from a nongovernmental organization, a state leader, or a member of Congress—he built trust and strengthened relationships.

He’d go to Capitol Hill, sometimes walking into hearings where members were criticizing something Reclamation was or wasn’t doing, and before he was done, he had disarmed and built trust with his Nebraska charm and common sense.

Bob Johnson is such a great mentor; I’m still learning from him. He taught

us that we don’t need to be stern to make a point. He was focused on trust and finding common solutions.

He demonstrated that building trust with parties is the number 1 way to succeed. In 2006 and 2007, some of the toughest and most challenging years on the Colorado River, Bob brought optimism. He approached intractable issues as simply the next issue to solve.

He got us through those years and led us to important agreements because stakeholders trusted him; they knew he’d always treat them fairly.

Municipal Water Leader: Most of our readers will know all about Reclamation, but for those who aren’t familiar with it, would you introduce the agency, its history, and its activities?

Brenda Burman: It’s hard to believe now, but Reclamation was created by President Theodore Roosevelt and Congress back in 1902. The idea was that the East Coast had thriving cities and agricultural communities and the West needed the same thing. It showed incredible vision that Theodore Roosevelt looked out on the West and its vast resources and recognized that if we as a nation were going to harness them, we needed reliable water supplies and federal investment in infrastructure.

The Reclamation Service, later renamed the Bureau of Reclamation, built the iconic infrastructure of the West, including Hoover Dam, Grand Coulee Dam, Shasta Dam on the Sacramento River, the All-American Canal, the Columbia Basin Project, and the Central

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION.

Breaking ground for the Derby Dam fish screen project.

Commissioner Brenda Burman speaks at the signing of the Drought Contingency Plan at Hoover Dam in May 2019.

Valley Project. So much of the history of the West is tied to the history of Reclamation and its partnerships with local communities.

Today, we are the largest water supplier in the United States, even though we serve only the 17 western states. We are the nation’s secondlargest supplier of hydroelectricity.

While agricultural communities are our base, the areas in the West that we serve are some of the fastest growing in the United States. We deliver water to 10 million irrigated acres in the West.

Those acres produce about 60 percent of the United States’ vegetables and about one-quarter of its fruit and nut crops. On the hydroelectric side, we bring clean, renewable hydroelectricity to millions of homes. I also want to highlight our recreation areas, which are often overlooked when people describe Reclamation’s activities. We have over 250 recreation sites, some of which, like Lake Mead, are among the most visited sites in the United States. Our sites get about 90 million visitors a year.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about Reclamation’s top issues going into 2020.

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The Bureau of Reclamation's new logo.

14 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

by Reclamation, back in 1905, and is over 100 years old. It delivers water to over 50,000 acres near Fallon, Nevada. We are modernizing that dam and installing a state-of-the-art horizontal fish screen that will allow the Lahontan cutthroat trout to migrate through that system, something that hasn’t happened in more than 100 years. It’s an important partnership with the local tribes, including the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and of course, our irrigation partners. Not only are we creating new opportunities on that river, but we’re ensuring that the water supply is reliable. The project will help ensure we can continue to deliver water to our irrigation customers by helping us meet all our environmental responsibilities.

Another example is the NavajoGallup Project, which will deliver water not only to the city of Gallup, New Mexico, but to the Navajo Nation and Jicarilla Apache Tribe. On-the-ground construction has been going at full pace, and we will be delivering water to part of the Navajo Nation in 2020.

We’re continuing to work on innovative and collaborative ways to finance important water projects.

We recently signed a new agreement with the EPA that advances federal collaboration on funding for water supply and water reuse projects nationwide.

We and the EPA will work together to implement existing water infrastructure financing programs—the EPA’s Water Infrastructure Financing and Innovation Act program and Reclamation’s Title XVI and desalination programs. That agreement will allow us to find ways to leverage funding provided by the EPA with existing Reclamation funding programs to better support the country’s water reuse and recycling projects.

Another important priority related to infrastructure is title transfer. We all know that the best managers are on the ground and local, but if infrastructure is owned by the United States, there are certain restrictions that managers have to deal with. We know that many of our partners are ready to take on their own infrastructure. They are ready to transfer the titles of their infrastructure to their

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION.

Brenda Burman: We’ve talked a little bit about Theodore Roosevelt’s great vision at the turn of the last century for what the West could become. When, in October 2018, President Trump released a memo on the reliable supply and delivery of water in the West, he was taking that vision from Teddy Roosevelt and translating it for the 21st century.

How are we going to ensure reliable water and power supplies for the 21st century in the face of increasing population, increasing regulation, water scarcity, more demand, and conflict over water supplies? The Trump administration is focusing on how to make those water supplies more reliable.

We are looking at a number of ways to ensure reliable water and power supplies going into 2020. When I came on board 2 years ago, I spoke with Irrigation Leader about a few issues I thought we had to address. We talked first about drought. How are we going to face growing demand for water amid scarcity? The number 1 way we’re going to do that is by modernizing our existing infrastructure, including dams and canal delivery systems.

We also need to be looking at the future. Right now, we are relying on the infrastructure that our grandfathers and great-grandfathers built. My grandfather worked on the dams on the Deschutes River. We can’t continue to rely on the same infrastructure and expect the same results 60 or 100 years later. We’re also looking at storage. There are so many places across the West—Northern

California is a prime example—where more storage is needed. Storage is what gives us certainty and flexibility, allowing us to survive dry years by collecting and holding water during wet years.

We have been working with our partners across the West to look at investment opportunities for storage. I’ll name a couple individual projects. We have been working with partners to look at raising Shasta Dam, which is at the top of the Sacramento system, by 18½ feet.

It’s already 600 feet tall, so adding 18½ feet doesn’t sound like much, but with that small infrastructure addition, we could save over 600,000 acre-feet of water a year. We can currently store less than a year’s average flow on the Sacramento River. We had a nice, above-average year in 2019, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we can deliver water to all our contractors in 2020 if it’s dry. I want that to change.

We’re also looking at other storage possibilities in California, as we have been for several years. I’ll name a few where we’re working with partners through feasibility studies. First, we are working on north-of-delta storage at the Sites Reservoir project. The Sites project is proposed as an off-stream reservoir, which certainly helps with environmental regulations. The idea is to capture flood flows and then use them in the Central Valley Project system to help meet environmental responsibilities and water supply delivery responsibilities.

Many are also looking to move forward on the Los Vaqueros expansion near the Bay Delta. It would provide storage as well as redundancy—the ability to move water through the delta in a different way than we currently do. A third project is the Friant-Kern Canal. The canal has lost about 50 percent of its capacity because of subsidence. We are working with local communities to recapture the space we used to have so we can deliver our full allocations of water. That’s a very big project and it’s going to take a lot of special engineering, but we are working closely with our partners on figuring out how that could work.

Derby Dam in Nevada is another example. It was the first project designed

ADVERTISEMENT local communities. In March, Congress gave us the ability to help them do that in a much smarter, more efficient, and more costeffective way. Reclamation is taking that direction from Congress seriously. We have moved immediately to start our program and are working with several irrigation districts to transfer title. The idea is that we can do it administratively—that we don’t have to go back to Congress and ask for each single project. It is a voluntary process, and transfers have to follow certain parameters laid out in the legislation, but we are hoping we can report at the end of 2020 that several communities have taken advantage of that program and are ready to move forward.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about Reclamation’s new logo. What was the motivation behind developing it, and what does it represent?

Brenda Burman: Our new logo builds on our history and embodies the strength of water and the strength of our employees. This logo shows our commitment to deliver water for agriculture, for renewable hydropower, and for municipal needs in an environmentally sound manner.

Our old logo was developed in a time before social media.

Our new logo is part of our brand. It represents who we are. As people become familiar with it, they will think of Reclamation every time they see it.

Municipal Water Leader: Under your leadership, Reclamation has put an emphasis on stakeholder outreach.

Why is this important, and how have you gone about increasing stakeholder engagement?

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION.

Brenda Burman: It is a priority of this administration and of the secretary to make sure that we are part of the community.

There’s no use in the federal government sitting in Washington, DC, and telling people 2,000–3,000 miles away what to do with their water. It’s been important to me since I took office that Reclamation be accessible. Our area and regional offices, as well as our staff in Washington, need to be out there talking to people, hearing what the issues are, and hearing what needs to be done to ensure a reliable water supply. The folks here at Reclamation ran the numbers and tell me that I’ve delivered 52 speeches in the last 2 years to regional, national, and international water management audiences and that I have taken over 1,400 meetings. That number frightens me a little, but I hope that water users are seeing the results.

Municipal Water Leader: What trends do you see in western water and power today and what new technologies and advances are on the horizon for the next few years?

Brenda Burman: Looking at the future of western water, I think we need to be taking an all-of-the-above approach. In his memo, the president told us to make sure we are using the absolute best technology. In particular, the memo has a section on forecasting. We work with the U.S. Army Corps of

Engineers on flood control space behind our dams, but that flood control space is controlled by certain rules, which in many places are 30–40 years old. We need to be using modern forecasting techniques so that we know when we need to release water from our storage and when we can keep it. We just had a pilot project of this nature at Folsom Dam in California. It has worked incredibly well. In this, we work closely not only with the Army Corps, but also with the U.S. Department of Commerce through the National Weather Service in California.

As part of that project, we looked at what we could do with existing infrastructure to introduce these new abilities. As a result of the pilot project, we believe we’re going to be able to hold additional water behind Folsom Dam. That’s going to give added security to the communities and farmers downstream.

On the topic of technical expertise, I would like to focus on an area of Reclamation’s applied research that is fundamental to making sound decisions based on the best available science. For over 25 years, we’ve been an essential partner in a research and development collaboration with the University of Colorado’s Center for Advanced Decision Support for Water and Environmental Systems (CADSWES) in Boulder, Colorado. This center helped pioneer computerization of our reservoir operations and provides reliable short- and long-term hydrological forecasting based on the best available climate information. Its scientists are at the forefront of river basin modeling. Terry Fulp, regional director for the Lower Colorado Region, was one of the first participants in the program. Through our partnership with other federal agencies and academic researchers, we are advancing the science of river forecasting to help us meet the challenges in the years and decades ahead.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future?

Brenda Burman: When I look at the future of water in the West, I’m going to go back again to say that we’ve got to take an all-of-the-above approach. We need to modernize our current infrastructure; we need to consider new infrastructure and new storage possibilities, both above ground and below ground; and we need to make advances in conservation. With all the hurdles we are facing in the 21st century, we need to know that we can deliver reliable water and power supplies.

You will hear from us, just as you’ll hear from other water managers across the West, that while we must make sure that we deliver reliable water supplies this coming winter and spring and summer, most of all we need to be ready to serve the next generation. Past generations did it for us. They made sure we had the tools we needed to deliver reliable water supplies, so now it is our turn to pay it forward. M Brenda Burman is commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. She can be contacted at publicaffairs@usbr.gov.

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Maintaining Cooperation on the Colorado River A wet 2019 brought the water level in Lake Powell up.

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Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

18 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Jim Broderick: I’ve been executive director of Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District since January 2003.

The district is on the eastern plains of the Colorado and brings water from the Colorado River. The Southeastern District supplies supplemental water from the Colorado River basin for municipal and agricultural uses in the Arkansas River basin through the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project.

Return flows from Fryingpan-Arkansas Project water are an important supply for well-augmentation groups.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your position at CRWUA. Jim Broderick: I am currently the president of CRWUA. This is my second year of a 2-year term, so it is my last year. I was previously vice president. I’ve been involved

PHOTO COURTESY OF CRWUA.

he Colorado River Water Users Association (CRWUA) helps coordinate the activities of the seven Colorado River basin states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming—as well as Indian tribes and the country of Mexico on the Colorado River. Each year, it brings water users together for a major conference at which each state and water user has a chance to make its voice heard. In 2020, the basin states will be implementing the drought contingency plan (DCP) that was agreed to in 2019 and will be looking forward to establishing new guidelines for 2026.

In this interview, CRWUA President Jim Broderick speaks with Municipal Water Leader about the organization’s history, present, and future.

ADVERTISEMENT CRWUA is made up of seven states and the Colorado River Indian Tribe Partnership. The seven states are Arizona, California, and Nevada in the lower basin and Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming in the upper basin. Our board of trustees is made up of three members from each state and the Indian Tribe Partnership. The officers are the president, the vice president, the secretary, the treasurer, and the assistant secretary and treasurer.

About 40 million people are served by the Colorado River. The river is about 1,400 miles long. Some people have said that if it were its own country, the Colorado River basin would have a $1.4 trillion economy.

Municipal Water Leader: Are the states and the tribes the only members of CRWUA? Jim Broderick: No, the members are all the water users associated with the states and tribes. If you register for the CRWUA conference, you are a member. Our membership is open to everyone interested in the Colorado River. This gives CRWUA the ability to provide our members input into what’s going on the river as it is happening.

Municipal Water Leader: In addition to the yearly meeting, does CRWUA hold other meetings throughout the year?

Jim Broderick: No. Traditionally, the education component occurs during our annual conference in early December. This year, there is an update and perspective on drought contingency planning in the upper and lower basins. The other topics we are discussing include interim guidelines; climate change; tribal water issues; the 150th anniversary of the John Wesley Powell expedition; the future of the West as seen through education, art, science and policy; and forecasting.

Municipal Water Leader: Is CRWUA funded by the member states? in the recent drought contingency planning issues that Commissioner Brenda Burman called for at my first meeting as president. That mandate has guided what I’ve done over the last 2 years.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about CRWUA and its history.

Jim Broderick: The Colorado River Water Users Association is an organization that has been around for a long time. It was organized in 1945 for the sole purpose of protecting the interests of all those who rely on the Colorado River system for water. It remains an organization committed to making certain that the participating states maintain an open dialogue on these issues through cooperation rather than conflict.

Jim Broderick: Yes and no. The organization is funded through the registration fees for the annual conference.

That money takes care of the conference itself and the necessary materials. All the trustees and committee members volunteer their time for the organization. The larger organizations help with printing and staffing for the conference. We also have sponsors for some of our larger functions. Almost everything we do is on a volunteer basis.

Our members have a real interest in staying informed.

Municipal Water Leader: What are CRWUA’s top issues for 2020?

Jim Broderick: The top issues for 2020 involve the implementation of the DCPs for the different states.

What will they look like, and what are the details for the stakeholders? Each one of the states will have to put MUNICIPALWATERLEADER.COM

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Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tim Petty and Commissioner Brenda Burman (center) and principals from each of the Colorado River basin states sign the DCP at Hoover Dam.

together its DCP. The DCPs’ origins lie with the Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which the U.S. Department of the Interior, the states, and other stakeholders developed in 2007 to address the Colorado River’s deteriorating storage levels. The interim guidelines identify how to operate the two major reservoirs on the Colorado River—Lake Powell and Lake Mead—under hotter, drier conditions in order to share the risk of shrinking water supplies between the upper and lower basins. While the 2007 interim guidelines temporarily kept the basin out of crisis, the federal government needed states to put a more robust plan in place in order to protect interests that included water deliveries to contractors and tribal water rights. That led to the latest temporary plan, the DCPs, which negotiators say provide some security in avoiding a potential crash of the Colorado River system. Developing plans for each basin was hard, considering that within each state there are also competing interests and conflicts between urban and rural water users. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman, during the first CRWUA meeting of my tenure as president of this organization, pushed a deadline for the seven states to meet. In April 2019, federal legislators passed the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan Authorization Act. In the meantime, the DCPs will help us bridge the gap to the next review. The DCPs and the 2007 interim guidelines both expire in 2026, and there is a provision in both the 2007 interim guidelines and the 2019 DCPs requiring that renegotiation begin by the end of 2020.

The important thing to realize is that the Colorado River is managed by the states, the Department of the Interior, and the stakeholders. The states and Interior are the entities that negotiate the management of the Colorado River. CRWUA was put together to allow the them to disseminate information on a basinwide basis. Water users, states, and water managers will grapple with the reality of a basin structural deficit where, even when there’s adequate snowpack and runoff, like this year, more water has been allocated than flows through the river.

Municipal Water Leader: What role does CRWUA play in the implementation of the DCP?

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about some of the forecasting activities that have been done on the Colorado and how they are informing river management.

20 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Jim Broderick: The climate will always have an effect on the Colorado, and it always has. The river has been in drought conditions for virtually the last 20 years. When a river starts to draw down its storage and it isn’t replaced, people get nervous.

We have discussed the DCP as a way to start to regulate how people are using the water and how each basin and each state can help make that water go further. We must always keep drought in the front of our minds.

On a positive note, last year was a pretty good year for weather. The snowpack in the Colorado River basin was the highest it has been a long time. Water levels in Lake Powell moved up this year. We saw a pretty good spike.

But water will always be scarce. People will continue to look for ways to manage water, make it go further, and use it efficiently.

Jim Broderick: Forecasting is a wonderful thing. On the Colorado River, it has always been used as a way of reducing

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION.

Jim Broderick: The role of CRWUA is to ensure that all the stakeholders are involved and that information is being provided. CRWUA’s role is to be a forum for information.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the trends you see on the Colorado.

ADVERTISEMENT the risk of operations. The upper basin will hopefully be able to use forecasting to operate its reservoirs and maintain water levels in Lake Powell. As demand starts to develop, the upper and lower basins will try to figure out activities to help equalize the connection between Lakes Powell and Mead.

Every state, as well as Reclamation, looks at the river and has its own analysis, internal and external. It’s one of the most studied rivers in the United States. The bigger issue is interpreting the results of those studies. What are the key indicators that are useful for forecasting? What is the effect of climatic changes? What happens when you go through long droughts or long wet periods? How does that effect the different operations? Going back to 1922, I think the early forecasters were overly optimistic about the amount of water in the river. Ever since then, they’ve been trying to catch up with that forecast.

Low water levels in Lake Mead.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your message to federal and state lawmakers?

Jim Broderick: Legislators tend to pay attention to water experts. My advice is to listen closely, because the river is lifeblood for millions of people, and all state and federal lawmakers must work as one if the Colorado River basin is going to meet all its demands.

When everybody finally brings something to the legislators, it’s probably been well vetted. Few things make it to those levels without all states having input. That is what happened with the last piece of legislation that the Colorado River community put together. It had been so thoroughly vetted by the time it was presented for signature that there were few details that needed to be clarified at that stage. Once all the states signed off on it, the federal government was ready to move the legislation.

There’s a coordinated effort between water providers; state water agencies; and those who approve bills, whether at the local, state, or federal levels.

The distinctive bathtub-ring pattern that is visible when levels in Lake Mead are low.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF CRWUA.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future?

Jim Broderick: My vision is a continued dialogue between the basin states to ensure we meet all needs. I think we would like to see better working arrangements so that every project or program encompasses municipal, industrial, agricultural, power, environmental, and recreational needs from the outset. The other critical piece is infrastructure.

Maintaining infrastructure in an operational state is essential. Lastly, I hope there is more dialogue between stakeholders so that we all understand every facet of the issues. I think that the water industry, in a lot of places, has the opportunity to bring a new perspective that will provide more flexibility and a willingness to listen. It’s critical for each basin state to ensure that everybody has an opportunity to be heard and that our efforts are beneficial for the whole Colorado River basin. M

Water levels on the rise in Lake Powell.

Jim Broderick is president of the Colorado River Water Users Association and the executive director of the Southeastern Colorado Water Conservancy District.

He can be reached at jwb@secwcd.com.

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Louisville MSD’s Waterway Protection Tunnel.

Ahead of the Curve: Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District’s Innovation

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ouisville Metropolitan Sewer District (Louisville MSD) has been providing wastewater services to Jefferson County, Kentucky, since the mid-20th century—and has some infrastructure in place that dates to the mid-1800s. While it has a venerable history, Louisville MSD is on the cutting edge.

In 2019, it won the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences’ Franz Edelman Award for Achievement in Advanced Analytics, Operations Research, and Management Science as well as the Water Environment Foundation’s (WEF) National Municipal Stormwater and Green Infrastructure Award for innovation.

In this interview, Tony Parrott, Louisville MSD’s executive director, and Wesley Sydnor, its director of intergovernmental relations, speak with Municipal Water Leader about the district’s real-time sewer control system, its green infrastructure, and the other ways in which it is keeping ahead of the curve.

Tony Parrott: I’ve been in the water and wastewater business for over 35 years and served in the capacity of executive director for three different utilities. I’ve been at Louisville MSD since 2015; prior to that, I was executive director of Cincinnati Metropolitan District for 10 years.

24 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about Louisville MSD and its history.

Tony Parrott: The district was established under Kentucky state law in 1946 to serve the residents of Jefferson County, Kentucky, and is governed by a board of directors that is appointed by the mayor of Louisville. We built our first and largest wastewater treatment plant in 1958 and have five major wastewater treatment plants today. We provide wastewater collection and treatment services, storm water management services, and flood control and management for a population of about 800,000. We have an annual capital budget of approximately $200 million a year and an operating budget of approximately $119 million a year.

We have about 700 full-time employees.

Municipal Water Leader: What are the MSD’s top issues today?

PHOTOS COURTESY OF LOUISVILLE MSD.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions.

Wesley Sydnor: I’ve been in the water and clean water industry for 20 years and have been in my current role for a little over 2 years. By education I am a civil engineer. My day-to-day work includes working with elected officials, constituents, and customers to resolve problems and to engage on a state and federal level to promote water and our work.

Tony Parrott: The biggest issue is our aging infrastructure.

A lot of our sewer lines are from the original Louisville combined sewer system and date to the mid-1800s. Those systems now need repair. We also need to deal with current regulatory requirements under a federal consent decree to reduce combined sewer overflows (CSOs) and eliminate sanitary sewer overflows throughout our system.

Here in Louisville, water consumption—which is what our wastewater charges are based on—is lower today than it was in 1968 despite the fact that the population of the county has grown by well over 100,000. This means that revenue, which helps fund our capital program, is declining. You may recall that in the 1970s and 1980s, the federal government had an infrastructure grant program for new technologies through which it funded 75 percent of infrastructure replacement. Those programs are pretty much nonexistent today. The real cost of service of replacing these old assets is falling on the backs of local ratepayers, which is becoming a problem. That’s why we’re focusing on using new technology, innovation, and efficiencies to control our cost of service. We’re also looking at how we can regionalize wastewater services by taking advantage of a new state law in Kentucky that allows us to go beyond Jefferson County and acquire assets in neighboring counties. That would allow us to take advantage of economies of scale and set up future growth opportunities for the wastewater utility.

Municipal Water Leader: Louisville MSD recently won the Franz Edelman Award for its real-time sewer control system. Would you tell us about that system and how it works?

Tony Parrott: The real-time control system came out of an alternative analysis that we did as we started to develop our response to the federal consent decree. The system then became central to our response to the consent decree and its requirements for a long-term control plan and the remediation of CSOs. As I mentioned, some of the large assets in our combined sewer system date back 150 years.

These are large conveyance tunnels—some of them 25 feet in diameter. We did an assessment to see how we could use those assets to store some of the storm water during a rain event, thus making a more efficient use of our existing system. This not only reduced our capital investment by about $200 million, but it also allowed us to more effectively design the subsequent CSO projects that we had programmed into our federal consent decree, such as large storage basins. We’re wrapping up our long-term control plan with a 4-mile waterway protection tunnel, which has allowed us to eliminate four basins as a part of our consent decree. The real-time control, the storage basins, and the tunnel are working collectively to help us reduce overflows and clean our waterways.

Municipal Water Leader: Was there any other new infrastructure that you had to construct?

A historic photo of Louisville MSD’s southwestern outfall.

Tony Parrott: We built pump stations and interceptors to pick up CSOs and pipe them to our basins and tunnel for storage until system capacity is available. We also made improvements upstream of our Morris Forman Waste Quality Treatment Center, which is our largest and oldest treatment plant and is where most of the CSOs go. This approach not only allows us to reduce overflows, but when storms subside, it allows us to pump the overflow back into the system so that it can be treated at the Morris Forman plant. With the real-time control and the other work we’ve done with our CSO program so far, we’re seeing a reduction of about 6 billion gallons a year in CSOs. We’ve also seen a significant improvement in the quality of the Ohio River as it relates to fecal coliform bacteria and suspended solids since we started these massive improvements.

Municipal Water Leader: What advice do you have for other agencies that are considering implementing a similar real-time sewer control system?

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Construction of infiltration infrastructure at Churchill Downs.

Tony Parrott: You should do an assessment of your system to see if you have large interceptors or tunnels that you can turn into storage facilities by building a retention structure or a dam.

That is a way to maximize the value of the existing system. An initial assessment will also allow you to plan any subsequent construction more effectively and rightsize the construction of storage projects with either real-time control or green infrastructure. Then you have to marry that with modern supervisory control and data acquisition and sensor technology so that you can remotely observe and control your operating system.

26 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

PHOTOS COURTESY OF LOUISVILLE MSD.

Municipal Water Leader: Louisville The Morris Forman Water Quality Treatment Center.

MSD was also awarded WEF’s of the combined sewer system, we have both incentives and National Municipal Stormwater and requirements. It’s taken a lot of education and cooperation Green Infrastructure Award for innovation in 2019. What with our partners to get to the point where they incorporate earned you that award? all these concerns into the way they develop a site, simply as a matter of course.

Wesley Sydnor: WEF awarded us first place in the One other innovation that WEF recognized is the way innovation category last year. Innovation is emblematic of we use an airplane to collect thermal imagery to detect illicit the DNA of the agency and our efforts to increase our level discharges. We can detect hotspots, and therefore leaks. of service with fewer resources. Our green infrastructure That saves us resources and labor and improves safety. We program is a good example. The initial intent was to rightdon’t have to put people in every stream in the county. size green infrastructure projects under our consent decree.

Last, in trying to do more with less, we’ve been very As the program has grown, it has become a partnership with aggressive in going after partnerships and grants to fund other entities in the community. One of the bigger projects different components of our program. that has attracted a lot of interest over the last year or two was at Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby.

Municipal Water Leader: Are those grants from federal It did a major installation for infiltration under two large agencies like the Bureau of Reclamation, or are they at the parking lots on its site, which is keeping 60 million gallons a state or local level? year from getting into the combined sewer system. Outside

Construction on the Shawnee basin.

European model in which larger regional wastewater and water utilities take advantage of economies of scale in order to control costs for ratepayers.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future?

Tony Parrott: Our vision statement and my vision is that we be an innovative regional utility for safe, clean waterways, and do that by providing quality wastewater, storm water, and flood protection services to protect public health and safety, with an attitude of fiscal stewardship and the construction of strategic partnerships. Innovation is a big part Workers inside the Shawnee basin, part of Louisville MSD’s water storage infrastructure. of our platform, as is regionalization.

More importantly, we want to make Wesley Sydnor: We pursue any that make sense. We try to sure that we are building community confidence and support be strategic in what we go after. When we find a grant we by being good stewards of ratepayer money and improving think makes sense for our agency’s mission and goals, we our community’s environment and waterways. M convene a group to decide whether to go for it.

Municipal Water Leader: What trends do you see in the water and wastewater business?

Tony Parrott: Data and sensor technology was an important component of the success of our real-time control system.

Utilities are going to have to look at ways to be more innovative and adept at using different technology, research, and treatment processes, not only to meet regulations, but also to continue to protect the environment and to do it cost effectively. Water and wastewater will become more focused on innovation. I think there will also be more attention paid to different models of operating water and wastewater utilities, particularly the

Tony Parrott is executive director of Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District. Wesley Sydnor is director of intergovernmental relations at Louisville MSD and previously ran the district’s MS4 program. He can be contacted at wesley.sydnor@louisvillmsd.org.

For more information about Louisville MSD, visit www.louisvillemsd.org.

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Above and Beyond Regulatory Requirements: Rogue Valley Sewer Services

RVSS sewer rehabilitation work.

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ogue Valley Sewer Services (RVSS), based in Central Point, Oregon, is a sewer and storm water service provider for eight Oregon cities. It is remarkable for its affordable fees, its focus on innovation, and its management of programs like public outreach, pollution prevention, water quality, and permitting. Its program management, in particular, gained it a Municipal Stormwater and Green Infrastructure Award from the Water Environment Federation (WEF).

In this interview, RVSS General Manager Carl Tappert speaks with Municipal Water Leader about his agency’s history and services, its recent award, and his vision for the future.

Carl Tappert: I’m a civil engineer by training with a bachelor’s degree from West Virginia University. After I graduated, I spent 3 years in Malawi as a Peace Corps volunteer, came back,

28 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about RVSS and its history.

Carl Tappert: RVSS is a special district and was formed in 1966. There was an election to create it. Our initial charge was to build a sewer interceptor that would connect four different cities’ sewer systems to a regional treatment plant. Those four cities were Medford, which operates the treatment plant; Central Point; Phoenix; and Talent, Oregon. Over the years, the area grew, and the collection system expanded with it. Eventually, the cities decided that they wanted to get out of the sewer business and held annexation votes with the result that their collection systems became part of our district. The exception is Medford, which still has its own collection system and operates the

Municipal Water Leader: Are your sewer and storm water systems separate?

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RVSS.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

moved to Oregon, and spent 5 years working for a private consulting firm.

Later, I started working for the district as a district engineer, and in 2011, the former manager retired and I moved into his position.

treatment plant into which everyone’s waste flows.

As it stands right now, eight different cities are part of our system. Six of them are connected to the regional treatment plant, and we operate all their collection systems. We recently annexed Shady Cove, which has an independent treatment plant that we operate. The last one is Gold Hill, whose system we operate under contract, though it’s not part of our district.

In addition to our sewer services, we became involved with storm water in 1989. There was an unincorporated industrial region in our districts that was having a lot of flooding issues.

Because it wasn’t part of any city, property owners chose to form a utility to manage its flood problems. An election was held, and RVSS became the operator of the storm drainage utility in the area.

In 2004, the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Phase 2 permit requirements came into effect in Oregon. The larger cities adjacent to RVSS’s service area, Medford and Ashland, as well as smaller areas surrounding them, were required to obtain MS4 Phase 2 permits from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The smaller cities did not have the resources or expertise to implement the MS4 permit. These smaller cities were all located within RVSS’s district boundary and requested that RVSS serve as the permit holder. As an existing regional entity, RVSS had the staff and resources needed to implement a regional MS4 program and reached an agreement with the small communities. We have been the permit holder for the cities of Phoenix and Talent and for Jackson County since 2004. Up until this year, RVSS also held the permit for Central Point.

ADVERTISEMENT Carl Tappert: We don’t have any combined sewers. The sanitary sewer and storm water systems are completely separate.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you give us a sense of the total amount of infrastructure you have?

Carl Tappert: On the sanitary sewer side, we’ve got about 440 miles of underground pipe and 26 pump stations, which serve a population of about 95,000. For wastewater treatment, we operate two small activated sludge plants for the cities of Shady Cove and Gold Hill, which together have a capacity of about 500,000 gallons per day. Those two plants serve a population of about 5,000. We also have an old facultative lagoon that we use for treating hauled waste, septic waste, and grease trap waste. That treats about 2 million gallons a year. On the storm water side, we manage the storm water collection infrastructure for one small industrial area with about 230–260 industrial properties. There are about 7 miles of storm water pipe in the ground. As for storm water quality, that’s more a regulatory process than it is infrastructure, but we manage the MS4 permit program for an area of about 30 square miles with around 21,000 accounts. We do maintain 45 storm water quality facilities.

Municipal Water Leader: How much of that infrastructure goes all the way back to 1966?

Carl Tappert: Not much of it. When we were formed, the cities in existence didn’t have much. They had sewers in place, but most of that has since been replaced. None of the storm water infrastructure existed yet. Our collection system has an average age of about 35 years.

Municipal Water Leader: Is RVSS primarily funded by service fees?

Carl Tappert: Yes, almost exclusively.

Municipal Water Leader: How do you work to keep those fees affordable?

Carl Tappert: Our residential sewer rate is $21.50 a month, which is pretty close to the lowest rate you’re going to find in the state of Oregon. We have achieved that without shortchanging ourselves. There are a couple of things that contribute to it. One is that we’re a regional facility—we’re relatively big and benefit from economies of scale. Our treatment costs are pretty low because we have a big regional plant, and our collection costs are pretty good because of our size. Another thing that I think contributes to our affordable fees is our aggressive approach to our capital, improvement, and rehabilitation programs. We dedicate about a quarter of our revenue to rehabilitation work, which we generally design in house. Keeping on top of rehabilitation keeps our operation costs low. Relative to the amount of infrastructure that we

maintain, we operate on a pretty lean staff. We have also been willing to make investments to improve our efficiency. We have focused a lot on energy savings. Recently, we installed solar power at our main office and our largest pump station to improve our resiliency and keep our operating costs down.

Another factor contributing to our success is an incredibly stable board of directors. Over 53 years, our directors have had an average tenure of about 9 years on the board, which is pretty good for elected volunteer positions. We have a lot of institutional knowledge and a lot of support from our board of directors to do what’s right. That enables us to keep our rates low and still maintain the facilities at a high level.

Storm water Manager Jennie Morgan giving a class on green infrastructure.

Municipal Water Leader: Earlier this year, you were awarded WEF's Municipal Stormwater and Green Infrastructure Award. Would you tell us about the award and what WEF was recognizing you for?

Carl Tappert: We were awarded for our program management. I think WEF looked at our services in totality. We were also categorized at the silver level for innovation. When the MS4 Phase 2 regulations came out, our approach was to embrace them. We have focused on achieving improvements in water quality rather than simply meeting the minimum requirements of the permit.

The requirements establish six minimum control measures: public education and outreach, public involvement, illicit discharge detection and elimination, construction site runoff control, postconstruction runoff control, and pollution prevention and good housekeeping for municipal operations.

We’ve really pushed hard on each of those and have taken a leadership role in the community on many of them. A lot of things that will soon be required, such as monitoring outfalls, are things we’ve been doing for years. If you’re going to try to reduce pollution, you have to see where it’s coming from. That’s proven to be an effective approach.

Maintaining relationships and communications between the communities we serve and regional collaborators has been critical to our success. RVSS is a key player in several regional initiatives, including Stream Smart, a collaborative effort to develop and implement a water quality messaging MUNICIPALWATERLEADER.COM

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ADVERTISEMENT and marketing campaign, and the Salmon Watch program, which provides students with a field trip to a local waterway where they have direct contact with wild salmon and learn how water quality affects salmon survival.

but they are not able to retain the skilled operators needed to keep them running. As a regional entity, RVSS is able to attract and retain skilled operators. I see the shortage of operators as a big issue statewide and nationally.

Municipal Water Leader: What are your priorities for 2020?

Plant Operator Kevin James at Shady Cove Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Early on, we stepped up and took over the management of the construction site storm water discharge permit program for activities within our MS4 boundary. As an agent for the state, we can provide monitoring and supervision of these construction sites and at the same time be more responsive to the development community through faster permit application turnaround.

Postconstruction runoff control refers to permanent storm water quality facilities that are built as part of development or redevelopment activities. We developed a storm water design manual that guides the design, installation, and maintenance of storm water facilities, not just for RVSS, but for the other MS4 permit holders in the Rogue Valley as well. We lead a regional working group consisting of a variety of stakeholders that meets to discuss changes needed to the design manual to meet new permit requirements.

In total, our storm water program has aimed at improving water quality beyond what we need to do merely to satisfy our permit requirements. I think that’s what the folks at WEF recognized with the award.

Municipal Water Leader: What personnel issues do you have at RVSS?

30 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future?

Carl Tappert: Our official vision statement is that River Valley Sewer Services strives to be the best run, best managed, and most capable sanitary and storm sewer provider in the state and to use its abilities to improve water quality and quality of life throughout the region. We’re there in a lot of ways, and WEF award for our storm water program recognizes that. Our two biggest efforts right now are to improve our transfer of information and to improve our efficiency. We’re making a big push to integrate our various databases and information into geographic information systems so that our crews in the field have those maps on their tablets and can track and monitor the maintenance that they’re doing on each section of pipe as they do it. The better we track and manage the data, the better the decisions we can make regarding capital investments.

Wastewater treatment and vehicle fuel are our largest uses of energy. We are always looking to improve our efficiency. Over the past few years, we have installed solar power systems; commissioned alternative fuel vehicles, both propane and electric; installed high-efficiency equipment; and attacked pumping costs by targeting rehabilitation projects to reduce infiltration and inflow. What we have seen and hope to continue to see is a steady reduction in the amount of energy needed to operate the system. M Carl Tappert is general manager of Rogue Valley Sewer Services. He can be contacted at info@rvss.us. For more information, visit www.rvss.us.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RVSS.

Carl Tappert: It’s becoming more and more difficult to find trained, certified operators, particularly on the treatment side. Especially in smaller communities, not a lot of people have the required level of certification. That’s one of the reasons we operate the treatment plants of two cities. They had retirements and couldn’t hire certified operators. These smaller communities are often able to get some level of grant and loan funding to build sophisticated treatment plans,

Carl Tappert: Our big issue with infrastructure is improving our efficiency. We’re at a point where we don’t have any significant capacity deficiencies within our collection system.

We’re now focused on trying to make everything operate better. We’re doing some upgrades on our flow monitoring capabilities, with the idea that we’ll be able to use that information to better target our rehabilitation work. It’ll also identify some of the weaknesses in the system. On the treatment side, we’re looking at the beneficial reuse of our biosolids, although we need to address some concerns about contaminants before we jump into that. As for stormwater, we were just issued our new MS4 Phase 2 permit, which includes a lot of new requirements, most of which we’re already addressing. The regulatory climate is always something we have to watch closely to see what’s coming at us.

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Ensuring the Quality and Reliability of Concrete Pressure Pipe

A section of 144-inch concrete pressure pipe floated for installation in Lake Mead’s deepwater intake.

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he American Concrete Pressure Pipe Association (ACPPA) does research, outreach, and advocacy to promote the use of concrete pressure pipe and to promote the availability of state-of-the-art technical knowledge among its member companies, consultants, and utilities. Over the past several decades, its research has answered many pressing questions about different materials’ potential for corrosion and deterioration and how to make them more resilient. Spreading and implementing the results of this research has provided real advances in the longevity and reliability of U.S. infrastructure.

In this interview, Richard Mueller, P.E., president and chief executive officer of the ACPPA, speaks with Municipal Water Leader about the work of the association and his vision for the future.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

32 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the ACPPA and its history.

Richard Mueller: The ACPPA has been around for about 70 years. Four basic kinds of concrete pressure pipes are manufactured today: two types of reinforced concrete pipe, one with a cylinder and one without; prestressed concrete pipe; and bar-wrapped concrete pipe. The latter two, prestressed concrete pipe and bar-wrapped concrete pipe, are the most common types of concrete pressure pipe sold today.

The purpose of the association is to promote the use of concrete pressure pipe and maintain customers’ and clients’ access to technical information.

Municipal Water Leader: Who are the association’s member agencies?

Richard Mueller: We have four members: Decast and Forterra Pipe in Canada and Thompson Pipe GroupPressure and Northwest Pipe in the United States. We also have an associate member, Rangeline, which does field work and is experienced in modifying, tapping, and repairing concrete pressure pipelines.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ACPPA.

Richard Mueller: I started in the concrete pressure pipe business as a product engineer with Gifford Hill American in 1977. I did design work and oversaw quality control. I eventually became vice president of engineering and marketing. While I was in that position, Gifford Hill American, which was half-owned

by Ameron and half-owned by what used to be Gifford Hill and had been bought out by Hansen, was totally consolidated under the Hansen name. With the change of ownership, I left the company. I worked for myself for a while doing structural evaluations and foundation design and then worked as a lobbyist for transportation infrastructure for about a year and a half. Then Ameron was beginning to develop fiberglass pipes for municipal applications and wanted to know if I would be interested in participating in that. I went to work on the fiberglass side of Ameron for about a year and then moved over

to be in charge of the production of concrete and steel pipe and wind towers. I was vice president of manufacturing for a bit and later became the president of Ameron Water Transmission Group. Then Ameron was purchased by National Oilwell Varco.

I survived under that regime for about a year, and then they decided they wanted their own people. I left and wasn’t sure that I was going to work for anybody else, but then the president of the ACPPA left and the association members asked me to come on board. I’ve been here for almost 6 years.

ADVERTISEMENT Municipal Water Leader: How are the members’ views and concerns communicated to the association?

Richard Mueller: We usually have an annual meeting toward the end of the calendar year and a midyear meeting that is associated with the American Water Works Association (AWWA) conference. We also typically have monthly or bimonthly conference calls to make sure we’re all on the same page.

Municipal Water Leader: Is the association exclusively active in the United States, or does it go beyond that?

Richard Mueller: Right now, our members are all in the United States and Canada. We have had interest from producers in the Middle East, China, and India. We have contact with all of them; I like to keep in touch with them because we’ve learned a lot here in the United States about the corrosion process in various kinds of ground. We want that information to be readily available to pipe manufacturers around the world. If they are interested, so are we, and we want to maintain a technical correspondence at the very least.

Concrete pressure pipe with joints harnessed for thrust restraint.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the activities of the association.

Richard Mueller: We do outreach and advocacy, and we have also done and sponsored research. There was a time when not much was known about prestressing wire and the characteristics that make wire more or less resistant to corrosion. Back in the 1980s, we were very involved in research on wire production, the kinds of drawing lubricants that were used, and the kinds of testing that should be done to ensure that wire is corrosion resistant. We’ve also done a lot of research on mortar linings and mortar coating—different additives that improve performance and service life. We have a thrust restraint design program that is unique to the industry. The American Society of Civil Engineers is now coming up with a manual of practice on thrust restraint design, and the thrust restraint design procedure that the ACPPA developed is the basis for its manual of practice. We also did a lot of research around 1990 on the development and design process for prestressed concrete pipe. As an example, depending on where you cast it and what the environmental considerations are, before the pipe goes into the ground, you may have a measurable amount of concrete shrinkage. If so, that should be considered when the amount of prestressing is calculated. Now the effort before us is to maintain a continuity of information, especially as the population ages. We see, not only in our own companies but also in the municipalities, that experienced staff are retiring. We need to make sure that new hires are aware of the capabilities of all the different materials and that they are putting the right types of pipe in the right circumstances.

Municipal Water Leader: How does concrete pressure pipe differ from other options that municipalities might use?

A large-diameter tap installed in concrete pressure pipe.

Pier-supported concrete pressure pipe.

Richard Mueller: The beauty of reinforced concrete is that cement paste has a very high pH, which causes an iron oxide film to develop on steel. We have steel in our pipe wall, and the iron oxide that forms when the steel is encased in the concrete really passivates it from corrosion—that MUNICIPALWATERLEADER.COM

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ADVERTISEMENT is, makes it corrosion resistant. Think of corrosion as the action of a battery. With mortar-coated or concrete-coated steel, you have to get about a volt and a half of current potential before you’re going to get current on and off the pipe. That typically does not happen for buried concrete pipe. In addition to the built-in corrosion resistance, the combination of the compressive strength and relative low cost of concrete and the ductility and tensile strength of steel provides a pipe material that is very cost effective.

Also, with concrete pressure pipe, we get most of the strength of the installed pipe-and-soil structure from the pipe, which is easily inspected in the manufacturing plant, rather than depending too much on the placement and inspection of soil around the pipe. So we don’t have to worry as much about field installation or shoddy contractors as would be the case if we were installing more flexible pipe that depended on side-fill soil support to hold up the external load. Because the pipe is thicker, it is also easier to pick up, put on a truck, and transport to the job site without damage.

All ACPPA members must have their plants audited annually by Lloyd’s Register to make sure that they are manufacturing pipe in accordance with AWWA standards.

Around 1990, we went through the concrete pressure pipe standards and really dissected them to enhance the quality characteristics of the pipe. Once the standards were upgraded, we wanted to make sure that any member of the ACPPA was meeting those standards. Hence, we require an annual audit of each of the plants used to manufacture concrete pressure pipe to make sure that they’re reviewing the customers’ requirements and manufacturing pipe in accordance with those as well as AWWA standards.

We have a technical committee that reviews the applicable AWWA and ASTM standards on a regular basis. Each of those associations reviews its standards on a 4- or 5-year basis. Before the AWWA or ASTM review comes up, the members of our association get together and discuss whether anything needs to be changed or upgraded and then propose those changes. All our companies have an active member on those committees in the AWWA and the ASTM. Municipal Water Leader: What trends do you see in the market for concrete pressure pipe?

34 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

Municipal Water Leader: What is your message to Congress?

Richard Mueller: Congress has a limited but important role to play in water utility finance. One thing it has provided is the state revolving funds. Especially at times when we’re trying to balance the budget, allowing the states to fund infrastructure and increasing the amount of money they have is a big deal.

The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act was instituted a few years ago and was finally funded. People are falling all over themselves to gain access to it. Removing some of the tax penalties on loans for capital investments is also important for the industry. By and large, the people who finance water utilities are ratepayers. Congress needs to help them. Smaller municipalities or agencies are often a long way from water, and infrastructure is expensive.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future?

Richard Mueller: Our members have different approaches to solving a problem. As the industry has consolidated, it has made it a little easier to come to a consensus. Over the last 45– 50 years, we have answered a lot of questions with our research into corrosion and materials. I see us continuing to automate.

We’re going to continue to provide improvements in materials.

I expect our materials to serve in the field for longer and longer.

Even though replacing utilities costs money, overall, we’re going to get more bang for the buck because the utilities that we put in place today are going to last longer and provide better service. For the long term, we’re getting an even better product to the market. As time goes on, we’re going to achieve better coordination between the pipe suppliers and the engineers so that pipe will be more cost effective and longer lived in the soil for which it is designed. M Richard Mueller, P.E. is president of the American Concrete Pressure Pipe Association. He can be contacted at rmueller@acppa.org or (714) 801-0298.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ACPPA.

Richard Mueller: Historically, prestressed pipe was developed in the eastern half of the United States and barwrapped concrete cylinder pipe was developed in the West.

Prestressed pipe was used in larger-diameter pipe in the West—48 inches in diameter or so—and bar-wrapped pipe was used for smaller pipe. However, I now see more barwrapped pipe being manufactured in the eastern half of the United States.

There is a continuing trend toward water use efficiency.

That’s been a two-edged sword for the utilities, because

while they want to better use scarce water resources, they need to be able to fund improvements to their water systems, and when customers use less water, they pay less.

Much of the current infrastructure in the United States is beyond its design life and will have to be replaced. A typical design life for old pipe was somewhere on the order of 50– 75 years, depending on where you put it, but some of those pipelines can last 100–150 years. If you’re in a more benign environment from a corrosion standpoint, you’re not going to lose all that material in a hurry. In moist soil, concrete pipe will last a long time—nearly indefinitely. However, it may have to be replaced by larger pipe if a city is growing.

Replacements on the grounds of both age and growth are going to pose a financial challenge.

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Public-Private Partnership Helps Protect Prized Western River

By Helen Taylor

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36 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

An Aqua TROLL 500 multiparameter sonde.

will process and manage the raw data and share it with the city. In-Situ will provide ongoing technical support to both the city and the university.

“We’re committed to helping agencies and municipalities get access to high-quality data so they can be proactive in understanding and protecting water quality in their communities,” says In-Situ Application Development Manager Eric Robinson.

“This is a model that can be replicated in other areas that are too small to warrant a sustained U.S. Geological Survey monitoring program but that have water resources critical to their environmental and economic health.”

Since joining Warner’s Department of Ecosystem Science and Sustainability last year, Assistant Professor Matt Ross has had a keen interest in developing a research program around the Poudre, which he describes as a classic western river. He knew that long-term sensor deployments could produce highquality data useful for trend analysis,

immediate decision support, and as an educational tool.

“I’m interested in looking at impacts over time—the frequency of low-flow years and anoxic events within those years, how turbidity is changing, and where those changes are happening—but also building a decision-support system that can inform action that day or that week and help the city get out in front of water quality impacts,” says Ross.

The city’s concern over the health of the Poudre River grew after a severe fish kill occurred in September 2018.

Colorado Fish & Wildlife investigated the incident but was unable to identify a cause. With monitoring equipment now installed at points of confluence with local tributaries, it should be easier to identify a pollutant source should another incident occur.

“This is great for us because we can get the information we need and use local resources,” says Fort Collins Storm Water Quality Engineer Basil Hamdan. “In-Situ has the equipment and technical expertise,

PHOTOS COURTESY OF IN-SITU.

he Cache la Poudre River, Colorado’s only nationally designated wild and scenic river, starts high in the Rockies and flows east through the heart of Fort Collins, Colorado. Considered the lifeblood of the community, the river is a regional source of irrigation and drinking water; an essential resource for a booming craft beer industry; and a popular destination for rafters, kayakers, fishermen, and other nature lovers. It’s also subject to devastating floods, wildfires, drought, warming temperatures, and the stresses of a growing population along its banks.

To help protect the Poudre from these threats and preserve it for generations to come, In-Situ, Inc., has partnered with the City of Fort Collins and Colorado State University (CSU) to install nine water monitoring stations along the section of the river that runs through the city.

In-Situ equipment at each site will continuously collect and transmit water quality data, which the city and CSU will use to assess the river’s health and conduct research.

This unique partnership brings together the storm water and water quality divisions within the city’s utilities department, CSU’s Warner College of Natural Resources, and In-Situ, an environmental monitoring equipment manufacturer headquartered in Fort Collins.

At each monitoring station, an In-Situ Aqua TROLL 500 or Aqua TROLL 600 multiparameter sonde will collect data on temperature, turbidity, depth, pH/ORP, dissolved oxygen, and conductivity, and relay the data via telemetry to HydroVu, In-Situ’s data services platform. While both the city and CSU have direct access to this live-steaming data, CSU

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A water quality monitoring station being installed in the Poudre River.

CSU has the research piece, and they also manage the data, which we’re able to use to get a better understanding of what’s happening in the river.”

Hamdan adds that the monitoring data will also provide a baseline, should the Northern Integrated Supply Project be approved. The proposed water storage and distribution project, which includes construction of two reservoirs north of Fort Collins, will divert water from the Poudre River and potentially affect water quality.

The Poudre monitoring project has no end date, and in fact, the partners plan to install as many as 25 monitoring stations along the river and its tributaries and expand public outreach. Students will have access to the data through the university’s Environmental Learning Center, and the public

will have opportunities to view and interact with it at various locations throughout the city.

“My lab is not only focused on research and building processes to give the city clean data but also on making that data more accessible through visualizations and videos,” says Ross. “We want people to be able to see it and understand it.” M Helen Taylor is content manager at In-Situ, Inc. For more about In-Situ, visit in-situ.com.

MUNICIPALWATERLEADER.COM

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Upcoming Events January 7–8 Leadership Forum, National Water Resources Association, Chandler, AZ January 8–10 67th Annual Meeting, Four States Irrigation Council, Fort Collins, CO January 12–15 Winter Conference, Groundwater Management Districts Association, Fort Lauderdale, FL January 16 Idaho Irrigation Equipment Show & Conference, Idaho Irrigation Equipment Association, Burley, ID January 20–25 83rd Annual Convention, Idaho Water Users Association, Riverside Hotel, Boise, ID January 25–30 Las Vegas to Phoenix Education and Trade Tour, Irrigation Leader January 28–29 Legislative Conference, Nebraska Natural Resources Districts, Lincoln, NE January 29–30 Annual Irrigation Leader Operations and Management Training Workshop, Phoenix, AZ January 29–31 Annual Convention, Colorado Water Congress, Westminster, CO February 4 Winter Meeting, Kansas Water Congress, Topeka, KS February 5–7 Annual Conference, Montana Water Resources Association, Anaconda, MT February 10–13 Annual Conference, Nevada Water Resources Association, Las Vegas, NV February 20–22 Annual Meeting and Conference, Family Farm Alliance, Reno, NV February 22–27 New Zealand Education and Trade Tour, Irrigation Leader February 25–27 Annual Washington, DC, Conference, Association of California Water Agencies, Washington, DC February 26–28 Annual Salinity Summit, Multi State Salinity Coalition, Las Vegas, NV

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