Municipal Water Leader July/August 2022

Volume 9 Issue 7

July/August 2022

CEO and President Martin Dana of Hobas Pipe USA: Fiberglass Pipe That Is Engineered to Endure

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CEO and President Martin Dana of Hobas Pipe USA: Fiberglass Pipe that is Engineered to Endure

Municipal Water Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for July/August and November/December by an American company established in 2009.

Jeff Kightlinger Contributing Editor jeff.kightlinger@municipalwaterleader.com

STAFF:

Contents

July/August 2022 Volume 9, Issue 7 5 T he Pipe Issue

By Kris Polly 6 CEO

and President Martin Dana of Hobas Pipe USA: Fiberglass Pipe That Is Engineered to Endure 16 H ow Recent Acquisitions Are Expanding Northwest Pipe’s Precast and Reinforced Concrete Offerings

22 P lacer County Water Agency: Promoting Water Conservation and Stewardship 28 C hris Hubbard on Process Wastewater Technologies’ Volute Dewatering Press 34 T he U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature Program: Nature-Based Solutions to Protect Communities From Climate Disasters 38 JOB LISTINGS

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 | July/August 2022

SUBMISSIONS:

Municipal Water Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions; 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 half-page and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or kris.polly@waterstrategies.com or Tom Wacker at tom.wacker@waterstrategies.com.

CIRCULATION:

Municipal Water Leader is distributed to all drinking water and wastewater entities with annual budgets or sales of $10 million per year or greater as well as to members of Congress and committee staff and advertising sponsors.

For address corrections or additions, or if you would prefer to receive Municipal Water Leader in electronic form, please contact us at admin@waterstrategies.com. municipalwaterleader.com /MuniWaterLeader

@MuniWaterLeader muniwaterleader

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COVER PHOTO:

Martin Dana, CEO and President, Hobas Pipe USA. Photo courtesy of Hobas.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF HOBAS.

Copyright © 2022 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.

Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Jeff Kightlinger, Contributing Editor Elaine Robbins, Copyeditor Tyler Young, Writer Stephanie Biddle, Graphic Designer Eliza Moreno, Web Designer Caroline Polly, Production Assistant and Social Media Coordinator Tom Wacker, Advertising Coordinator Eve Giordano, Media Assistant William Polly, Media Assistant Milo Schmitt, Media Assistant Amanda Schulz, Media Assistant

The Pipe Issue

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By Kris Polly

E

very type of pipe has its sweet spot—the application, use, pressure, or soil type for which it is the perfect match. American manufacturers of fiberglass, steel, concrete, lined concrete, plastic, and many other types of pipe are working every day to make their products better, longer lasting, and more reliable.

In our cover story this month, CEO and President Martin Dana of Hobas Pipe USA tells us about his company’s corrosion-resistant fiberglass pipe products, its recent move into the potable water market, and its commitment to sustainability.

We also speak with Mike Wray, a senior vice president at Northwest Pipe and the general manager of the company’s precast and engineered water technology group, about Northwest Pipe’s recent acquisitions of ParkUSA and Geneva Pipe and Precast and how they have helped expand its business.

Next, we talk with Linda Higgins of Northern California’s Placer County Water Agency about how the organization is communicating with its customers about drought-related water conservation measures, including via creative public service announcements.

“

Process Wastewater Technologies builds robust and effective volute dewatering presses that dewater sludge from wastewater plants, making it easier to handle and dispose of. Business Development Manager and Regional Sales Manager Chris Hubbard tells us more.

Finally, we speak with Todd Bridges, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ national lead for its Engineering With Nature (EWN) program. EWN involves integrating nature into infrastructure solutions, including coastal resilience and floodwater control projects.

The U.S. pipe industry manufactures products of the highest quality, and each variation in material and type has its place. I hope you enjoy learning about the cutting-edge developments in this field this month. M Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader magazine and the 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 can be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

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Kris Polly, Water Strategies

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4 E Street SE • Washington, DC 20003 www.waterstrategies.com • (202) 698-0690 municipalwaterleader.com

July/August 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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CEO and President Martin Dana of Hobas Pipe USA: Fiberglass Pipe That Is Engineered to Endure

A length of Hobas pipe is moved into place in a Washington, DC, diversion sewer project. The jacking frame, at left, helped push the pipe into the new tunnel. Hobas provided 700 feet of 132-inch jacking pipe for the project.

H

obas Pipe USA Inc. is the leading North American producer and supplier of corrosion-resistant fiberglass pipe products for water- and wastewater-related infrastructure. Hobas’s pipe systems have a 150‑year design life, providing a solution for rehabilitating and replacing aging infrastructure. In this interview, Hobas CEO Martin Dana tells Municipal Water Leader about the company’s vision of providing sustainable solutions for future generations.

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

6 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2022

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

Martin Dana: Hobas Pipe USA Inc. is owned by the Wietersdorfer Group, a 128‑year-old, fifth-generation family-owned business headquartered in Klagenfurt, Austria. Our U.S. presence started in 1987 with the opening of our headquarters and production facility in Houston, Texas. The technology we use to manufacture our pipe products was developed in the early 1960s in Europe.

For over 35 years, we have been manufacturing the highest-quality, longest-lasting fiberglass pipe for the gravity sewer market. We recently announced a $60 million, 5‑year municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HOBAS.

Martin Dana: In 2000, Northwest Pipe Company was recruiting for a regional sales manager for the water and wastewater markets for the Pacific Northwest. My wife and I decided to take the opportunity to relocate our family back to our home state. I held several leadership positions at Northwest Pipe in various capacities, including sales, operations, and business development. It was an exceptionally positive experience and I have the utmost respect for Northwest Pipe and my friends there. It was 22 years of learning about the manufacturing and selling of steel products and the pipe industry in general.

When Hobas was looking for a vice president of sales, I took the opportunity to re-examine my career and the products I had been associated with for over two decades and decided it was time to move in another direction.

Making the move to Hobas has allowed me to offer something meaningful to the industry I love: a product with a 150‑year design life without any recurring costs for coatings, linings, and cathodic protection systems. That is a game changer for the water and wastewater markets.

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A high-pressure tee base before installation as part of an infrastructure project of the Middlesex County Utilities Authority in New Jersey.

capital expansion project that will allow us to offer the same benefits our wastewater customers have been enjoying for 35 years to the municipal water market. As part of this expansion, we will be increasing our production capacity by 50 percent and expanding our pressure pipe offerings from 12 inches to 120 inches for pressures up to 450 pounds per square inch. We are truly excited to bring our 150‑yeardesign-life products to the potable water market. Included in this capital expansion project are buildings, real estate, and production technology, and in 2021, we became the first U.S.‑based manufacturer of noncircular fiberglass shapes for sewer and storm water rehabilitation.

In a nutshell, we are North America’s leading producer of corrosion-resistant, fiberglass-reinforced pipe serving the water and wastewater markets. At Hobas, we strive to ensure that today’s infrastructure solutions do not become tomorrow’s problems.

wastewater projects. By doing so, we can prevent the need to rebuild our infrastructure 50, 100, or even 150 years from now. Imagine what other solutions this same money could be used for in the future—addressing major societal issues such as homelessness, poverty, education, and healthcare.

Municipal Water Leader: What is the advantage of a corrosion-resistant product, and will you use the same materials for your new potable water products that you use for your sewer systems?

Martin Dana: We are offering a solution that will last for generations, making sustainability in pipe a reality. Our vision at Hobas is to provide peace of mind for future generations through safe and reliable infrastructure. Our potable water products will be made from the same material as our gravity sewer pipe. When we started, approximately 80 percent of our business involved the trenchless rehabilitation of corroding sewer systems. Today, our pipe is the product of choice for direct bury and rehabilitation of sewer systems due to its anticorrosion properties, light weight, leak-free joint system, and 150‑year design life. We ask other industry leaders to help us fulfill our vision by selecting and specifying fiberglass pipe for your water and municipalwaterleader.com

Municipal Water Leader: What services do you provide to your clients?

Martin Dana: We offer a range of services, from application engineering to installation assistance. Our application engineering service staff guide clients and contractors through the process of making the right pipe choice. If the project requires a specific installation method such as pipe jacking or microtunneling, our team ensures the pipe is designed to handle the installation process. Likewise, for the direct burial of either gravity or pressure projects, we ensure that our pipe is designed to handle the loads, depths, and pressures specified. In addition to our engineering expertise, we have a team of field service personnel dedicated to assisting our clients with the installation of our products. We do laminations and repairs and help the contractor in any way needed to ensure that we collectively deliver the best project possible to our municipal owners.

Municipal Water Leader: What effects is the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law having on your business?

Martin Dana: This law will lead to growing demand for both sewer and water projects, and as previously mentioned, Hobas is in the middle of a capital expansion program to ensure that we are able to further support our nation’s infrastructure programs. We believe that our products offer the best-inclass total cost of ownership when it comes to rebuilding the country’s infrastructure. We are passionate about our products and the long-term benefits they bring to the industry. It is time for our municipal leaders to rethink how they will spend July/August 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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Another view of work on the Washington, DC, diversion sewer project.

the money to rebuild our communities. Let us think beyond the 50‑year horizon and learn from our past mistakes. Isn’t it time for us to leave a legacy for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren that we can be proud of?

Municipal Water Leader: In addition to the durability of your products, does Hobas have any other sustainability initiatives?

Martin Dana: Absolutely. We are building a sustainable business model for the future, and everything we do is for the long term. That means we must be aware of the effects we have on our environment and constantly work toward reducing our impact. As part of our capital program, we will be installing over 7,000 photovoltaic panels capable of generating up to 2,500 kilowatts of direct current. The amount of carbon dioxide emissions offset by this project is equivalent to 2.5 million pounds of coal not burned and 514 cars not driven. This is a project most companies our size would not embark upon, but again, we believe in building a long-term sustainable business model that will last for generations.

In addition to this program, we launched an initiative to remove 100 internal-combustion-engine vehicles from the road by 2030. To accomplish this, we will be switching most of our company vehicles to electric, and we are offering a $5,000 incentive to our employees to switch from traditional internal-combustion-engine vehicles to electric vehicles.

Municipal Water Leader: In addition to your sustainability initiatives, what can you tell our readers about the direction you want to take Hobas in?

8 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2022

Municipal Water Leader: What should every pipeline project planner or engineer know about Hobas?

Martin Dana: We are the leader in fiberglass pipe systems for water- and wastewater-related infrastructure. Our mission is to ensure that today’s solutions do not become tomorrow’s problems. We have a vision at Hobas to provide peace of mind for future generations by providing safe and reliable infrastructure. Every owner and engineer needs to understand that when they speak to Hobas, our interest is not just in selling pipe but in making sure that we provide sustainable solutions for future generations, because the greenest pipe is the one you never have to replace. M

Martin Dana is CEO of Hobas Pipe USA Inc. He can be contacted at mdana@hobaspipe.com.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF HOBAS.

Martin Dana: We are in the process of transforming Hobas from a one-market, one-product factory into a multipleproduct, multiple-market corporation. We are blessed with an exceptionally dedicated workforce. That dedication truly manifested itself in 2020. Our folks were dedicated to ensuring that the operation would not suffer any disruptions from the COVID‑19 pandemic, and we didn’t have any shutdowns, as so many other businesses did. As we modernize our equipment and streamline our processes,

our challenge will be working as a team to achieve our goals. Everyone is going to have ideas for improvements, especially some of our most experienced people. We are going through a period of growth and change. Many of our people will have different responsibilities or even different jobs. Collaboration, communication, and patience are key.

We cannot accomplish our goals by just investing in equipment. We will need to invest in our people to help them grow. In 2020, when I took over as the CEO, one of the challenges we faced was the lack of human infrastructure to support our growth. We were not going to be able to achieve the type of growth we wanted without additional people.

When I shared this with a close friend, he suggested I consider making the strategic position of vice president of legal and human resources one of my first hires. He relayed the story of his own career with Nike, in which he took on this role for one of Nike’s newly acquired companies, which at the time was about the size of Hobas. He explained that in this position, he was able to unburden his CEO of a variety of tasks and to help build up the organization to support the company’s revenue growth objectives. The result was a tremendous success.

To help Hobas better organize and move in the same direction, I have hired Dr. Daniel Schützenauer to be our vice president of legal, compliance, and human resources.

Daniel comes from our parent company in Europe and brings a tremendous amount of talent to our team. He has already done a great job. As mentioned, our parent company has been in business for 128 years. There is much that can be learned from that, most importantly that your people are your most valuable asset. As CEO, my job is to make sure all our employees reach their full potential and fully contribute to our overall success.

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Israel Water Education and 4

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Please save the date for the following scheduled tour, sponsored by Irrigation Leader, Municipal Water Leader, and Hydro Leader magazines and operated by Imagine Tours and Travel, LLC.

Itinerary 1 Arrive at Ben Gurion Airport. Following passport validation, a representative will assist with transport to Leonardo Plaza Netanya for dinner and overnight stay.

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2 Travel to the Caesarea National Park to see the Roman aqueduct and water cistern, proceed to Kibbutz Magal, then visit the Netafim irrigation factory and the Meggido National Park’s ancient water system. Enjoy dinner and overnight stay in Tiberias, on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

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3 Drive north to view the two main sources of the Jordan River, the Dan and Banias Rivers, then on to Mt. Bental to see the Golan Heights, the Syrian border, and Mt. Hermon. Enjoy a winery tour and tasting, then return to Tiberias for dinner and overnight stay.

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4 Begin the day at the National Water Carrier, the system that supplies water to vast regions of the country, then travel to Mt. Arbel for an amazing view of the Sea of Galilee. Drive to Mt. Gilboa and Kibbutz Maale Gilboa, where the Gilboa Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Poser Project is located. Proceed to Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu for an agriculture bio tour. Drive via the Jordan Valley and the Judean Desert to Jerusalem for dinner and overnight stay.

5 Drive to the Mount of Olives for a beautiful view over the Old City of Jerusalem, then visit the City of David, including the Hezekiah Tunnel. Brave the wet side or opt for the dry as you walk to the Pool of Siloam. Drive on to Armon Hanatziv to see ancient tunnels that brings water from Solomon’s Pool to the Temple. Enter the Old City to see the Western Wall, tunnels, Pool of Bethesda, and the Roman Cardo with its old wells. There will be an option to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher followed by dinner and overnight stay in Jerusalem.

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Trade Tour Preview, Nov. 30–Dec. 10, 2022 6 Visit the Israel Museum, which houses the Shrine of the Book, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and a miniature model of Jerusalem from the First Temple period. Drive to Sataf Spring in the Judean Hills to see how the citizens of the city get a few acres to grow their own vegetables and fruits while using an ancient irrigation system that leads water between terraces. Continue on to the Beit Zait Water Reservoir and Dam, followed by dinner and overnight stay in Jerusalem.

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Drive to the Einot Zukim Nature Reserve, which features an oasis of freshwater springs, vegetation, and animal life. Then, in the desert next to the Dead Sea, experience the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, where kibbutz members pump water for their mineral water factory. Continue on to the world heritage site of Masada, where participants can walk the snake trail by foot or ascend via cable car to see King Herod’s fortress, an ancient synagogue, a Byzantine church, and a water cistern. Proceed to Ein Bokek for dinner and overnight stay.

Travel through the Arava Desert Valley to the Yair Research and Development Agriculture Center and Center for Modern Desert Farming. Tour greenhouses and the agricultural inventions section, which focuses on the challenges of desert soil and climate. Continue to the ecological Kibbutz of Lotan to see how sandy soil is transformed to yield lush gardens and to hear about organic and permaculture tips that have helped the Center for Creative Ecology treat waste, raise healthy food, and save energy. Proceed to Eliat for a possible desalination facility tour, followed by dinner and overnight stay in the city.

9 Drive via the Ramon Crater to the Negev Desert Research and Development Center near Ashalim, which specializes in using salty water for agriculture.

Proceed to Kibbutz Hatzerim near Beer Sheva, which is the southern branch of the Netafim Irrigation Factory. Continue to a water desalination facility in Ashkelon or Ashdod on the Mediterranean Sea. Enjoy a farewell dinner in Jaffa and then drive to Ben Gurion Airport for a night flight home.

Services Included • meeting and assistance at Ben Gurion Airport on arrival • transfer to/from Ben Gurion Airport • licensed English-speaking guide for all transfers and sightseeing days • luxury air-conditioned coach • entrance fees for all visits and tours • eight nights of hotel accommodation • breakfasts and dinners at hotels and farewell dinner at local restaurant $4,797.00 per attendee from Washington Dulles International $4,409.00 per attendee without airfare Early bird discount of $50 for reservations made by May 15, 2022, with a $500 deposit.

All posted prices, services, and destinations are subject to the terms and conditions of a participant agreement.

Irrigation Leader, Municipal Water Leader, and Hydro Leader magazines are published by Water Strategies LLC. Participants are strongly recommended to separately secure comprehensive traveler's insurance.

For more information, please visit https://waterstrategies.com/israel-2022

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How Recent Acquisitions Are Expanding Northwest Pipe’s Precast and Reinforced Concrete Offerings

The installation of 96-inch RCP manufactured by Geneva Pipe and Precast.

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orthwest Pipe Company’s acquisition of two companies—ParkUSA and Geneva Pipe and Precast— expands its range of product offerings for municipal systems. In this interview, Mike Wray, a Northwest Pipe senior vice president and the general manager of the company’s precast and engineered water technology group, speaks with Municipal Water Leader about the company’s solutions for water, sewer, and storm drainage.

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

16 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2022

Mike Wray: Geneva Pipe joined the Northwest Pipe family in early 2020 and is now part of our precast and engineered water technology group. We added ParkUSA to that group in October 2021. Geneva Pipe makes infrastructural and traditional precast products, such as reinforced concrete pipe (RCP), box culverts, manholes, and catch basins. In cooperation with European partners, over the past couple of years we have started manufacturing a few new products at Geneva, some of which we have developed ourselves: lined concrete pipes and lined manholes, mainly for sanitary sewer applications.

ParkUSA manufactures water-related products that include potable water service products designed to process and deliver water for storage and distribution, such as water meter assemblies, break tank systems, and backflowprevention systems. We also manufacture treatment products for storm water, pretreatment products for public sewers, and products for industrial applications. ParkUSA has a long history and strong technical competency in the manufacture of traditional precast products and the installation of various water management components inside precast concrete. For municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NORTHWEST PIPE.

Mike Wray: Prior to coming to Northwest Pipe, I was working for Continental Pipe Company, a steel pipe manufacturer owned by a civil contractor. Northwest Pipe purchased the company’s assets in 2007, and I came onboard through that acquisition. Subsequently, I’ve held various positions within the company, including plant and operations management and general manager. I also had some mergers-and-acquisitions responsibilities as the director of business development. My current role is senior vice president and general manager of our precast and engineered water technology group.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us more about those acquisitions.

ADVERTISEMENT example, we will preassemble a complete pump lift station inside our concrete well and then ship the entire unit to our customer, ready for connection. The customer can simply install the lift station in the field, avoiding the complex coordination usually involved with these types of projects.

Preassembling the unit in our controlled shop environment enhances product quality while also increasing installation speed for the contractor and owner.

Municipal Water Leader: How do your precast products compare to your more conventional steel products?

Mike Wray: Concrete pipe is typically rated for lower pressures than steel pipe. On the concrete side, we’re largely conveying storm water drainage and sanitary sewer with products produced at our Geneva facilities in Utah. Geneva Pipe makes RCP in diameters of 12 to 96 inches. At our Tracy, California, plant, which is mainly a steel pipe plant, we can produce concrete pipe up to 144 inches in diameter.

These typically handle pressures in the 10- to 30-poundper-square-inch range, depending on the product and joint connection system we use. On the steel pipe side, we typically start at diameters of 24 inches and produce cylinders with outer diameters up to 156 inches. These pipes can handle pressures of several hundred pounds per square inch.

Prefabricated and fully assembled lift stations manufactured by ParkUSA, ready for delivery to a job site.

Municipal Water Leader: Is corrosion a concern with the precast pipe and RCP? Mike Wray: One of the advantages of using concrete is that it’s not typically corrosive in a normal storm water environment.

Corrosion can be a concern when you get into applications such as sanitary sewer, where hydrogen sulfide gas from the sewer corrodes the concrete. The solution to this naturally occurring corrosion is our lined concrete product, which, being concrete, can take much of the installation load but has a high-density polyethylene liner that will protect the pipe against corrosion and maintain the longevity of the product.

The installation of a precast gravity grease interceptor system manufactured by ParkUSA.

Municipal Water Leader: What’s the general service life cycle of these products?

Mike Wray: Our products are produced with a design life of 50 years or more. History has shown both steel pipe and concrete pipe and precast typically last much longer, with lifespans depending on the application.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you talk about concrete pipe’s ability to support weight?

Mike Wray: One of the advantages of installing a concrete pipe is that it is the strongest pipe available today and can be designed to meet severe loading conditions. Because of the structural nature of concrete pipe, its performance is much less dependent on the installation. For example, native soils can municipalwaterleader.com

HDPE-lined RCP awaiting project delivery.

July/August 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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ADVERTISEMENT usually be used for backfill, and less compaction is required than with other pipe materials. Flexible pipe materials such as plastic, fiberglass, and even steel to a certain degree require better-compacting soils and more attentive installation practices. When you have less-compactable soils, you may even have to import some backfill. Concrete pipe can be advantageous in those situations because the pipe can handle so much more of the load.

Municipal Water Leader: How should a contractor select a pipe material for typical water and wastewater applications?

Mike Wray: The ideal pipe selection depends on the specific application and jobsite conditions. Each product has its strength. Concrete pipe is best in storm drain applications; lined RCP is best for sanitary sewers. Other products can function fairly well in these environments, but don’t offer the same structural qualities as concrete pipe. Concrete pipe is much better in lower-pressure applications, such as drainage, whereas steel pipe can operate at much higher pressures, such as in a penstock.

Municipal Water Leader: Please describe your quality control and testing activities.

Mike Wray: We have a robust quality control program at our Geneva Pipe facilities, where we make the bulk of the RCP that is produced by Northwest Pipe. We are a part of the National Precast Concrete Association quality program and have been certified through that organization for a long time. Our plant in St. George, Utah, completed an unannounced audit recently and achieved a 99 percent quality rating, which is almost unheard of in the industry.

Municipal Water Leader: Have you had to deal with supply chain issues when it comes to the materials you use to create your products?

Municipal Water Leader: How have the acquisitions of Geneva and ParkUSA helped Northwest Pipe expand its market?

Mike Wray: As we researched adjacent industries and considered where we wanted to grow next, the precast

18 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2022

Municipal Water Leader: What are your next areas for research, and what other new products do you aim to bring to the market?

Mike Wray: We’re always looking for new and innovative products to bring to market. We work closely with our customers to understand their needs and how we can best fulfill them. At ParkUSA in particular, we have a robust research, development, and engineering group that looks at opportunities, either based on customer needs or on gaps we see in the marketplace. For instance, one of the products we sell is our aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) containment solution, which is used extensively in fire suppression systems for aviation facilities and fire training facilities. Our AFFF system includes a diverter valve that allows us to direct the foam and any contaminated water to a separate holding tank, where it can be treated and handled separately.

Municipal Water Leader: What should every pipeline project planner or engineer know about Northwest Pipe’s precast and RCP product lines?

Mike Wray: Our customers are extremely important to us.

We work with engineers and owners to ensure we have the right solution for their projects at the right time and at the right value. We have innovative products and processes for challenging applications, and we’re always ready to tackle a difficult problem and come up with a suitable solution.

Northwest Pipe will continue to find opportunities to bring value to our customers. That may be through making our products more readily available and maybe even producing them in local markets. We continue to be innovative and look forward to continued growth and success. M Mike Wray is a senior vice president and the general manager of Northwest Pipe’s precast and engineered water technology group. He can be contacted at mwray@nwpipe.com.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF NORTHWEST PIPE.

Mike Wray: Yes, we’ve experienced our share of supply chain challenges this year, as I think most companies have. Cement has been a big issue, particularly at our Geneva facilities, where one of our major cement producers struggled with equipment earlier this year, and we’ve experienced limited availability of some products at both our Geneva and our ParkUSA plants. Thanks to strong partnerships with our suppliers, we’ve worked through the majority of those limited supply issues. We continue to experience pockets of shortages across the whole company, but again, we’re fortunate to have great supply partners to help us.

industry appealed to us for many reasons. One of the biggest advantages of the precast market is its sheer size.

By our estimation, it is a several-billion-dollar market, whereas the steel market is significantly smaller. Plus, the steady precast market helps offset some of the variability in the steel pipe market while offering a shorter cash cycle than what we experience with our steel pipe group.

Another big advantage for Northwest Pipe is that we’re largely dealing with the same or a similar customer base.

General contractors and subcontractors purchase both steel pipe and precast products, so we can leverage our experience and relationships on the steel pipe side to help us out on the precast side.

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Placer County Water Agency: Promoting Water Conservation and Stewardship

Linda Higgins and the Colfax High School Bucket Band in a still from PCWA’s bucket watering public service announcement video.

P

lacer County Water Agency (PCWA) delivers treated and raw water to 43,000 customers across a 1,500‑squaremile service area stretching from the Sacramento suburbs in the west to Lake Tahoe in the east. With California continuing to suffer from severe drought, PCWA is urging its customers to cut water use by 20 percent, and it is providing rebates and pushing out public service announcements (PSAs) to encourage efficiency. In this interview, Linda Higgins, PCWA’s deputy director of customer services, tells Municipal Water Leader about the creative methods the agency is employing to promote its message of conservation and efficiency.

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

22 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2022

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF PCWA.

Linda Higgins: I am the deputy director of customer services for PCWA. I manage the water efficiency and metering program. I started my career in public service nearly 20 years ago as a water conservation representative for the City of Sacramento. My primary role was to investigate reports of water waste and educate customers on ways to save. At the time I was hired, the conservation program was growing.

My boss empowered her staff to learn, so I was afforded the opportunity to expand my understanding of efficient landscape watering and conserving water outside and in homes and commercial buildings.

Later, I worked as the conservation coordinator at the Sacramento Suburban Water District, where I implemented a conservation program from the ground up. I started the toilet and clothes-washer rebate programs there. At the time, I was the only person working on the program, and I didn’t have the capacity to inspect each toilet, so we took the old toilets from customers to make sure that the new ones were installed.

My colleagues made a sign for one of the parking stalls that said, “Potty parking here.” Everyone got a kick out of my sign.

Now, we just require a photo of the newly installed toilet, so we no longer collect the old ones. At this position, I learned about hiring part-time and full-time staff, managing a budget, collecting data, and preparing reports for the state, and I learned the importance of learning what support looks like for your staff. It’s not always more compensation.

Then, I went to work for the Regional Water Authority (RWA) in Sacramento, a joint powers authority representing two dozen water providers and associate members. My role involved implementing water conservation bestmanagement practices with our member agencies and communicating the importance of water efficiency to the public while also representing the region by serving on several statewide water conservation committees and boards.

In my role at RWA, I learned how to obtain, track, and implement regional grants, regional contracts, and services, which has been helpful in my current position.

ADVERTISEMENT I’ve been at PCWA for 10 years as of July 2022. I have the great fortune of leading the water efficiency and metering division. My awesome team does the meter reading, meter testing, and installations and implements our water efficiency program. An important part of the daily work of the customer services department is to support and respond to customers’ needs pertaining to their bills or water usage.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about PCWA. Linda Higgins: PCWA has a five‑member board and about 230 full-time staff as well as some seasonal and temporary staff. We have about 43,000 customers—roughly 39,000 are what we call treated water customers and about 4,000 are raw water, or irrigation, customers. We also have a power system that operates the Middle Fork American River Project, which is the eighth-largest public power project in California. Our service area covers about 1,500 square miles, ranging from the rim of the Sacramento Valley to the Sierra Nevada and to Lake Tahoe to the east.

Municipal Water Leader: What are the company’s top concerns today?

Linda Higgins: What concerns our agency, or at least my department, is that California’s governor asked all Californians to reduce water use in March. Then, in June, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted an emergency drought regulation.

Municipal Water Leader: What actions are you asking your customers to take in response to that?

Linda Higgins: We’re in what we call stage 2 of our water shortage contingency plan, which means we’re asking our customers to cut back water use by 20 percent during this drought. To help customers meet this goal, we have ramped up our rebate programs. We have a smart controller rebate.

We have a rebate of up to $1,000 for the costs of removing turf and planting drought-tolerant plants and a similar rebate of up to $8,000 for commercial customers. We also have an irrigation efficiency rebate for both residential and commercial customers that helps cover the costs of installing high-efficiency drip irrigation or other irrigation products.

We’re asking customers to stress their lawns but save the trees. During the last drought in California, we saw many trees die because people were doing their part to cut back on landscape watering. Now, we’re urging folks to make sure to continue watering trees while cutting back on watering their lawns. By reducing their sprinkler cycles by 2 minutes, they can immediately reduce water use by 20 percent. We’re also urging customers to check the soil before turning on their sprinklers, and to encourage that, we’re giving away free moisture meters. Sometimes, the top of the grass or soil may seem dry when it’s still moist underneath. We are also asking municipalwaterleader.com

customers to replace old sprinklers with more-efficient nozzles, which we have a rebate for, and to upgrade to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) WaterSenselabeled weather-based sprinkler timer. Those timers shut off the water if it’s raining and decrease or increase watering based on the weather. We are also asking customers to water during certain times of day. Watering early in the morning can reduce evaporation. When someone waters at 1:00 p.m., when it’s super-hot outside, they have to water more. Finally, we are asking people to add a layer of mulch 2–3 inches thick to keep the soil moist and reduce evaporation.

Municipal Water Leader: What about untreated water conservation?

Linda Higgins: We have a program for a handful of our customers called our growers irrigation management program. We have a contractor who goes out with a neutron soil probe to measure the soil moisture at several locations on some of our smaller orchards, farms, and vineyards and then sends an electronic reading of the soil moisture to the farmer or grower via e-mail so that they can adjust their watering accordingly. We’ve been offering that program for about 13 years, and the growers who are involved really love it. This year, we’re also offering a storage tank rebate of up to $500 to encourage customers to store more water. Generally, customers use a pump to take their raw water deliveries from a canal and then store it for times of need.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you tell us about your mulch program?

Linda Higgins: Another great program is what we call Mulch Mayhem—a day when we give free mulch to our customers.

We started that about 6 years ago, and by now, six or seven other agencies offer it, too. One of my favorite sayings is that mulch is like icing on a cake. Putting mulch on the soil keeps it moist and prevents water from evaporating. We purchase organic shredded cedar mulch and give it away for free.

Customers can come in with a truck, and we’ll use a bucket loader to give them a cubic yard. There’s always a huge line of customers waiting before we open, and the line is generally steady throughout the day. It’s one of our favorite events.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you tell us about the bucket watering method for young trees?

Linda Higgins: During our last drought, the governor asked California to cut back, and we did, but we noticed that our community lost a lot of trees. If your lawn dies, it doesn’t take too much to bring it back, reseed, or install sod, but once you lose a tree, you have lost it permanently. There are, of course, a lot of benefits to having trees: They provide environmental and aesthetic benefits, as well as shade and oxygen, so our agencies wanted to make sure that during the next drought or dry spell, we promoted July/August 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 23

ADVERTISEMENT the watering of trees. We are asking our customers to reduce their lawn watering to 3 days a week, but our emphasis is on watering trees. We’ve been working with the Sacramento Tree Foundation and other organizations that have more expertise on tree care, and they have provided us information on how to water young and mature trees. We have an infographic on our website about it.

The bucket watering method is a simple way to ensure the proper watering of young trees. You take a 5‑gallon bucket, drill a small hole at the bottom, put tape over the hole, fill the bucket up with water, then take the tape off and use the bucket to water one side of the dripline of a young tree, then repeat on the other. You do that 2–3 times per week. This method applies an appropriate amount of water slowly and without overwatering. Plus, it adds a little fun to watering.

Linda Higgins: Every year, we think of new ways to work with schools and students. It’s fun, and we hope the students spread our messages or at least learn more about water.

Students are so creative that they usually help us come up with ideas for ways to get the message out. A couple of years ago, we worked with a fifth-grade science teacher who wanted to incorporate a hands-on component in the school garden with his science curriculum. The teachers involved worked hard on their own time to get the garden in good shape but were watering by hand, so we helped to provide a drip irrigation system. Our staff went out and explained how to water the garden using the new irrigation system and the importance of conserving water.

We also partnered with a local high school’s multimedia broadcasting class to create a video in which the high school’s mascot, an eagle, beats a big water drop mascot in a race—a fun PSA to promote the EPA’s Fix a Leak Week.

We called the video Beat the Leak.

PCWA also holds a career day for high school students.

We tell them about different jobs and careers at the agency.

Someone on my staff was a student who participated in one of those career days.

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

PCWA provided a drip irrigation system for a local fifth-grade class’s school garden and sent staff to help explain the importance of conserving water.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you tell us about the PSA you put together about this method?

Linda Higgins is the deputy director of customer services at Placer County Water Agency. She can be contacted at lhiggins@pcwa.net.

Municipal Water Leader: What other programs are you doing with schools?

24 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2022

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF PCWA.

Linda Higgins: We try to come up with innovative ways to work with students, and we were trying to think of ways to spread word about the bucket watering method. We saw some YouTube videos where people used buckets as drums, and the daughter of one of the agency’s directors happened to be in a drumline at a local high school. She reached out to her instructor, and he recruited past and current students for us. We recorded a PSA in which the students drum on buckets while someone demonstrates how to use a bucket to water young trees. It came together well. We did a local PSA first and then rerecorded it as a regional PSA. It’s going to be shown on the big screen at the stadium of our AAA baseball team, the Sacramento River Cats, this summer. It was a great opportunity for us to partner with our local high school, showcase the students’ talents, and share a message about water efficiency in a fun, not-so-governmental way.

Linda Higgins: The vision I share with many other water efficiency experts is that we need to make water conservation and water efficiency sustainable. When we talk about conserving water, everyone thinks we’re saying that you need to cut back now and focus on scarcity, and then when the crisis is over, you can go back to your old habits. But imagine if we could make water efficiency part of a lifestyle in our homes and in future developments. We have efficient products that can be permanently installed in your home.

Also, instead of turning off the water, killing your grass, and trying to save your trees, it would be great to simply have a beautiful, water efficient landscape, perhaps with a dry creek bed through which water could stay on your property, preventing soil erosion and runoff and offering a habitat for beneficial insects. That might be too water conservation geeky for some, but I would argue that it’s because there are still too many people who don’t know where their water comes from and don’t understand the connection between their actions, their water supplies, the things they enjoy, and the people they love. My vision is that water efficiency becomes part of a general attitude of stewardship. M

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Chris Hubbard on Process Wastewater Technologies’ Volute Dewatering Press

A PWTech dewatering press at the Bentonville Wastewater Treatment Utility.

P

rocess Wastewater Technologies (PWTech) is a small but rapidly growing company working on combined sewer overflow and sludge dewatering technologies. One of its leading products is a volute dewatering press that can be used by wastewater plants to dewater sludge, vastly simplifying the task of disposing of it. In this interview, we speak to Business Development Manager and Regional Sales Manager Chris Hubbard about PWTech’s solutions for the wastewater industry.

Chris Hubbard: I was born and raised in New Jersey. I went to Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, and studied mechanical engineering. Shortly afterward, I ended up working for a company that made centrifuges for the municipal wastewater industry. I started with it as a field engineer, then became a project engineer, then a process engineer, and then moved into a sales role. For 25 years, I have been either a regional sales manager or a representative in the municipal wastewater industry. Starting about 10 years ago, I competed

28 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2022

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the history of PWTech.

Chris Hubbard: PWTech was formed in 2006, when our parent company, CDS Technologies, was sold to CONTECH Construction Products. CONTECH took all the product lines that made sense for it and spun off the dewatering technologies and the combined sewer overflow (CSO) technologies. That’s how PWTech was started.

PWTech originally focused primarily on CSO, as the dewatering technology really hadn’t come into its own in the United States yet. One group focused on CSO, while Alex and the small team focused on sludge dewatering. Then, the prominence of the two segments flipped. Because the municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BENTONVILLE WASTEWATER TREATMENT UTILITY.

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

directly against PWTech and got to be competitively friendly with my counterpart at that company, Alex Davey. Last fall, I got a call from Alex. He had been promoted to president of PWTech and asked if I’d be interested in joining his team as business development manager/regional sales manager and helping him build and grow the company, and here I am.

ADVERTISEMENT CSO market was fragmented, it was hard to gain traction in it with any regularity, whereas in the sludge dewatering market, a couple of good installations led to a few more good installations and a good reputation. That line of business has really taken off for the company.

Municipal Water Leader: How large is PWTech?

Chris Hubbard: We have around 33–34 people right now. We have carried out over 200 installations in the United States so far and are growing rapidly.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you explain the basic issue of sludge disposal faced by wastewater plants?

Chris Hubbard: Wastewater plants produce sludge and need to get rid of it. Some goes to landfills, some is incinerated, and some is applied to land for fertilization and soil quality improvement. On the industrial side, there are all sorts of disposal and reuse options, depending on what’s in the sludge.

A lot of sludge is disposed of or handled in liquid form, which requires paying to truck an awful lot of water. By using a dewatering technology such as ours, you can remove the vast majority of that water and make the handling of your biosolids and residuals much easier and much less expensive. It is becoming a bigger and bigger challenge to manage the biosolids and residuals coming out of wastewater plants. Therein lies the reason for our rapid growth and growing success.

Chris Hubbard: The AMCON technology is patented. It involves a volute dewatering press, which is a type of screw press. We think of it as screw press 2.0. Screw press technology is tried and true, but we improve it in a number of ways. While similar technologies exist, ours is the original and the highestquality version available in the industry. The change from centrifuges, belt filter presses, and other dewatering technologies to screw press technology has gone well in North America.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you explain the basic idea of a screw press?

Chris Hubbard: The screw press is a simple technology at its core. It is a perforated or screen cylinder with an auger running up through the middle. There are different ways to do it, but essentially, the pitch or the spacing of the auger changes as it gets closer to the discharge, so it literally squeezes the water out of the solids as it progresses up the dewatering drum. Every single screw press does exactly that.

The difference is in the style of the drum itself.

Municipal Water Leader: How does your device differ from conventional screw presses?

Chris Hubbard: A small plant might produce the equivalent of a very small dumpster load once a week. Large plants can fill multiple big roll-off containers per day.

Chris Hubbard: The screw press technology brought some great advantages to the dewatering market: The machines are slow moving, easy to maintain, compact, and energy efficient. Our volute dewatering drum has more dewatering surface area available than any of the other screw press technologies. Our footprint is quite a bit smaller for the same throughput. It requires less material, such as stainless steel, to construct. No brushes or wipers are required to keep the dewatering surface clean—it’s self-cleaning. The entire surface of the dewatering drum becomes an open area for pressing the water out of the sludge.

Municipal Water Leader: Do the companies have to test that end product to know how they can ultimately dispose of it, or is it fairly consistent?

Municipal Water Leader: Are the units typically always the same size, or do you build larger units for higher-volume water plants?

Chris Hubbard: It varies between municipalities and industrial plants. Municipal plants have to test for a number of pathogens and contaminants on a monthly or an annual basis, depending on the municipality. If the waste doesn’t meet the standards of the landfill or the reuse application, it’s entirely possible that the plant may need to incinerate it. I’m not sure if you’ve seen what’s going on in Maine right now. It has put a moratorium in place on the land application of the biosolids coming out of local municipal wastewater plants because of contamination by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. All those plants are suddenly scrambling to figure out what to do with their biosolids.

Chris Hubbard: We have four different drum diameters, one of which is in the research and development stage. The other three are typical drum sizes for the industry; those are the three that we produce commercially. We use multiple drums to meet capacity requirements.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you give readers an idea of the average sludge output of a wastewater plant?

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the technology your company uses. municipalwaterleader.com

Municipal Water Leader: How many units do most clients use?

Chris Hubbard: It varies. Because it’s a robust, slowmoving, reliable technology, many customers use just one machine, sometimes even with just a single drum in it. A machine with multiple drums in it provides some backup redundancy, and a lot of customers prefer that. Then, quite a number of customers have multiple machines for complete redundancy.

July/August 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 29

ADVERTISEMENT Municipal Water Leader: Where are your products manufactured?

Chris Hubbard: All our products are manufactured in the United States with the exception of some of our rotating assemblies, but even these could be produced here if needed.

I’m sure the new Build America, Buy America Act will help us.

For most of the machines, we will meet the requirement using rotating assemblies imported from our licensee, but for the machines for which we don’t, we are shifting gears right now and manufacturing that technology here in the United States.

Municipal Water Leader: What are some of the company’s top issues today?

A PWTech dewatering press at Montague Water.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you tell us about your project along the Connecticut River with Montague Water?

Chris Hubbard: Montague was having issues with sludge and biosolids management. Over the years, the paper mills in town had gone out of business, so the sludge coming into the plant changed and became thinner over time, and the dewatering technology Montague Water had in place was not able to handle it. The utility had been forced to dispose of and truck liquid sludge for years at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars per year. Seeking to change this, it piloted a couple of different technologies.

Based on the pilot testing, it selected the PWTech press as the technology that would satisfactorily dewater its incoming sludge. The whole project was great, but one really interesting aspect was that Montague actually purchased the dewatering machine directly, and plant employees installed it themselves. They did not use an outside contractor or an outside engineering firm. They poured the pad and did all the plumbing and electrical work. Within less than a year, Montague had processed all its backlog sludge, which was stored in tanks, and it was back within permit limitations.

Municipal Water Leader: Does PWTech just manufacture the units, or do you do installation as well?

30 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2022

Municipal Water Leader: What areas of expertise are you looking for in prospective employees?

Chris Hubbard: Project managers and field technicians—for example, people to run our pilot units and people to do startup and machine optimization—have been the hardest groups to find. We like to hire people who have just graduated or are just a couple of years out of school. These are travelintensive positions, and we work at wastewater treatment plants, so you can’t be afraid to get your hands a little dirty.

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

Chris Hubbard: Our vision is steady, manageable growth. We don’t want to be a huge wastewater conglomerate trying to do all things for all customers. We want to continue to deliver solid, profitable, responsible, and fair solutions to our customers.

That model is serving us really well right now in the areas of sludge handling and biosolids dewatering. Those are our main areas of focus right now. We’ll bring other technologies and other solutions to challenges in those areas. After that, we will deliver high-value solutions to our customers for other challenges that they have at their plants. M Chris Hubbard is a business development manager and regional sales manager at Process Wastewater Technologies. He can be contacted at chubbard@pwtech.us.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF MONTAGUE WATER AND PWTECH.

Chris Hubbard: Our forte is the manufacturing end of things. Because the volute press is a simple, lightweight piece of equipment that is easy to install, we often just have somebody on site to supervise installation. We have on occasion acted as the general contractor and done the physical installation, but typically, we’re not the ones turning wrenches or hammering concrete. We leave that to the people who are really good at it.

Chris Hubbard: Our biggest concern right now is managing our growth. We want to be able to continue to deliver solid solutions to all our customers on time and on budget. That’s easy to do when you only have one or two projects in house, but with our growth rate, our biggest challenge is finding qualified employees, or even people who aren’t yet qualified but are willing to work hard and learn with us. That has been far and away the hardest challenge for us.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature Program: Nature-Based Solutions to Protect Communities From Climate Disasters

Mordecai Island, seen here in 2019, serves as a wave-break, protecting the adjacent developed shoreline of Beach Haven, New Jersey, from the erosive action of waves while also providing habitat. Shoreline erosion is a major source of the sediments that end up clogging navigation channels and a cause of habitat loss for marsh islands like Mordecai. Beneficial use of sediments to restore these habitats can be a part of the solution.

34 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2022

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

Todd Bridges: I was born and raised in California’s San Joaquin Valley. I went to college there, got my bachelor’s and master’s degrees at California State University, Fresno, and then did my PhD in oceanography at North Carolina State University. I got hired by the Army Corps’ Engineer Research and Development Center, headquartered in Vicksburg, Mississippi. I’ve been here for 30 years and have supported a range of research and technology development municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS.

S

ince 1980, weather and climate disasters in the United States have cost more than $2.195 trillion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That price tag is only expected to rise. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature (EWN) initiative seeks out and scales up nature-based solutions to these growing threats. In this interview, Municipal Water Leader speaks with Todd Bridges, the Army Corps’ national lead for the EWN program, about how everything from constructed wetlands and dunes to natural seawalls can protect communities from flood, drought, and other effects of climate change.

ADVERTISEMENT and innovation. For the last 16 years, I have served as the Army’s senior research scientist for environmental science. I also serve as the national lead for the EWN program.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us more about the work you’ve done at the Engineer Research and Development Center.

Todd Bridges: I started by doing research related directly to the navigation program and the sediment management and dredging program. The navigation program is one of the largest civil works programs in the Army Corps’ budget. We dredge around 200 million cubic yards of sediment a year to maintain the nation’s network of navigation channels. That’s a lot of sediment to manage, and there are requirements driven by environmental laws and other laws about how to manage that material. Now, as part of the EWN initiative, I look at how we can use that sediment beneficially to create nature-based solutions and systems that can support our communities, rivers, and infrastructure.

Municipal Water Leader: When was the EWN initiative started?

Todd Bridges: We formally started the EWN initiative in 2010. For more than a decade, our team has worked with other programs across the Army Corps, other federal and state agencies, universities, and the private sector on the research and application of these ideas. In 2020, Congress recognized the need to create a separate program in the budget to accelerate this work. Congress provided $12.5 million for fiscal year 2021 and $16.25 million for 2022.

While we formalized the initiative in 2010, the history of integrating nature into infrastructure solutions goes back decades, even centuries. In fact, I could point to Army Corps projects that go back 100 years that would illustrate this kind of approach. These ideas took a more modern shape in the 1960s with the work of the Scottish landscape architect Ian McHarg and of H.T. Odum in the field of ecological engineering.

We want to promote natural solutions and give the Army Corps and other organizations the capability to deliver more projects that have these qualities. We’ve been increasingly successful in expanding our capabilities, for example by improving the numerical models we use to support engineering design and to evaluate natural systems’ effectiveness in managing flood risk or enhancing aquifer recharge.

Municipal Water Leader: Please give us an example of a nature-based solution.

Todd Bridges: Last year, we published International Guidelines on Natural and Nature‑Based Features for Flood Risk Management. We led the effort through the EWN program, but it was an international effort that included participation by 75 organizations and more than municipalwaterleader.com

125 contributors and authors from a dozen countries.

Participants worked for 5 years to assemble knowledge and case studies and publish this 1,000‑page guideline on how to use nature-based features, such as islands, reefs, forests, beaches, and dunes, alone or in combination with conventional infrastructure, to provide risk management for flooding. That document has been downloaded nearly 6,000 times since we published it.

We work across the Army Corps, including at our EWN proving grounds in the Buffalo, Galveston, Mobile, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and St. Louis Districts and the South Pacific Division, to look for opportunities to implement nature-based approaches for infrastructure in an intentional way across their portfolios. Within the last year and a half, we have established four Army Corps district team members as national EWN practice leads: two for river systems and two for coastal systems. They are drawing from their extensive experience and leading practice to support their colleagues across the enterprise in implementing these approaches. They’ve established a cadre of practitioners from our field offices around the country who are sharing their experiences and supporting each other to implement these ideas.

Examples of a nature-based solution include the series of projects built by the Philadelphia District and its partners in the bays and estuaries of New Jersey, which was affected by significant flooding during Hurricane Sandy. The district is partnering with the State of New Jersey, nongovernmental organizations, universities, and the private sector to carry it out. Using sediment dredged from the extensive navigation channel network in the area, it is building wetlands, islands, and other features to create system-scale resilience to storms and flooding. These features will provide both storm protection and fish and wildlife habitat.

One of the oldest nature-based research projects carried out by the Army Corps was the Yolo Bypass in California, which involved the construction of a series of weirs. The first weir on the Sacramento River was constructed in 1916 to direct flood flows off the river onto the land. This was done because it was recognized that a levees-only approach was not going to be sufficient. The Yolo Bypass includes 59,000 acres of land that can be inundated, relieving pressure in the system.

Although 75 percent of the land is privately held, 16,000 of those 59,000 acres are included in the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, which is managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. It is a beautiful area of wetlands that can store floodwater while providing wildlife habitat.

Municipal Water Leader: How far does the $16.25 million appropriated by Congress to EWN go toward building out these solutions nationwide?

Todd Bridges: There are ways of building infrastructure using these principles that will reduce our long-term operational costs. There are opportunities to save time, money, and energy by partnering with nature. How can July/August 2022 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

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A view opposite the Dos Rios Ranch looking at the mouth of the West Stanislaus Irrigation District intake canal at the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. It is the site of the Three Amigos nonstructural alternative flood protection project, a collaboration among the Central Valley Flood Protection Board, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and River Partners.

Municipal Water Leader: Does the Army Corps’ EWN program overlap at all with the defense side of the army’s duties?

Todd Bridges: In my position, I support both the civil works and military sides of the house related to improving the resilience of infrastructure, which includes military installations. The U.S. Department of Defense operates facilities, installations, and sites around the world that cover

36 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2022

25 million acres of land and water. The EWN program is working with the army, the navy, the marine corps, and the air force to implement these principles and practices on their installations to improve mission resilience with reference to flooding, drought, wildfire, and other challenges.

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

Todd Bridges: We need large-scale, nature-based solutions, projects, and interventions to make a meaningful difference in addressing the climate change–related challenges our society faces. Whether we’re talking about flooding— intensified storms and rainfall events—or prolonged drought in the western half of the country, we need to scale up these measures. We need to make the exceptional nature-based projects of the past the common approach for delivering projects in the future. To do that, we need to continue to develop our technical capabilities and our business processes and to support policies that enable the federal government and its partners to deliver these kinds of projects. M Todd Bridges is the national lead for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Engineering With Nature program.

He can be contacted at erdcpao@usace.army.mil.

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PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS.

we use the functions, structures, and services that nature provides, harmonizing with them rather than trying to dominate and control them? As climate change continues, those of us who work in the water field can see the problems and strains in our infrastructure systems that are being created by trying to control nature.

We think that EWN can expand the value of infrastructure investment. A great example of that is the Dos Rios Ranch project in central California, which restored 2,500 acres of floodplain on the San Joaquin and Tuolumne Rivers. This largely agricultural land was prone to flooding. Over the last several years, River Partners, supported by the Army Corps and the California Department of Water Resources, has planted 600,000 native trees and has restored a system of wetlands that can support aquifer recharge. The State of California just announced that this land is going to become California’s newest state park. That’s an example of expanding value. The project combines flood risk management, aquifer recharge, habitat for species, and multipurpose infrastructure.

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