Most observers believe a water crisis threat to be one of scarcity, but there is another crisis at hand for Earth's many inhabitants living without regular access to drinking water and sanitation. However, global water mismanagement unfolds continually which does not bode well for the future – regardless of where you live. As we strive to…
Category: Drinking Water
Augview – a Window to Your Underground Assets
Augview, founded by Michael Bundock in 2012 in New Zealand, is the first commercial, mobile application I have seen offered to the public works industry allowing utilities to geospatially capture, store, and display underground utilities in 3D through the use of a tablet or other mobile device. The software, through the use of GIS, will…
WATERCON2014
This year I am fortunate to again have the opportunity to attend WATERCON in Springfield, Ill.It's amazing how every year the conference offers so many great sessions, and the exhibitors always have such interesting displays and information. In addition to attending sessions and talking with vendors, I'll be posting as much as I can on several…
Hacking into SCADA
Fortunately, for many years, the water and wastewater industry did not experience too many breaches on the digital front. But a few years back, the Stuxnet virus showed up and our digital innocence was shattered. When this happened, I was somewhat surprised because of the lack of previous attacks, but I never really heard how it…
City of Cleveland Division of Water Requesting Help
Below is an urgent request for assistance from the City of Cleveland Division of Water. If you can help, contact information is provided in their message: The City of Cleveland Division of Water is in urgent need of two 24” Victaulics couplings. We have contacted Victaulic but have been informed it will take about…
WATERCON 2013 – Day 3
And here we are already at the third full day of the conference. Today I started out in the exhibit hall talking to folks as they walked by the booth where we had a display of the #watercon Tweets. But I didn't have much time to chat before having to run off to the Mission Impossible…
Watercon 2013 – Day 2
On the second day of Watercon, I alternated between attending sessions and visiting with exhibitors. Because of access to an outlet, I was only able to live blog a few of the sessions. The links to those are below: Ice Pigging: Cleaning Mains with Ice – I first heard of this technique from a co-worker and…
WATERCON 2013 – Day 1
Yesterday was the opening day of WATERCON 2013 in Springfield, Ill. – a four-day event focusing on all things water in Illinois. We were told yesterday at the business meeting that 1,400 people had registered for the conference; this number was 10% over last year's registration. It's not surprising the number is growing – the…
Follow us to WATERCON 2013
The Illinois Section American Water Works Association and the Illinois Water Environment Association are hosting this year's WATERCON in Springfield, Ill., from March 18-21. And if you're involved with water or wastewater at all, you'll want to be there! Every year, the conference offers many interesting and informative educational sessions. And every year I have…
Plan Holder/Bidder List – To Share or Not to Share
We currently have a project out to bid for the installation of about a quarter mile of 10-inch water main. As usual, after we release the notification to bidders, we begin receiving requests from companies asking for a list of bidders or plan holders. Our city's policy is to not release this list until after…