News Briefs: Texas City Seeking Major I&I Source

Also in this week's sewer and water news, the Austin (Texas) City Council asks its city manager to pay back Austin Water customers for February's boil-water incident

The City of Round Rock, Texas, is looking for the culprit in a significant increase in its influent wastewater at the Brushy Creek Regional Wastewater System Treatment Plant. The additional wastewater is putting the plant above its permitted discharge levels for volume.

The city also has placed signage along Brushy Creek between the wastewater treatment plant and County Road 123 advising visitors to not enter that section of the water upon confirming that levels for total suspended solids and E. coli are not in compliance with standards set by Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. An update to the city council along with a public comment period was slated for March 10.

Austin Council Asks City Manager to Pay Back Customers for Boil-Water Incident

Following the February boil water notice in Austin, Texas, that made national headlines, the Austin City Council is asking its city manager to pay back Austin Water customers through rebates or infrastructure improvements.

The council passed a resolution asking for recommendations to mitigate the impacts customers experienced during the boil water incident. It proposes either sending a one-time rebate to all of the utility’s customers or investing more funding into infrastructure.

Police Use GPS to Track City-Owned Truck Stolen From WWTP

Police were easily able to track a city-owned pickup truck that had been stolen from a wastewater treatment facility in Jackson, Michigan, thanks to GPS.

While the staff was working, a suspect had entered the secured area of the plant to steal the truck, which was soon reported to the Blackman-Leoni Department of Public Safety.

US Water Alliance Announces Next Initiative

Mami Hara, CEO of US Water Alliance, recently released a statement announcing the next initiative of the organization.

With the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law last year, Hara says the US Water Alliance sees a unique and necessary confluence of the topics of infrastructure and equity, which is why it's announcing that its next initiative will be Equitable Infrastructure. 

“The funding for water in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law won’t be enough to fund all the capital needs in communities across the country, but it can help us find better ways to solve those problems than we have used in the past — ways that can help sustain all of us through an increasingly precarious future,” says Hara.

“The water funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law gives us the opportunity to model investment in infrastructure that equitably and sustainably supports community health and wealth. Through our new Equitable Infrastructure initiative, we will be sharing principles and guidebooks for equitable infrastructure investment, convening webinars about how to access and best administer State Revolving Funds, expanding our Water Equity Network so many communities can work together and exchange knowledge with peers in other communities, hosting related dialogues at our One Water Summit this September in Milwaukee, and so much more. To kick off this initiative, part one of our four-part Principles for Equitable Infrastructure Implementation series is available online here.”



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