Also in this week's sewer and water news, the Great Lakes Water Infrastructure Conference is scheduled for April 2020

The program encourages competition between water operators to reduce emissions from energy generation

In this week’s news briefs, the EPA is receiving feedback about a new rule that would affect how utilities provide public notification about CSO discharges into the Great Lakes, and a Louisiana city is preparing to make a final push to fix infrastructure still affected by Hurricane Katrina.

The American Water Works Association and Great Lakes Protection Fund are partnering to award cash prizes to Great Lakes Basin utilities that can reduce energy-related pollution in their distribution systems.

In this week’s news briefs, Flint, Michigan, and other communities dealing with lead issues will benefit from a federal bill, and a Maryland utility’s water rate structure is called out for being discriminatory.

In this week’s news briefs, only 16 percent of California’s water agencies are committing to continued water conservation now that state-mandated restrictions have been lifted, and a Wisconsin city’s plan to tap into Lake Michigan is met with some pushback.

Great Lakes communities will use the funds to build green infrastructure that will keep millions of gallons of runoff out of the lakes.

In this week’s news briefs, Waukesha wins a hard-fought battle for Lake Michigan water, and Flint police investigate a suspicious break-in at City Hall.

In this week’s news briefs, the EPA seeks direction from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regarding a toxic blob in Lake Erie, and El Paso Water Utilities deploys “mosquito fish” in the fight against the Zika virus.

Funds are required to prevent CSOs and protect drinking water in Great Lakes states.