[…] prepared the EIR guiding the design and construction of new advanced water purification, pumping, and conveyance facilities, as well as upgrading existing facilities. Practice Director Shawn Shamlou, AICP, who managed the project, said, “The City’s Pure Water Program was a trailblazing project for water recycling in the United States and beyond. Dudek’s CEQA, NEPA, […]
Perhaps inspiring Murphy’s later pronouncement, mathematician Augustus De Morgan said, “Whatever can happen, will happen if we make trials enough.” At some point, your flood infrastructure will be tested by a storm event equal to or larger than the event it was designed to withstand. The chance in any given year that a storm occurs
The average wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in the U.S. is 40 to 50 years old and many of these aging facilities need upgrades. Federal funding programs are an option to complete a planned wastewater treatment plant upgrade. However, access to those funds comes with a caveat. To ensure climate resiliency and protect against flooding, the
Permitting pipeline projects in extremely congested or environmentally sensitive areas can be burdensome from a schedule and financial standpoint. Horizontal directional drilling (HDD) construction methods can minimize surface disruption and often avoid impacts altogether. In this way, HDD offers great potential to reduce a project’s schedule and budget. Process and Benefits The HDD process includes
Owners of California dams classified as “extremely high hazard” need to submit updated Emergency Action Plans (EAP) to the state by January 1, 2018 under new dam safety regulations the state legislature passed earlier this year in response to the Oroville Dam spillway crisis. The looming EAP deadline is complicated by the new law’s requirement
Cities in the Coachella Valley have a history of dealing with damaging summer flash floods. Intense thunderstorms can dump several inches of rain in a short time while runoff rushes from the nearby San Jacinto Mountains into the lowland flats where the cities are built. The City of La Quinta suffered back-to-back damaging summer storms
Many cities whose sewer systems were constructed in the first half of the 20th century are plagued by sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) due to long-neglected root intrusion and pipe defects. To combat this, sewers can be rehabilitated using trenchless cured-in-place pipe (CIPP) lining. This method can fully rehabilitate aging pipes at least three times faster and
Many California counties use the 100-year storm as the design storm for regional flood control facilities and stormwater-related capital improvements. However new data show that the 100-year storm will be more intense than previously thought. Prior to 2013, storm intensities and volumes corresponding to certain size storm events (2-year, 5-year, 10-year, 25-year, 50-year, 100-year) were
California’s 4-year drought may have further exacerbated rain- and drainage-related issues such as shrinking wood structures creating leak points; vegetation, debris, or sediment build-up that impedes drainage; and unnoticeable changes in upstream drainage patterns that may have downstream impacts. To protect property and structures from costly erosion and water damage anticipated due to El Niño’s
Combining the drought and evidence of a “Godzilla” El Niño event likely this winter, stormwater is increasingly valued as an asset worth integrating into California’s overall water management strategy. Re-thinking how to leverage stormwater resources opens up opportunities for repurposing infrastructure designed and built to dispose of flood waters. More than one in five Californians—7
