Before the end of the year, the first in-stream hydrokinetic turbine to produce commercial power will be installed in the upper Mississippi River — just days after receiving the a first of its kind approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the device. Hydro Green Energy LLC of Houston will place its 12-feet in diameter turbine about 50 feet downriver from the Army Corp of Engineers Mississippi Lock and Dam No. 2 in Hastings, Minn. A second turbine will be installed in the spring. At an expected river flow of 2 meters per second, the turbines are expected to
After two days of public hearings and debate, the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board still hesitated to approve an agreement to purchase 180,000 acres of land in the Everglades Agricultural Area from the United States Sugar Corp. for $1.34 billion. As it stood, the board feared, the agreement could expose the district to penalties for conditions over which it had no control. Finally, the board approved a modified agreement with a 4-3 vote, knowing that the Clewiston, Fla., agribusiness might refuse to accept the amendment. But late on Dec. 16, after the water district’s vote, U.S. Sugar issued
A federal appeals court’s decision has taken a step toward lifting a state ban on out-of-state water sales, opening a way for a proposed $3-billion project to pipe water from Oklahoma to Texas. The appeals court accepted a north Texas water district’s argument that Oklahoma’s ban could constitute illegal restraint of interstate commerce. Photo: Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau Fast-growing Dallas-Fort Worth area wants water from Oklahoma watersheds. (Click to Enlarge Image) Growing Dallas-Fort Worth area wants to bolster supply with Oklahoma water. The Tarrant Regional Water District, a Fort Worth-based utility serving 1.6 million people in 11 counties, is
After nearly five months of negotiations, the board of the South Florida Water Management District on Dec. 16 voted to approve the purchase of 181,000 acres of land in the Everglades Agricultural Area for $1.34 billion. The board of United States Sugar Corp., the landowner, approved the sale agreement on Dec. 8. The water district ammended the offer, limiting its lability, before voting. But U.S. Sugar may insist that the district approve the deal without change and refuse to accept the counteroffer. Gov. Charlie Crist’s (R) June 24 announcement that Clewiston, Fla.-based U.S. Sugar had agreed to sell the state
A 1975 earthquake near Oroville, Calif., halted construction of nearby Auburn Dam on the American River’s North Fork, and the project lingered in a vegetative state for 33 years. On Dec. 2, the dam died when the State Water Resources Control Board revoked the project’s water rights. The dam project was authorized in 1965 for the Central Valley Project with an estimated cost of $282 million, but it would cost $6 billion to $10 billion to complete now, says a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation official. BuRec held rights for 2.5 million acre-ft of water in connection with Auburn Dam. Following
The global market for environmental services, already strong thanks to continued infrastructure investments by both developed and developing nations, now has the added driver of addressing increasing threats of water scarcity brought on by climate change and pressure on groundwater supplies. “Urbanization and economic development have always challenged us in finding sufficient supplies of potable water,” says Paul Brown, executive vice president, global market development for Camp Dresser & McKee Inc. (CDM), Lexington, Mass. “Superimposing climate change exacerbates issues that were already quite formidable.” Photo: Black & Veatch Hong Kong is the midst of a wide-ranging upgrade of its sewer
A near failure of Arthur V. Watkins Dam, a leaking U-shaped earth-fill levee structure located 10 miles northwest of Ogden, Utah, is prompting a compressed-schedule repair, squeezing two years of work into one. The dam was within a few days of failure, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials say, threatening lives and major flood damage to surrounding property. General contractor Geo-Solutions Inc., New Kensington, Pa., is consequently running double shifts and using specially modified equipment to speed up repair work. It designed a 150-cu-yd-per-hour slurry plant fed by twin 60-ton silos for three times the output of a typical facility. Geo-Solutions
Louisiana has secured a $1.5 billion, 30-year loan from the federal government that will allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to bring the $14.3-billion Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System (HSDRRS) to 100-year levels by 2011. "While most Corps Civil Works projects are cost-shared, because of the special circumstances facing Louisiana after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, we were able to take advantage of a rarely-used law that allows the United States to pay the full cost up front, giving the state 30 years to repay their share," says John Paul Woodley, assistant secretary of the Army for
As a sweeper playing defense on North Carolina State University’s soccer team, Lewis E. “Ed” Link Jr. had a knack for pattern recognition and teamwork. “I could anticipate. I could see the pattern, the big picture, and go to where the ball was going to be,” he says. The National Soccer Coaches Association of America thought he had a special talent, too: It named him an All-American in 1967, his senior year. His success on the field, Link says, came from playing with the strengths he had, rather than from trying to shape his style after an inappropriate model—like some
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