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Emergencies are equal opportunity challenges in communities as they impact citizens with and without disabilities. It is vitally important that communities prepare well before emergencies occur with practical and well-thought-out solutions that keep everyone, including those with disabilities, safe while maintaining their dignity at all times. Information will be provided regarding how to plan for individuals with specific needs, including mobility, visual, hearing, and cognitive impairments, and for people whose survival requires medical equipment. Accessible evacuation plans and shelters will also be addressed, along with laws regarding service animals. Attendees will learn about questions that can and cannot be asked of people with disabilities and about politically correct disability-related terminology.
Read MoreAs per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) discoveries increase across the country, water utilities, industry organizations, state regulators, and the EPA are struggling to publicly communicate new findings in drinking water, wastewater discharges, and biosolids. And these discoveries are going to exponentially increase in the coming years. The EPA’s Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5) will require most water utilities across the country to test for 29 different PFAS compounds starting in 2023. Make no mistake, obtaining this data is absolutely necessary to our industry as we play catch up with the decades-long damage to our source waters. However, as we look for more PFAS, there is still so much we don’t know about the health and environmental impacts of the vast majority of these chemicals.
Read MoreThis session will give an overview of National Weather Service (NWS) operations and how NWS warnings are communicated to emergency management personnel and the public. The session will then look at how NWS operations functioned during the passage of the remnants of Tropical Storm (TS) Fred in August 2021. The passage of TS Fred simultaneously produced numerous tornadoes in North and South Carolina and extreme flooding in parts of North Carolina. Though damage from tornadoes was light, flash flooding resulted in the loss of 56 homes and five deaths. The NWS outlook products discussed the possible hazards several days in advance. During the event, over 30 tornado warnings were issued, along with many flood-related products, including a “Flash Flood Emergency” product, which is the rarely used and most extreme warning product for flooding. For the Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina NWS office, this was one of the busiest days in its history due to the large number of high-impact products issued.
Read MoreThe world of engineering is facing challenges no one has ever tackled before. Some of these issues include climate change, efficient transportation solutions, maintaining adequate water supplies for a growing population, and putting light rail trains on a floating bridge. With these obstacles in front of us, we need the best and brightest on our teams. However, the profession is dismissing half of the population before they are ever given a chance. If we do not work together to encourage women to enter the field of engineering and stay in the field, we will all miss out on the innovations and contributions that come from their unique perspectives.
Read MoreBoth polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) can be found in lakes, rivers, streams, and municipal water supply and are harmful to humans and our environment. One may be lesser known in some regions, but widely recognized (and banned) on the west coast, mid-west, and locally in Greenville, South Carolina, and Asheville, Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, Town of Matthews, and Boone, North Carolina. PAHs are a group of chemicals created by heating or burning material that contains carbon. PAHs are present in coal tar sealers, asphalt sealers, and liquid propane (LP) derived sealers. Although coal tar sealers have a higher PAH level than other sealers, PAHs are present in high levels in asphalt and LP-based sealers. The speaker will provide insight from his position as the Southeast U.S. Director of the Asphalt Sealcoat Manufacturer’s Association (ASMA). The purpose of ASMA is to provide a common specification for asphalt-based sealers for use by governmental and private bodies to ensure both quality and environmental safety.
Read MoreLos Angeles County’s newly-implemented Safe, Clean Water Program (SCWP) generates $300M per year to specifically address resiliency and stormwater issues by improving water quality, increasing drought preparedness, prioritizing Nature-Based Solutions (NBS), providing disadvantaged community benefits, and promoting green jobs, among other benefits. As the local communities work together to transform the landscape into a more resilient version of itself, one challenge looms large: how do we choose the best suite of projects to balance multiple benefits, maximize return on investments, and allow us to clearly and transparently measure our success? This session describes a groundbreaking collaboration between permitted municipal agencies and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that delivers consensus-based policy recommendations rooted in modeling and scientific rigor.
Read MoreWhile the potential for utility delays is a well-known risk for all municipal capital projects, how you tackle these risks can have monumental impacts on the operational efficiencies of utility owners as well as the municipality. At the City of Charlotte, North Carolina, their roadway infrastructure Capital Investment Plan is funded every two years with approximately $100MM, accounting for 150-200 active capital roadway projects. The projects’ scopes vary, but the one constant is that the private utility providers—electric, gas, and telecommunications—will have unavoidable project impacts in most of the projects. In this session, staff from the City of Charlotte, Duke Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, and AT&T will share their approach, intentions, best practices, lessons learned, and areas of concern in their quest to achieve success for their organizations and partnership.
Read MoreOne of the core jobs of the fleet manager is to make sure fleet assets are provided in a cost-effective, efficient manner. Having a solid, reliable basis for determining those…
Read MoreThis CLL will look at emerging technology for signal control systems that can identify bike and pedestrians’ movements and log this data both locally and in the cloud. The session…
Read MoreWhen snowflakes fly residents get worried. “Can I make it home?” “Where are the plows?” “When are they going to plow my street?” Clear and effective communication keeps residents informed and eases the anxiety that winter storms bring. In this session the speaker will demonstrate the importance of effective policy and procedure, and how that helps manage information. Using his own experience, the speaker will make the session practical by focusing on road condition information during a winter storm. He will lead a discussion regarding effective channels for distributing information to the public; show how his county uses SharePoint to maintain updated road condition information, and describe how using low-cost software can empower staff and others to collect road information.
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