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With per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in wastewater, concern and regulations put pressure on utilities, disrupt biosolids disposal, and have led to escalating costs and few options. What should we do to address this, and how? PFAS have been used in industrial processes for years, and they persist in the environment. Many are still confused about PFAS and how they ended up in wastewater. The presentation will begin with an overview that provides that perspective. Once in our biosolids, what’s next, and what are our options? How do we mitigate the cost increase of PFAS-containing biosolids? We will discuss the impacts we’re experiencing and how the biosolids market is responding. The presenters will share the process to identify and implement improvements at our treatment facility. Everyone’s wastewater and biosolids differ, and thus it’s critical to pilot-test to select equipment to complement your treatment process. The presenters will close with a discussion of their approach to ensure the attainment of solids goals through equipment selection and pre-procurement.
Over the past three years, the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, with support from consultant Brown and Caldwell, prepared for an audit of the City’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase I municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permit by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ). In 2020, the City completed a year-long self-audit and rewrote its stormwater management plan (SWMP). In 2021, the City and consultant staff focused on resolving potential program gaps before the actual audit that occurred in early 2022. In this presentation, the speakers will share how they structured the self-audit, prepared for the NCDEQ audit, and realized successes and lessons learned over this three-year process. This discussion will interest Phase I and Phase II MS4 municipal staff, stormwater regulators, and consultants to municipalities subject to NPDES MS4 compliance and audits.
The application of equity in infrastructure development and asset management is becoming more relevant in today’s municipal public works world. Cities should consider treating sidewalks as transportation assets, as they help reduce the total cost of ownership by funding routine, preventative, and corrective maintenance through a facility’s lifecycle. The City of Durham recognizes the benefits of equitable transportation asset management practices. Therefore, the Department of Public Works issued a request for quotation (RFQ) to develop the sidewalk asset management (SAM) plan. To ensure equity across the city, Public Works extensively coordinated with Neighborhood Improvement Services to develop a community engagement plan. Geographic information system (GIS) capabilities were used to capture, analyze, and display data. This session will help agencies recognize the economic value of SAM and equitably achieve economic efficiency over the assets’ lifecycle.
Traditional sewer inspection can be time-consuming and overlook defects. Coding accuracy is critical when assessing a sewer line’s future degradation or determining which asset to prioritize for rehabilitation. Artificial intelligence (AI) in sewer inspection supplements workers in the field rather than replacing them. AI takes on the more common defects allowing field workers to focus on work at hand and rarer, more difficult codes. AI captures and recreates the workflow in coding and performing sewer inspection quality assurance/control. This technology substantially reduces the time required to review sewer inspection data, increases the number and accuracy of defects coded, and supplements the human element prone to bias. This presentation will demonstrate the benefits of using AI as a low-cost way to evaluate systems and better maintain assets to prioritize rehabilitation and coordinate with other work such as roadway improvements.
Public works departments can become siloed within a vertical organizational structure and culture. At the same time, their central responsibilities have great overlap in the goal to serve their constituents’ and community’s infrastructure needs. But how can we functionally create this space when the vertical hierarchies and individual department mentality are ingrained in our organizations? Instead of only a vertical leadership channel, increasing the horizontal flow of information may create greater opportunities for innovation and efficiency. Pima County implemented a horizontal collaboration space across many public works departments, starting with our chief operating officers—those deputy directors who work with everyday operations managing staff and still need to bridge gaps between department mission and vision. This session will help participants look within their organizations for opportunities to create partnerships to increase collaboration and innovation, drawing on real-life examples.
Public works professionals from around the country continue to solve the age-old problem of replacing and rehabbing poor structures while also preserving good ones. Developing that annual work plan where resources are limited has proven to be a much more streamlined task using state-of-the-art decision-making and project selection tools, as demonstrated by Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina, and Berrien County, Michigan. As instructors of the Federal Highway Administration’s (FHWA) Bridge Management Systems workshop, The Kercher Group has categorized these delivery methods into three categories: Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced. A walk-through of Raleigh, Durham, and Berrien County case studies will help public works professionals develop an implementable strategy that aligns with agency goals and APWA’s Asset Management Roadmap.
Communities are facing unprecedented impacts from climate change, which effects how municipalities deliver services and increases risk to municipal assets. Integrating climate change considerations into asset management (for natural and engineered assets)…
Using a drone is the fastest available way to examine a project area or construction site and provides real-time data gathering and image generation. Using drones through each stage of…
Seth Mattison is an internationally recognized thought leader, author, advisor, and top-rated keynote speaker on change and innovation, sales and influence, leadership, and the future of work. His research, case…
Adverse weather events can significantly affect vehicle and driver behavior. With the advent of automated vehicles (AVs), the Federal Highway Administration Road Weather Management Program has begun research and testing to identify how vehicles and drivers will detect and react to adverse weather and road weather conditions. AVs have sensors and perception systems to detect objects and events in their vicinity. Using this information, they control the steering or speed, or both, to move the vehicle along its selected path. Their ability to properly perceive the situation and execute a maneuver can be affected by atmospheric conditions and road weather. Several tests were developed and conducted with the intent to challenge perception systems across a variety of simulated adverse winter weather conditions in a controlled outdoor laboratory setting in traffic settings. The presentation will describe the tests and results that were obtained during the testing in Winter 2021 along with some videos.