Wastewater utilities, municipalities and states will need to comply with stringent new requirements for nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment under a strict new “pollution diet” announced by the Environmental Protection Agency on Dec. 29. The “diet,” known as the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) establishes a legally enforceable plan to ensure that six states and the District of Columbia meet the new requirements established to restore the Chesapeake Bay to health by 2025. The jurisdictions affected are Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Critics have charged that the cleanup of the Bay

The California Coastal Conservancy reached agreement in December to bypass an obsolete dam on California�s Carmel River rather than dredging and buttressing the 90-year-old structure. The $84-million reroute and dam removal project will divert the river around the 106-ft high concrete arch San Clemente Dam built in 1921. The basin has since been swamped with 2.5 million cu yds of sediment, thereby reducing storage capacity from 1,425 acre-ft to 125 acre-ft. In 1992, the California Dept. of Water Resources Division of the Safety of Dams issued a safety order because of possible failure from a maximum flood event or an

American Electric Power is considering whether to proceed with a commercial-scale carbon-capture project at its 1,300-MW Mountaineer plant in New Haven, W.Va., because of unclear federal guidance, a company spokeswoman said on Dec. 27. She said Charles Patton, president and CEO of AEP utility Appalachian Power, told West Virginia regulators earlier this month that it is re-evaluating the estimated $660-million project in light of no federal legislation regulating carbon-dioxide emissions. AEP, which has been operating a pilot 30-MW carbon-capture project at the Mountaineer plant since 2009, had planned to build a 235-MW facility that would begin operations in 2015. The

In the middle of a cornfield in only one afternoon, Clay Warren’s company can install streetlights that are independent of any electrical grid, leaving behind nothing but tire tracks bathed in the glow of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps. Photo Courtesy Of Interactive Energies Lighting fixtures can be installed quickly with a minimal footprint. Photo Courtesy Of Interactive Energies Without sun or wind power, each unit’s battery can hold a five-day charge. Interactive Energies is doing just that at the southwest entrance of the Castleton Square mall in Indianapolis, according to IE co-founder Warren. The Simon Property Group hired the firm,

Some see a frozen tear clinging to the “cheek” of the new Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg, Fla. Others see a melting crystal. Depending on the viewer’s vantage point, still others say they are reminded of a misshapen potato, a nose, an amoeba and a dolphin in a nosedive. The builders of the glazed atrium structure that drapes over the side of the boxy building simply call it the “enigma.” After all, the builders had to solve a mystery of how to shape, engineer and hang a transparent and organic structure—75.5 ft at its tallest, 105 ft at its

Canada's National Energy Board granted approval in December to the proposed Mackenzie Gas Project, which would string a natural gas pipeline from the upper-reaches of the Northwest Territories, Canada, 745 miles south into Northern Alberta. Before the $16.2-billion project can proceed, backers must put in place a funding framework. Image: Walter Konefal for ENR "Mackenzie needs to compete on a supply-cost basis with other sources of supply," says Pius Rolheiser, Calgary-based Mackenzie project spokesperson." It remains the critical challenge today to be cost- competitive with shale gas, liquefied natural gas and potential Alaska projects." While Mackenzie runs primarily south, staying

In an effort to get a jump on pending environmental rules, Colorado regulators in late December approved plans to retire six coal-fired units at two utilities, switch two units from coal to natural gas and build two natural gas-fired powerplants. Photo: Xcel Energy Three units at Xcel Energy's coal-fired Cherokee power plant in Denver Driven by a state law, Minneapolis, Minn.-based Xcel Energy plans to spend about $1 billion by 2017 retiring 591 megawatts, switching 700 MW from coal to natural gas and building a 570-MW gas-fired plant. The utility will also add pollution control equipment at two powerplants. Xcel

A major new infrastructure program to reduce or treat raw sewage flowing into Cleveland-area waterways and Lake Erie will move forward, as a result of a Clean Water Act settlement between the U.S. government and the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) announced Dec. 22. The program includes the construction of seven new tunnels and at least $42 million in green infrastructure projects. Photo: Courtesy of Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District is nearing completion on the Mill Creek Tunnel, which can store 75 millions gallons of combined sewage for treatment at one of its

What easily could have been a run-of-the-mill sewer pipeline replacement project in Oregon went from underground to underwater—creating what participants say will be the world’s first buoyant gravity line. Photo: Brown And Caldwell Pipeline under construction in Lake Oswego, Ore., will be the world’s first buoyant-gravity line when completed next April. Now under construction, the Lake Oswego interceptor sewer boasts 17,000 ft of wastewater-carrying pipe and another 12,000 ft of attached air-filled buoyant pipe. Replacing an existing submerged concrete pile-supported pipeline built in 1963, the new system will hook to the city’s current system on both sides of the lake.

On Dec. 15, the California Natural Resources Agency, U.S. Dept. of the Interior and four other agencies released the Bay Delta Conservation Plan, calling for construction of a $13-billion tunnel to bring water from northern California to the Central Valley. Large Image The multi-agency study looked at alternatives to the 100-year-old delta levee system that would preserve water shipments to the southern part of the state without damaging the delta ecosystem and killing fish. Studies point to the intake pumps in the San Francisco Bay Area as a primary source of large-scale fish mortality in the region. “The current infrastructure