Water Conservation Technologies

In the News

There are often news items about water resources. Current articles or information encountered in the major news outlets will be posted here to connect what you are learn to current discussions. If you come across pieces that you think would be of interest to your classmates, please forward them to your professor for posting here. If fact, you might make is a goal to offer at least one article to the list this semester.

Moscow Idaho Owner Fined $100,000

The owner of a mobile home park east of Moscow was fined by a federal judge for violating the Clean Water Act by discharging untreated sewage into the South Fork of the Palouse River. Potential fines can equal over $30,000 per day.

WSU Use of 45,000,000 Gallons of Potable Water for Golf Course Irrigation Permitted

A court decision in the favor of WSU was rendered in a law suit filed by a local resident. The court found that WSU was using its water efficiently and the irrigation of the golf course was a permitted municipal use despite the negative impact this has on the level of the Grand Ronde Aquifer.

Jack Smith Creek Ready in Time for Tropical Storm

Sun Journal (New Bern, North Carolina) Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News. June 6, 2013 Thursday Eddie Fitzgerald, Sun Journal, New Bern, N.C.

June 06--As Tropical Storm Andrea bears down on New Bern Friday, the now-completed Jack Smith Creek Storm Water Project will get a chance to be tested.

Jordan Hughes, city engineer, said workers finished the 42-acre wetlands project off Simmons Street last week. The wetlands have the ability to treat urban storm water runoff from more than 1,000 acres of residential and commercial property.

This week, crews checked the automation of the pumps that will move all that water across the wetlands to filter it and allow it to seep into the ground or back through Jack Smith Creek, which runs under Oaks Road and into the Neuse River.

"With the forecast Friday, we will get out and fine-tune the controls," Hughes said.

Jack Smith Creek Storm Water Project is among the largest storm water retrofits built in the state. It was designed to clean the pollutants from storm water runoff to keep them from getting into the Neuse River. It can potentially move water quicker from the flood-prone areas around the hospital, J.T. Barber Elementary School and Duffyfield.

Joanne Cheatham, owner of Carolina Environmental Contracting Inc., which was the general contractor out of Mount Airy, said the final part of the project was completed after the planting of 140,000 wetland plants that will help slow high waters and filter it. Cheatham also was quick to point out the project was not designed to handle flooding by huge rainfalls and hurricanes, but to treat urban storm water runoff.

"It is for those times when you have 1 or 2 inches of rain that you get all the time there and are fast and furious," Cheatham said. "That water (from runoff) has a lot of pollutants." If Tropical Storm Andrea dumps more than the 1-3 inches of rain forecasted Thursday, there would still be minor flooding in the area, Cheatham said.

"You would definitely see ponding," she said. "But some of the water might be traveling quicker through (the wetlands). This is not a catchall for all the water. It is a model project for urban storm water treatment."

Cheatham said the Jack Smith Creek Storm Water Project will become an educational opportunity for everybody in the state."We are really proud of it," she said. "I talk about it all the time. It was such a team effort."

The city plans to turn the wetlands into an eco-park with walking trails so the public can enjoy the different wetland plants, waterfowl and animals that will be attracted to the area.

N.C. State University designed the Jack Smith Creek Storm Water Project, utilizing the best ideas from other biological, agricultural engineering projects the university has been involved with across the state.

jack smith creek plan

Avery Smith, lead equipment operator for the New Bern Storm Water Division, said he expected the two hydraulic pumps and one electric pump at the wetlands would handle the tropical storm as long as the river doesn't rise too high and the rain isn't too significant.

"We'll see what it does when the storm comes through," Smith said.

While testing the pumps Thursday, about 100,000 gallons of water was moved in 10 minutes, he said.

The electrical pump can handle 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of water a minute, and the hydraulic pumps can move 21,000 gallons of water a minute when running at peak capacity, Smith said.

The city also had storm water crews all over the city Thursday cleaning debris from drains and ditches and trouble spots to get ready for the storm, Smith said.

Eddie Fitzgerald can be reached at 252-635-5675 or at eddie.fitzgerald@newbernsj.com Follow him on Twitter @staffwriter3.