Water Supply News

Kimberly Lutz and America’s Watershed Initiative (AWI) are making every effort to sustain the Mississippi River for generations to come.The Mississippi River is one of the world’s largest river systems and is arguably America’s most critical waterway. Flowing over 2,350 miles, spanning, at points, up to eleven miles, and discharging approximately 593,003 cubic feet of water per second into the Gulf of Mexico, the Mighty Mississippi is awe inspiring in terms of its natural characteristics as well as its commercial impact on both the American and global economies.

North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District (NCFR) in Naples, Fla. has taken delivery of a newly built fireboat for fast fire and emergency response, including search and rescue.The 36-foot fireboat is an Ambar 1100 (AM 1100) multi-mission workboat from Silver Ships, based in Theodore, Ala. The vessel is custom-designed and -built for NCFR's daily operations along inland, intercoastal and gulf waters, said David Hunt, a the boatbuilder's business development team. “Finding effective…

bound4blue reports it has been selected to install a 22-meter-high eSAIL on board the newbuild multipurpose cargo vessel Na Pae E Hiro, helping shipowner SNA TUHA’A PAE (SNA) reduce energy consumption by 10%. Launching in 2026, the trailblazing ship will mix green technology with an ambition to accelerate development of the remote Austral Islands, carrying both vital supplies and up to 200 tourists on its voyages from Tahiti to the South Pacific archipelago.The eSAIL, designed for both retrofits and newbuilds, is a ‘suction sail’.

The water level at a major river port in Brazil's Amazon rainforest hit its lowest point in at least 121 years on Monday, as a historic drought upends the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and damages the jungle ecosystem.Rapidly drying tributaries to the mighty Amazon river have left boats stranded, cutting off food and water supplies to remote jungle villages, while high water temperatures are suspected of killing more than 100 endangered river dolphins.The port in Manaus…

Britain has removed migrants from a residential barge less than a week after they moved in after Legionella bacteria was found in the water supply, the government said on Friday.Britain had begun moving some migrants on to the large Bibby Stockholm barge on its southern coast at the beginning of the week as part of its high-profile strategy to deter asylum seekers from arriving in the country. The policy had divided opinion, with ministers saying they wanted to offer basic and not luxurious accommodation to help save costs, while human rights campaigners said the offer was inhumane. "Environmental samples from the water system on the Bibby Stockholm (barge) have shown levels of legionella bacteria which require further investigation…

Jen Armstrong joins Waterways Council, Inc. as Director, Government Relations.She joins Dustin Davidson in this role for WCI.Armstrong was most recently Director of Navigation Policy and Legislation for the American Association of Port of Authorities (AAPA).Prior to that, she was Republican Staff Director/Clerk for the Senate Energy and Water (E&W) Appropriations Committee, representing Senate Republican interests in the development of the annual $52 billion Energy and Water Development (E&WD) Appropriations bill which funds the Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works mission…

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is kicking off a five-year, $25 million "mega-study" with the goal to help guide effective and practical management of the Lower Mississippi River.The Corps said the the study will help it to identify recommendations for the comprehensive management of the region across multiple purposes, including hurricane and storm damage reduction, flood risk management, structure and nonstructural flood control, floodplain management strategies, navigation…

Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation, the largest provider of dredging services in the United States, announced the receipt of several major dredging awards totaling $138.8 million.The awarded work includes Trujillo Alto Design and Build for the Lago Loiza (Carraízo) Dredging Project (Maintenance, Puerto Rico, $93.1 million); Townsends Inlet to Cape May Inlet Project (Coastal Protection, New Jersey, $28.8 million); Palm Beach Harbor Maintenance Dredging Project (Maintenance, Florida…

California boat builder Moose Boats announced it has been awarded a new contract from Alameda City Fire Department for the construction of an M2–38 Catamaran Fireboat.The M2 – 38 aluminum catamaran will be powered by twin Cummins QSB6.7L 480HP turbo diesel engines coupled to twin Hamilton HJX29 water-jets. Darley pumps will provide 5,000GPM of water through two 5” discharges, two 4” discharges, eight 2.5” discharges and four monitors.The fireboat will allow for deployment of fire attack hose lines in addition to supplemental water supply for land-based operations.

As 2022 moves into its final months, low water levels and drought form the basis of the news impacting inland waterways operators and barge companies. In the first week of October, numerous barges were reported grounded in the Mississippi River, particularly south of Baton Rouge. This has consequences: barge rates jumped 218% in St. Louis, compared to 2021.Low water was so severe that on October 7 Ingram Barge CEO John Roberts issued a force majeure notice (force majeure - unforeseeable…

Ukraine’s army accused Russia on Sunday of the large-scale destruction of civilian vessels moored on the banks of the Dnipro River in the occupied southern region of Kherson that Kyiv’s forces are trying to capture.Ukrainian forces have been piling pressure on Russian troops on the western bank of the Dnipro that bisects Ukraine, fueling speculation that Moscow’s troops are preparing to retreat to the other side.The Ukrainian General Staff’s spokesperson said in a statement that…

Floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs) may not immediately spring to mind as providing a solution to several of today’s key global challenges – but FNPP development is emerging as a means of decentralized stand-alone production of cost competitive hydrogen-based fuels and clean electricity and water, according to a new report by Intelatus Global Partners.The commercial case for deployment of FNPPs featuring small modular reactors is founded in the growing demand for hydrogen and…

The Netherlands-based Damen Shipyards Group said it handed over twin fireboats to Flotte Hamburg, a subsidiary of the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA) tasked with implementing low-emission shipping in the city.With 315 kWh of battery capacity, the state-of-the-art, plug-in hybrid vessels are capable of extended, fully-electric, emissions-free operations in and around the Port of Hamburg. Prag will be operated by Hamburg’s fire service while Dresden will support the HPA, the fire service and other third parties.The vessels, classed as Damen Fire-Fighting Vessels 3508, are completely new designs.

Mercy Ships is known globally for its charitable work performing medical procedures in developing countries. For the first time, the organization has a new ship, Global Mercy, recently delivered from a shipyard in China. Jim Paterson, Marine Executive Consultant, Mercy Ships takes Maritime Reporter & Engineering News inside the construction of the world’s largest civilian hospital ship.Jim Paterson already had a career and Chief Engineer’s Certificate when he joined Mercy Ships nearly 34 years ago, in search of a life change to make a difference.

MSC Group's Cruise Division has signed a contract with Fincantieri for the construction of a new mega cruise terminal at PortMiami, a North America and the Caribbean cruise hub.The new terminal reflects an investment of approximately €350 million ($414.4 million) and will be made up of a multi-level central body to serve as many as three latest generation ships at the same time, with up to 36,000 travelers transiting every day. Designed by the award-winning global architecture firm Arquitectonica…

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday launched a $15 billion canal project intended to relieve pressure on the busy Bosphorus Strait by laying the foundations of a bridge over the planned route.Critics of what Erdogan dubbed his "crazy project" when he revealed it a decade ago question the viability of a waterway running 45 km (28 miles) through marshland and farms on the western edge of Istanbul, and say it will damage the environment."We view Kanal Istanbul as a project to save Istanbul's future," Erdogan told a ceremony.

The Panama Canal has amended a tender for the engineering, design and construction of an optimized water management system after receiving more than 250 potential bidder inquiries following the opening of the prequalification period in September.The Canal has been grappling with unprecedented drought constrained water levels, and the tender is the first component of a program to manage water resources in an integrated manner to provide an adequate water supply for both Canal operations and local consumption for the next 50 years.

The Panama Canal will implement water management solutions to improve the quantity, quality and control of its water supply, which it says is "a critical priority" as it continues to grapple with constrained water levels.As a result of climate variability, the Panama Canal watershed experienced its fifth driest year in 70 years in 2019. This unprecedented drought constrained water levels severely at Gatun and Alhajuela Lakes, the main sources of water for the Canal and half of Panama's population.

With developments in the current health crisis almost entirely consuming nearly all news reporting, one could be forgiven for thinking that the members of Congress are thinking about and working on little else, and that even if they were, the divisive partisanship of recent years would doom the prospects of much else getting done. Happily, that is not the case for the nation’s inland waterways. Both houses of Congress are diligently working on maintaining the momentum of passing a Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA) every two years…

The Italian company EmiControls has been working on innovative fire protection solutions worldwide since 2011. With the FT10e water mist turbine, EmiControls has launched a product that gives companies more safety in the fight against fires. This is a brief Case Study of an FT10e installation at the Recycling Center Santini in Northern Italy.EmiControls develops stationary and mobile firefighting turbines. EmiControls combines the high efficiency of water mist with an advanced turbine technology.When extinguishing fires, water mist achieves a higher cooling effect than a traditional water jet.

Brasco, a part of the Brazil's provider of integrated port and maritime logistics and supply chain solutions Wilson Sons Group company, has partnered with APM Terminals Pecém to set up a temporary logistics base at the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex.It will be the first offshore port support operation to take place in Ceará, said a press note from APM Terminals, an international container terminal operating company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands.Scheduled to start in the first half of 2020, the logistics base will support the drilling of a well in block CE-M-717, located in the Ceará Basin and operated by Premier Oil, the British oil company.Among the services to be provided are cargo receiving and storage…

The Panama Canal and UN Environment signed a cooperation agreement today to join efforts on sustainable development and combatting climate change.Signed by the Administrator of the Panama Canal Jorge L. Quijano and the Regional of UN Environment in Latin America and the Caribbean Leo Heileman, the agreement includes the exchange of experiences and knowledge, the development of programs and research in areas of shared interest, and human resources training across both institutions.The disruption of rainfall patterns due to climate change is one of the main threats to water levels in the watershed of the Canal, that sustains more than two million inhabitants…

Connecticut Port Authority announced  that GZA GeoEnvironmental will provide design and engineering solutions for repairs and modifications of Pier 7 located at Fort Trumbull.Working closely with the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) – the facility owner – the Connecticut Port Authority is investing  in the project and will oversee GZA GeoEnvironmental during the study.Pier 7 is an important piece of Connecticut’s maritime infrastructure, and this project will identify the upgrades needed to improve its overall safety and structural integrity to allow for continued calls by Coast Guard and Naval vessels…