July 22, 2015, WALNUT CREEK, Calif. — While water and wastewater spending has been in a modest slump for a few years, Brown and Caldwell Senior Vice President Jay Patil says there are significant signs that the market is picking up.

Interviewed for the Engineering-News Record (ENR) Sourcebook article, “Drought in Western U.S. Pushing New Projects,” Patil attributes the growth to the general recovery from the recession, as well as growing support for direct potable reuse and increased interest in resource optimization of biosolids from wastewater treatment.

In California, where severe drought conditions have persisted, “San Diego, the Santa Clara Valley and now Los Angeles are looking at using recycled water.”

Cited in the article is the Pure Water San Diego program, a $2.7 billion effort to use water purification technology to produce a third of the city’s drinking water supply locally by 2035, the largest reuse program in the United States. A team made up of Brown and Caldwell and MWH will handle the program management and some design.

The article also highlights biosolids projects in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York. New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection recently selected Brown and Caldwell to design a $200-million upgrade of the digesters at its Hunts Point wastewater treatment plant.

“These biosolids have a lot of embedded energy,” Patil said. “Whereas, normally, a Class B solid is sent to a landfill, advanced digestion can produce Class A solids that can be used as fertilizer.”

An emerging, longer-term trend in the water and wastewater sector that he sees is “a convergence to a One Water mindset.”

“Most communities used to manage their water, wastewater and stormwater separately through siloed organizations, but those divisions are starting to disappear,” Patil said. “Because of scarcity and the need for optimization, we’re seeing these separate organizations working together on more holistic solutions.”

To read the article, click here.

Brown and Caldwell ranked 46th on ENR’s Top 500 Design Firms. In Environmental categories, the firm is ranked as follows:

·        5th in Wastewater Treatment Plants

·        6th in Sewerage and Solid Waste

·        7th in Sanitary and Storm Sewers

·        8th in Site Assessment and Compliance

·        11th in Transmission Lines and Aqueducts

·        12th in Chemical and Soil Remediation

·        13th in Water Supply

·        15th in Hazardous Waste

·        15th in Dams and Reservoirs

·        17th in Water Treatment And Desalination Plants