For the American Water Works Association (AWWA)’s Drinking Water Week, CMT will be exploring our past, present, and future in treatment technologies and the drinking water industry.
There is no time better than now to rethink water. Water is a precious and often scarce commodity, and not just in the arid western regions of our nation. We see it especially in growing areas, such as northeastern Illinois, where once abundant groundwater sources are being depleted.
Cities like Joliet, IL are taking bold steps in rethinking how to sustainably source their water – bringing a sense of leadership, urgency, and innovation at a regional level. As we work for alternative solutions, we are reminded that even the nearby Great Lakes, which holds 95% of the surface fresh water in the United States, is not an infinite resource.
Solutions must reflect the generational impacts of population growth, pollution, natural resource loss, and climate change. The need to protect these vital resources is as important as ever.
This applies also to the vast network of water distribution infrastructure that has been built in the last 50-100 years. Our focus turns more and more to being intentional stewards of the aging infrastructure we’ve inherited. These deteriorating systems come with their own set of problems. Depending on what material the lines are constructed of, there is a risk of everything from failure to leakage to contaminating the drinking supply.
From engineering solutions to risk-based asset management technology platforms such as CMT’s Canopy, our professionals are passionate about bringing the needed solutions to help communities and utilities manage these new challenges.
CMT celebrates the efforts of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) to advocate for sustainable design, management, and operation of utilities and programs that manage or impact water resources. We are excited to be a part of the drinking water industry and to have the opportunity to contribute our insights to what is a priority of national and global significance.