BUSINESS: Water is Big Business for Small Business

As water utilities across the country work towards improving their water infrastructure, growing small businesses are finding opportunities to build their portfolio of experience on high-profile projects that help to increase sustainability.

Water Infrastructure Projects Underway to Address Environmental Issues

DC Water General Manager
George Hawkins oversees the
development of the
Clean Rivers Project
(Photo: DC Water)

Water and wastewater utilities throughout the United States have been undertaking major infrastructure projects to repair older systems, comply with environmental regulations, ensure services can be provided to growing and shifting populations, and adapt to changing climate conditions.  In a frequently cited 2009 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the nation’s water systems and wastewater systems were both awarded grades of ‘D-‘ – a grade that DC Water General Manager George Hawkins describes as the grade a professor gives when he or she “wants to give the student an F but doesn’t want to do the ‘F’ paperwork.”

DC Water – which distributes drinking water and provides wastewater treatment services to the Nation's Capital - has embarked upon a Capital Improvement Program that includes several major infrastructure projects, with estimated expenditures over the next 10 years of $3.8 billion  Among these project is the Clean Rivers Project, which is DC Water's ongoing program to reduce combined sewer overflows ("CSOs") into the waterways in the District (the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek). Work has already begun on the Anacostia Tunnel System, a 13-mile system that will reduce flooding and capture stormwater from Northeast and Southeast Washington.

What are Combined Sewer Overflows?  In several older cities, sewer pipes that capture stormwater (e.g. runoff from streets) and sewer pipes that carry wastewater (e.g. from buildings) used to be combined into a single piping system, carrying “combined sewer” water to the wastewater treatment plant.  During heavy rains, if the combined sewer pipes become full, excess water overflows to outfalls that release water directly to the river - untreated.  At the time these combined sewer overflow systems were built, the stormwater was thought to provide enough dilution of wastewater to reduce the risks to public health and the environment.  However, water utilities and drinking water protection agencies are recognizing the risks associated with combined sewer overflow, and are working to replace these systems with separate piping systems for stormwater and wastewater.  DC currently has outfalls for combined sewer overflows in Rock Creek and the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers.  Through the projects to be developed under the Clean Rivers Project, 98% of these wet weather overflows will be captured and diverted to the Blue Plains Wastewater Treatment Plant, located at the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers downstream (south) of the District.  DC Water created a children’s video that helps to illustrate its efforts to keep stormwater clean and separate from sewage.

DC Water Requiring Contractors to Team with Local Firms

As the DC Water Board and staff work to identify contractors to complete these major projects, they are conscientious about the need to ensure that these projects employ local firms, both for initial installation and ongoing maintenance.  DC Water's Procurement Office has set targets not only for minority-owned, women-owned, and veteran-owned small businesses, but also for locally-owned businesses, as well as an overall target for DC residents to work on these projects.  

The DC Water Board has also stressed the importance of contracting local firms more generally, and creating jobs in the community.  As reported by DC Water’s General Manager to the DC Water Board, the Clean Rivers Project Contracts are being constructed in phases, with the contractors constantly monitored and evaluated to ensure compliance with fair hiring practices and subcontract local firms.  Compliance with subcontracting requirements is a factor in determining which contractors are selected for later phases of the project.

DC Government Sees Opportunities for Small Businesses to “Build Capacity”

The opportunities for local small businesses presented by the Clean Rivers Project and other DC Water CIP activities has been met with enthusiasm by the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development.  This agency’s director, Harold Pettigrew, expressed optimism in the opportunities from water projects in DC for local small businesses to “build capacity” for local businesses, providing an opportunity to gain not just revenues, but also project experience. 

During a recent conference for Women Impacting Public Policy, an organization of women business owners, DC Department of Small and Local Business Development Director Harold Pettigrew identified opportunities on water-related projects through DC Water and the Mayor’s “Sustainable DC” initiatives. Pettigrew’s agency works with small businesses to provide them with the tools and knowledge to be able to team with larger firms on projects, and collaborates with DC Water to ensure substantial involvement by small local businesses.

How Going Green Helps Small Businesses on Water Projects

While DC Water is working toward fulfilling its commitment to employing locally-owned businesses and employing DC residents on these infrastructure projects, there are some challenges associated with the type of work involved.  In order to drill underground tunnels that are more than 20 feet high, DC Water must hire specialized contractors from other parts of the country, who often "import" their own trained staff for the duration of the project, and then leave.

In addition, DC Water has most of its water and wastewater systems buried underground - out of sight and out of mind, as is typical of most municipal water systems.  These mammoth pipe systems are designed to require little ongoing maintenance (which would require digging down to the pipes), but large upfront costs to install.  

DC Water is exploring opportunities to integrate less construction-intensive “green infrastructure” methods for addressing the city’s stormwater quality issues.  According to DC Water’s April 2012 Biannual Report, these green infrastructure methods “would mean taking up hard, impervious surfaces and replacing them with grass and vegetation, through planting trees, making green roofs, and creating bioswales and rain gardens and other forms of low impact development.”  There has been widespread support within the District for greater use of green infrastructure or “low impact design” (LID).  The American Society of Landscape Architects CEO Nancy Somerville spoke about DC's opportunities to use green infrastructure for stormwater in a video produced by Aaron Rockett.

While the heavy construction for the Clean Rivers Project pipeline will require more specialized work by out-of-town companies, LID components of the project can be performed by more local firms.  These green infrastructure projects also will provide continuous job opportunities for local firms due to ongoing maintenance requirements.  At a lunch for the DC area chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, DC Water’s George Hawkins expressed his excitement about the local job opportunities created by the LID features that would be included in the Clean Rivers Project.  

Under the current consent decree with the EPA, DC Water can only use the pipeline approach as part of the Clean Rivers Project. DC Water is currently appealing the EPA in order to pilot and evaluate a green infrastructure program, to see whether this approach would capture sufficient stormwater to include as part of the project.

“Bioswales and green infrastructure would cost $700 million for installation PLUS permanent maintenance costs, providing lots of local jobs.  We would also have a $100 million trust fund for that maintenance, which also will create local jobs.  In addition, we would have incentive funds for private owners to match for any green roofs private owners install.  You can see outcome that would provide enormous change [for local green contractors],” said Hawkins.