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Friday May 30, 1997

AMSA to Sponsor Second ENR Supplement on Competitiveness
AMSA will sponsor a second special supplement for the Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine focusing on competitiveness and changing management philosophies at publicly owned treatment works. The supplement, Choosing Competitiveness: The Reinvention Revolution in Wastewater Management will be released with the September 15 issue of ENR, and will be distributed at the annual meetings of the American Public Works Association and the Water Environment Federation this fall. AMSA first sponsored a special supplement for ENR in September 1996 titled Watershed Management: Clean Water's Next Act. That supplement, which was very well received, has been used by AMSA and others to promote watershed management.

Choosing Competitiveness will highlight innovative programs developed and implemented by AMSA member agencies to become more cost efficient while still ensuring the delivery of safe and effective wastewater treatment services. Among the practices to be profiled are gainsharing and employee empowerment, information technology, automated operations and maintenance, shared services and changing management/labor relations. Choosing Competitiveness will prove to be a valuable publication for any municipality considering or implementing changes at its POTW. AMSA members with an interest in contributing articles on competitiveness initiatives for the supplement are encouraged to contact Christy Kettell at the National Office by June 10 (202/833-3692).

EPA Approves First Long-Term O&M Contract in Cranston, RI
EPA's Office of Water approved for the first time a city's request to lease a federally funded wastewater treatment facilities to the private sector under a long term contract. The city of Cranston, RI entered into an agreement Triton Ocean State L.L.C. which require Triton to pay a concession fee of $48.1 million to the city and be named a co-permittee on the city's NPDES permit. Under the terms of the contract, the city will retain ownership of the system, establish and collect sewer user fees and enforce the pretreatment program. Triton will be responsible for providing all wastewater treatment services including O&M of the actual facility and collection systems, testing for improvements to the wastewater system and administering the pretreatment program. The city has projected a residential user fee of approximately $230/year.

According to EPA sources, approval of the Cranston lease has enabled the Agency to develop guiding principals for evaluating lease applications and should result in faster project approval. AMSA profiled the Cranston deal during its National Environmental Policy Forum meeting earlier this month in Washington, DC.



AMSA's 1997 Summer Conference, Point & Nonpoint Sources...Balancing Responsibility for Pollution Prevention, will be held at the Madison Renaissance Hotel from July 15-18 in Seattle, WA. We encourage you to make your reservations early for this exciting meeting. Program and registration information has been forwarded to all members and can be obtained by calling the AMSA National Office 202/833-AMSA.