KE completed a master planning study for Indiana American Water’s Warsaw District, which supplies water to the communities of Warsaw and Winona Lake and some of the surrounding area. The system includes four groundwater treatment plants. Two of the plants remove iron and manganese through pressure filters, and two of the plants utilize sequestering operations. Average and maximum day demands are approximately 2.7 mgd and 4.0 mgd, respectively. The distribution system includes four pressure gradients, four storage tanks, and two booster pumping stations.

Customer growth and demand projections were developed for the 15-year planning horizon. The hydraulic model piping network was developed from AutoCAD distribution maps using polyline to pipe conversion, detailed piping and facility data were added at the plants, tanks and booster stations, demands were allocated across the model nodes for both existing and target year model scenarios, calibration was performed under steady state and extended period simulation, and the model was used to analyze the distribution system and develop prioritized recommendations.

A comprehensive alternatives analysis was performed for the supply and treatment facilities leading to the recommendation to develop additional well supply capacity and construct one consolidated water treatment plant. The distribution alternatives analysis led to the recommendation to consolidate three of the pressure gradients into one combined gradient, reducing the overall number of pressure gradients from four to two. The recommendations also include pumping and transmission improvements and various small main replacements for the improvement of fire flows.

KE completed the Initial Distribution System Evaluation (IDSE) water age analysis for Iowa American Water’s Quad Cities District. The system includes one water filtration plant, seven pressure gradients, six storage tanks, and five booster pump stations. Average and maximum day demands are approximately 18 mgd and 29 mgd, respectively.

Iowa American Water chose to use its existing hydraulic model to perform a System Specific Study (SSS) for predicting locations of representatively high THM and HAA values in the distribution system, thus meeting the requirements of the IDSE. This information is used to determine new monitoring locations for meeting the final Stage 2 Disinfectants and Disinfection Byproducts Rule (Stage 2 DBPR) and the Long-Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule (LT2ESWTR).

KE updated the existing hydraulic model to include additional piping down to 6-inches in diameter, allocated demands based on provided meter route usage data, and calibrated the model under steady state and extended period simulation conditions to meet the IDSE modeling requirements.Water age simulations were completed of sufficient duration to get a constant repeating pattern in the tank with the highest residence time. The average water age at each demand node throughout the distribution system over the last 24 hours of the water age simulation was determined from the model results and shown in a color-coded distribution system schematic.

KE performed various evaluations for delivering Lake Michigan Water to surrounding communities via Illinois American Water’s (ILAW) water systems. ILAW receives Lake Water from another water utility, delivers it to its Bolingbrook and Homer systems via a central storage and booster station facility, and in turn delivers water to adjacent communities via these water systems.

KE evaluated capital improvement alternatives related to pump station upgrades, storage needs and transmission capacity for the selected delivery parameters to the surrounding communities. The analysis included the development of pump station system curves to better evaluate the impact of the various transmission improvements. The hydraulic models for the individual systems previously developed and calibrated by KE were used for the analysis. The design challenge included developing improvements for meeting the delivery needs to the surrounding communities while continuing to provide adequate delivery of flows and pressures to ILAW’s systems.

Illinois American Water’s Lincoln system includes six groundwater wells and two water treatment plants. Average and maximum day demands are approximately 2.6 mgd and 3.2 mgd, respectively.

KE developed customer growth and demand projections, evaluated the capacity and adequacy of the existing sources of supply, performed alternatives analysis and developed supply recommendations for the Lincoln system.

The demand projections included a base growth scenario and a high growth scenario with a potential new large user. The supply evaluation included an extensive review of the existing well facilities and trends of their historic production capacities, a review of information on the regional hydrogeology and aquifer systems, and a review of the raw water quality data. The supply improvement alternatives were evaluated for meeting both the base and high growth scenarios, and the recommendations included the most cost effective approach to meet both demand scenarios.

Eric lived in Mozambique from 1994 to 1998, where he developed and managed a community-based well digging program in collaboration with district and provincial administrations and other non-governmental organizations.

In February of 2012, Eric was a member of a six person World Water Corps assignment with Water for People (WFP) in Rwanda. The water system design study included the evaluation of existing rural water systems and the expansion of the systems to provide full coverage in the given district. As the lead hydraulic engineer on the team, working in collaboration with the WFP Rwanda staff and World Water Corps members, Eric participated in field surveys, collected information on the existing systems, performed modeling analysis, and submitted preliminary designs for the expansion of the existing pumped and gravity flow water systems. The combined systems with the proposed expansions include approximately 73 kilometers of pipeline.

Eric has also been involved with Engineers Without Borders (EWB), serving on the Great Lakes Technical Advisory Committee and as a professional mentor on projects for the student chapters at Princeton University and Case Western Reserve University.

Eric’s EWB project involvements include a small-scale irrigation project for a farmers’ association in Ethiopia. Eric traveled with the Princeton chapter members to Ethiopia on three separate assessment and implementation trips in 2007 and 2008. He also accompanied a group of students on a trip to Sierra Leone in 2009 to perform an initial assessment for a solar energy project at a rural health clinic.

Eric traveled to the Dominican Republic with the Case Western Reserve University chapter in 2008 to perform assessment work on a water supply and treatment project. A plan was developed to construct a gravity fed water system from a mountain stream to include over four kilometers of supply pipeline, treatment involving sedimentation, slow sand filtration and chlorination, and a distribution system with yard taps at approximately 100 homes.