As Region Grows, Utility Expert to Describe Ways to Work with Aging Infrastructure

 

SILVER SPRING, MD – At a 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 27 presentation to the Montgomery County Planning Board, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC)’s general manager will outline the challenges of providing utility services to 1.6 million customers in the metro area – and suggest planning strategies to ensure the effective delivery of water and sewer in a growing region. 

The presentation by Andrew Brunhart, the latest expert in the board’s popular Growth Management Speaker Series, will focus on the challenges aging infrastructure like water and sewer systems pose for planners nationwide and in Montgomery County in particular. The speaker series, which began last spring, informs the Planning Board on topical issues as it grapples with how to shape the future of Montgomery County.

Smart planning calculates the need for public services such as roads, schools and water/sewer when approving new development. Providing adequate public services make up the centerpiece of the Planning Board’s revised recommendations for the county’s 2007 proposed growth policy, which will go to the County Council for consideration in October.

WSSC, established in 1918, designs, constructs and operates water and sewer systems for nearly all of Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, or more than 1.6 million customers in an area of nearly 1,000 square miles. The agency’s planned improvements include more than 100 projects totaling $1.6 billion.

Brunhart will address WSSC’s approach to upgrade or replace aging infrastructure and planning for new development with adequate public services.

WHO:
Andrew Brunhart, WSSC general manager

WHAT: 
Presentation on meeting infrastructure needs

WHEN:  
Thursday, September 27, 2007 – 7 p.m.

WHERE:
Park and Planning Headquarters
8787 Georgia Avenue
Silver Spring, MD