September 2025
SEPTEMBER 23rd, 2025CENTRAL TEXAS WEAT PRESENTSLow Effluent Phosphorus is Here: Case Studies from the San Gabriel River WatershedPresented By: Alexandra Doody, P.E. Total phosphorus limits issued in new and amended Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for municipal entities in discharging to the San Gabriel river in Central Texas are becoming increasingly strict. This presentation will highlight the technologies that municipalities have employed across the United States to achieve ultralow phosphorus concentrations, and then will review case studies of how the City of Liberty Hill and the City of Georgetown are rising to the challenge to expand their wastewater treatment capacity needs while also protecting the San Gabriel watershed.
Alexandra Doody, P.E.Alex has 18 years experience as a wastewater treatment process specialist at CDM Smith in Austin, Texas. Her professional experience has ranged across the lifecycle of wastewater treatment projects in both warm and cold-weather climates, including bench-scale and pilot-scale treatability studies, process alternatives evaluation, process/mechanical design and construction oversight, as well as optimization and fine-tuning of treatment process performance and operational costs. She is a licensed professional engineer in the State of Texas and in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Tuesday – September 23rd at 6:00 pm Please RSVP by September 16th by clicking the button below:
Prepay For MeetingCost for Members and Guests: $30 – includes dinner Click here to Prepay via Credit Card
Cost for Students: $5 – includes dinner Click here to Prepay via Credit Card Date and Time: September 23rd, 2025 6:00 – 8:00 pm Location: Thompson Conference Center (2405 Robert Dedman Dr., Austin, TX, 78712) Parking: Free parking is available in Lot 40 after 5:00 pm
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Fourth Annual Professor Desmond Lawler LectureSeptember 25, 2025Retooling anaerobic digestion to maximize waste carbon conversion in a circular bioeconomy Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 3:30 p.m. Location: Mulva Auditorium, Engineering Education and Research Bldg (EER) Abstract: Biomanufacturing of chemicals using waste streams has the potential to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from current fossil-based inputs while enabling carbon recycling towards a circular economy. Anaerobic microbial communities (microbiomes) maintained in bioreactors can serve as the foundation to achieve these goals. Engineering anaerobic microbiomes to achieve specified functions remains challenging, and widely deploying anaerobic microbiomes at scale will require bioreactor innovations to maintain microbiome stability amid non-sterile waste streams and economic bioreactor operational strategies with high biomass retention. Dynamic membrane bioreactors (DMBRs) are an emerging class of bioreactors that use a dynamic membrane consisting of a biological cake layer formed on an inexpensive mesh support with submillimeter pores to accomplish biomass separation. The dynamic membrane allows the decoupling of the solids retention time and hydraulic retention time while minimizing membrane fouling challenges that limit the use of conventional membrane bioreactors for wet organic waste streams with high solids levels. The dynamic membrane also supports the growth of microorganisms that contribute to waste conversion. We have demonstrated the benefits of using anaerobic DMBRs for the high-rate conversion of different waste streams to a range of valuable products. This presentation will showcase diverse applications of this innovative anaerobic biotechnology, including mainstream treatment of municipal wastewater to renewable natural gas and producing medium-chain fatty acids from food waste and other organic waste streams. Speaker: Dr. Lutgarde Raskin, U. of Michigan
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Lutgarde (Lut) Raskin is the Vernon L. Snoeyink Distinguished University Professor of Environmental Engineering and the Altarum/ERIM Russell O’Neal Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan, where she has been a professor since 2005. Before this, she was a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for 12 years. She received Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Bioscience Engineering and in Economics from KU Leuven, Belgium. Her PhD degree is in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois. Dr. Raskin is a pioneer in molecular microbial ecology applied to engineered water systems. She and her team are developing anaerobic bioprocesses for resource recovery from waste streams and studying microbial aspects of urban water systems to assist drinking water utilities. She has a strong interest in graduate education and mentoring and has advised approximately 20 postdocs and 100 graduate students, including about 30 Ph.D. students. She is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the International Water Association, the Water Environment Federation, and the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors. Past honors include the International Society for Microbial Ecology-International Water Association BioCluster Award, the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors Frontier Award in Research, and the Water Research Foundation Paul L. Busch Award for Innovation in Applied Water Quality Research. She was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering in 2021.
Keep Austin Beautiful Creek Clean UpSeptember 28th, 2025
As part of Keep Austin Beautiful, CAC TAWWA has adopted 0.41 miles of Tannehill Branch West within Bartholomew Park. For the clean-up event, we will provide trash bags, grabbers, gloves, bug spray, etc. – anything you’ll need. Join us on September 28, 2025, from 9 am-12 pm! We have dubbed ourselves the Bartholomew Brush Busters and we want YOU to help us bust some brush. We will meet in the parking lot of Bartholomew Municipal Pool (1800 E 51st St, Austin, TX 78723). If you have any questions, please contact Ellyn Weimer at weimerej@cdmsmith.com.
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Pickleball Tournament 2025: Central Texas Section
2025 TAWWA Capital Area Chapter & WEAT Central Texas Section Joint Member Appreciation SocialOctober 9, 2025Save the date for the 2025 CAC TAWWA & WEAT CTS Joint Member Social on Thursday, October 9, at The Cathedral in East Austin! This annual event celebrates Capital Area Chapter and Central Texas members with an evening of fun, including food and drinks, icebreaker activities, a silent auction, and an outdoor cornhole tournament (sign up by registering for a two-person team!). Proceeds benefit the SETH Training Program (Science, Engineering, Technology, and Health). Contact Alison Kwong (kwongan@cdmsmith.com) for questions and Sheryl Chia (schia@plummer.com) for sponsorships.
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Special Thanks to the Central Texas SectionPlatinum and Gold Sponsors |
 Freese and Nichols, Inc. (FNI) is a client-focused, regionally based firm with national expertise. From 17 offices across Texas, Georgia, North Carolina and Oklahoma, we work seamlessly together across all disciplines, giving our clients the benefit of multi-service integration with an approach that is as innovative as it is practical. Together, more than 500 professionals deliver top-tier professional services that reflect the FNI vision – to be the firm of choice for clients and employees. In the last 10 years, FNI has performed more than 350 treatment projects and designed more than 730 miles of pipeline and pump stations that provide more than 3.9 billion gallons per day to municipal and industrial clients. Hartwell Environmental Corporation represents leading manufacturers of water and wastewater treatment equipment used in municipal and industrial treatment facilities. Hartwell Environmental Corporation was founded in 1997. We have expanded from our headquarters in Houston to three branch offices in Austin and Arlington, TX and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Our expansion has allowed us to better serve the municipal and industrial facilities in the states of Texas and Oklahoma.
 Environmental Improvements, Inc., established in 1966 is a Manufacturer’s Representative firm specializing in water and wastewater treatment. We represent a complete line of manufacturers capable of treating all variations of municipal water and wastewater applications. Coupled with our product service we have been providing treatment equipment and solutions in Texas for over forty-five years.
 CP&Y, Inc. dba STV Infrastructure is a wholly-owned subsidiary of STV Incorporated (STV). STV is an innovative and progressive full-service architectural and engineering firm. STV is an award-winning professional firm consistently ranking among the country’s top companies in transportation infrastructure, including rail, mass transit, highways and bridges; water; and social infrastructure, such as, healthcare, education and justice. This success is the direct result of our employees’ commitment to innovation and quality. With more than 40 offices throughout the United States and Canada, STV’s professional, technical and support personnel are client-focused and quality-driven. We provide a complete range of planning, engineering, architectural, environmental, and construction management services to transportation, infrastructure, design-build, institutional, commercial, energy, industrial, and military clients.
 Stantec has been serving Central Texas municipalities for nearly 70 years providing integrated engineering and design services for water, wastewater, and reuse water conveyance and treatment systems. Our innovative technical teams have successfully delivered projects including advanced treatment processes like biological nutrient removal as well as emerging technologies such as sidestream deammonification and PFAS removal. As a global firm, our success is built on efficient project delivery and risk management, resulting in predictability for our clients relative to forecasting design and construction budgets. A value-added, differentiating service Stantec offers includes a dedicated team of grant funding development and management specialists, financial consultants, economic and benefit-cost analysis experts. We bring a passionate commitment to the local communities we serve, supporting clients with resilient and nature-based solutions that consider environmental justice and equitable community development.
Founded in 1944, Lochner is a nationally recognized infrastructure firm delivering comprehensive services in planning, environmental analysis, design, construction engineering and inspection (CEI), and right-of-way (ROW) acquisition. With more than 1,000 professionals across 50 offices nationwide, including over 250 employees in Texas, Lochner brings deep local expertise and national resources to every project. Lochner’s Texas operations span offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Round Rock, San Antonio, Tyler, and Waco, supporting a wide range of public sector clients. Our multidisciplinary teams specialize in transportation, water and wastewater systems, drainage, aviation, and municipal infrastructure. Lochner provides a comprehensive range of water and wastewater engineering services, including all phases of facility and buried infrastructure projects – from project initiation with master planning, treatability studies, and pilot testing, through design and construction management, as well as start-up and commissioning. Our water professionals manage complex potable water, raw water, reclaimed water, and wastewater infrastructure projects, delivering solutions that optimize the performance, reliability, and sustainability of water and wastewater infrastructure to support population growth, meet regulatory requirements, and provide resource conservation.
Hazen helps clients address water supply and water quality challenges with solutions tailored to deliver lasting benefits to the communities they serve. More than anything else, Hazen and Sawyer’s reputation is founded on the superior technical work we provide to help clients meet their water quality and water supply goals. Our focus on water prepares us to handle the exceptional challenges facing the industry: adapting to new regulations and changes in supply or demand, targeting stretched budgets for optimal ROI, developing resilience to drought, floods, severe storms, and wildfires, charting a course into the digital age, and much, much more. |
 At Plummer, we truly believe that Water is Precious. As a result, our practice has been focused on the protection and development of water resources for our clients and their customers for 40 years. We are a firm of over 120 engineering and scientific professionals dedicated to planning and design of water infrastructure. Dedicated to water resources and environmental engineering, our firm balances sound engineering principles with innovative technology tailored to our clients’ needs. From initial project kick-off, through stringent QC review, to a completed project, our focus stays on developing cost-effective solutions for our clients. We are involved from project inception to implementation and every step in between. It is what we do every day, as opposed to what we do when we have that type of project. We are proud to be one of the top engineering firms in Texas and Louisiana (ENR TX&LA 2018). Because of our focus on water-related matters, our engineers and scientists have become recognized experts in their fields at the local, state, and national level. Our motto is “quality deliverables on schedule…without exception.”
 Every community deserves safe, affordable drinking water and clean rivers and streams. That’s the mission Garver and our partnered utilities work toward every day. And every day, these utilities are faced with challenges of aging infrastructure, increasing water quality requirements, and concerns over funding.
Garver’s Water Team is uniquely built with client-focused, local teams that provide constant support, four design centers providing sophisticated design of all engineering disciplines, and a Water Technology Team comprised of national experts that can innovatively solve the most challenging water and wastewater quality concerns.
Whether it’s replacing aging infrastructure or designing new facilities, Garver will rise to the challenge. Even as our industry changes, one thing will remain the same—Garver’s dedication to delivering first-class client service to our communities.
 For more than 50 years, Kimley-Horn has been providing planning and engineering consulting services to clients nationwide. Kimley-Horn has 1,500 employees across Texas and more than 6,600 employees nationwide that provide water/wastewater engineering, transportation planning and engineering, aviation, community planning services, and site planning and design. Kimley-Horn’s long record of technical achievements is enhanced by our reputation for effective management and personal service. Our engineers, planners, urban designers, and landscape architects develop insightful solutions to deliver practical results that consistently exceed our clients’ expectations.
Victaulic is the global leader in mechanical pipe joining solutions, delivering advanced technologies and engineering services to address complex piping challenges faced by engineers, site owners and contractors. Since 191, our innovative solutions have improved construction productivity and reduced risks, ensuring projects are completed safely, on time, and within budget. Our sustainable solutions, made from high quality, graded scrap steel, promote circular construction by making piping systems infinitely reconfigured and minimizing environmental impact. Today, our high-quality products are used in more than 140 countries, supporting some of the world’s most critical and prestigious structures.  Terracon is a national engineering and consulting firm with deep expertise in water and wastewater infrastructure. We specialize in Environmental Consulting, Geotechnical Engineering, Construction Materials Testing, and Facilities Consulting, delivering tailored solutions to local, regional, and national clients since 1965. As an employee-owned firm, Terracon is committed to helping clients achieve their goals by executing projects efficiently, controlling costs, and managing risk. Our culture and systems allow us to excel on both small and large-scale projects, with more than 7,000 engineers, geologists, scientists, and technicians operating from more than 170 offices nationwide, including 27 offices in Texas. Terracon’s water and wastewater expertise is strong in Texas, where we’ve partnered with municipalities, public entities and design teams on a wide range of infrastructure projects. By combining national resources with local expertise, Terracon consistently overcomes challenges and delivers the results our clients expect, especially in the critical areas of water and wastewater infrastructure.
Weston Solutions, Inc. brings more than 68 years of expertise in water treatment, distribution and wastewater collection and treatment, engineering, management, delivering sustainable, resilient solutions that protect communities and resources nationwide. We partner with local, state, and federal agencies, as well as private-sector clients, to address complex water and wastewater challenges with end-to-end support, from analysis and design through construction, operations, and compliance. Our work spans a full range of services, including water quality compliance, infrastructure renovation, wastewater reuse, nutrient removal, and permitting. With capabilities in design-build delivery, construction management, and pilot studies, Weston ensures each solution is efficient, cost-effective, and aligned with regulatory requirements. We apply advanced approaches such as PFAS and emerging contaminant treatment, nutrient removal technologies, lab testing, automation, and remote monitoring to balance innovation with operational excellence. Backed by a team of dedicated employee-owners, Weston continues to engineer practical, forward-looking solutions that strengthen water infrastructure and safeguard environmental resources for generations to come. Weston has offices in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Houston and San Antonio with more than 150+ employees, looking to expand our team in all of Texas offices. |
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