Waste Management Announces Rollout of Storm Water Public-Private Partnerships
Waste Management Inc. (WM) recently announced a program to provide a total storm water management offering to U.S. municipalities in the form of public-private partnerships. WM, in collaboration with AbTech Holdings Inc., an environmental technologies and engineering firm specializing in addressing water contamination issues, will partner with municipalities to design, build, operate and service storm water infrastructure.
One year after announcing its pilot storm water solutions program with AbTech, WM is transitioning to commercialization with its storm water solutions. Along with these solutions, the program has the potential to include finance alternatives for the municipal infrastructure as needed.
“Our approach is to team with municipalities and provide comprehensive, turn-key storm water solutions working with AbTech Industries,” said Paul Pistono, vice president of public sector solutions at Waste Management. “We determined during our storm water offering pilot phase that the best way for the private sector to truly help municipalities meet their clean water needs was through this complete storm water management approach.”
"Innovative, cost-effective strategies for reducing storm water runoff will help meet one of the most pressing needs for protecting waters across the United States,” said U. S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “It presents the opportunity to create jobs while helping communities safeguard their rivers, lakes and reservoirs. These kinds of public-private partnerships are instrumental in protecting our health and our environment while growing our economy."
Under WM’s storm water program offering, AbTech Industries Inc. will provide and deploy storm water treatment technologies, deploying both their own technologies and other commercially available engineered systems, teaming with WM and municipalities. The program offering will also include storm water needs assessments, design of storm water control measures and ongoing servicing and maintenance of the storm water infrastructure.
