An application by the Pond Creek Mine, located in Williamson County about 14 miles south of the Rend Lake dam, to discharge waste water into the Big Muddy River is drawing criticism from local citizens and some environmental groups.
The application, filed by Williamson Energy LLC and its parent company, Foresight Energy, seeks permission from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to discharge between 2.5 to 3.5 million gallons of water per day into the river.
The Illinois EPA stated in an email received this week that chloride and sulfate are toxic to aquatic organisms in amounts above accepted water quality standards.
A call to the Pond Creek Mine was met with a response of “no comment” from the engineering department.
According to the permit application, the Pond Creek Mine, located east of Johnston City, is quite productive, capable of producing 7.5 million tons of coal per year.
Blumenshine also noted the mining company has not filed an environmental impact statement.
The water will be discharged through a diffuser in effort to thoroughly dilute the chemical discharge.
An email from Kim Biggs, a public information officer with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency stated, “When the IEPA issues the NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit, the NPDES permit will ensure that the concentration of chlorides and sulfates will meet the water quality standards outside a mixing zone.
It is anticipated that the facility will only be allowed to discharge when the flow of the Big Muddy River is above 30 cubic feet per second.
“It is anticipated that the NPDES permit will have an equation to demonstrate that the water quality standards are met outside of a mixing zone.

Water Technology Innovation.
Capabilities, such as those available with Bentley’s AssetWise, can work in concert with a geospatial information system to provide these capabilities and allow utilities to plan and implement proactive asset performance and reliability strategies.
WW: What benefits does a digital strategy provide water and wastewater utilities?
RM: Going digital is a strategy that we at Bentley believe will transform the delivery of capital projects as well as the performance of assets in operations and maintenance.
By digitizing assets and processes, a digital strategy will not only realize performance improvements for assets but also see the adoption of new technologies that can enable going digital.
WW: How does Bentley software align with good engineering practices in water and wastewater systems?
Having a common data environment helps streamline design and management of critical information, but the key is now a connected data environment that helps facilitate the interoperation of multiple data sources, providing a common view of data that delivers accurate and reliable information to operations, maintenance, and engineering when it is needed.
By providing real-time information that can be supplemented with hydraulic models, the operator can have true insight into the behavior and condition of a network.
Asset information management systems that enable the convergence of IT, OT, and ET data will make infrastructure assets more powerful, efficient, and reliable by exploiting the Big Data potential.
Hydraulic modeling generally has been used for long-term planning, while data from the SCADA systems are used heavily in daily operational decisions.

Join now – SuSanA online discussion “Applications of Sanitation Systems and Technologies in MENA”.
We are excited to announce the first thematic discussion of the SuSanA Regional Chapter MENA on the topic of “Applications of Sanitation Systems and Technologies in MENA” The MENA region, in its diversity of countries and contexts, presents a great variety of sanitation challenges: increasing water consumption, sanitation lagging behind, water scarcity, weak institutional coordination, rapid population growth, rural areas left out, armed conflicts, refugee crisis… Despite massive investments made in conventional sewered systems, large portions of the region’s population will remain unconnected for the next decades.
Many utilities are struggling to operate and maintain properly the existing wastewater treatment infrastructure, and the responsibility for non-sewered areas, relying on onsite systems, is often not clearly or not at all allocated.
For the sanitation coverage to become more inclusive, sustainable and reach the low- and middle-income areas, especially the rural areas, new alternatives must be considered.
In this thematic discussion – the first discussion to be held under the umbrella of the SuSanA Regional Chapter MENA – we will share our knowledge for tackling sanitation challenges in MENA, and discussing the best practices and applications of sanitation systems and technologies in the region.
Running for four weeks from Tuesday May 16 to Tuesday June 13 on the SuSanA online discussion forum, the discussion will look at the following areas: Topic 1: Sanitation Systems Challenges in the MENA region To join please visit: (https://goo.gl/V4fDRe) Topic 2: How would we tackle Sanitation Challenges in MENA?
To join please visit: (https://goo.gl/278o7S) Topic 4: What are the best sanitation practices and local solutions in MENA?
To join please visit: (https://goo.gl/J5G8EA) During the discussion, regular summaries of forum entries will be posted to keep you updated on our conversation.
Kindly visit http://forum.susana.org/thematic-discussion-applications-of-sanitation-systems-and-technologies-in-the-mena-region to join our discussion.
Register here (for free): http://www.susana.org/register We look forward to your contributions and an enriching discussion on applications of sanitation systems and technologies in MENA

How exactly might a software solution optimise de-icing at an airport?
Our decision support system ensures consistency in decision-making, based on historical data and operational guidelines.
For more than 10 years, we have been working closely with Schiphol Airport, one of Europe’s largest, to improve and expand our de-icing software on an annual basis.
One of the exciting projects that we are currently working on is upgrading our water quality software within our new mobile decision support framework.
Secondly, it is important to monitor the effect of the decision.
Finally, the collected data should be used to improve the process.
Charts and management reports will allow you to easily see how the process can be optimised.
More than 10 years later, with the right team of people and in close cooperation with large airports, we have shown that processes can be greatly optimised by combining data analyses with software applications.
This ensures effective long-term software solutions.
Therefore, in a year’s time, we will have launched several new projects, while our existing software will be even better than it is today.

Kamstrup taps Neuron ESB to drive transformation and agility.
Data islands are eliminated by modernizing Kamstrup’s existing point-to-point environment, facilitating reuse of data and functionality between applications.
"Kamstrup’s solutions are resonating in the market, demonstrated by its strong growth in revenue and employee count.
Neuron ESB aligns well with the global opportunity they are facing, helping poise the firm to play an even stronger role in the future of intelligent energy metering," said Marty Wasznicky, Vice President, Neuron ESB.
"All of the data communication is being handled by Neuron ESB, and we are well-positioned to fuel our vision for growth, internally and at our many projects and sites across the globe," said Frederiksen.
For more information, contact Neuron ESB sales at info@neuronesb.com.
About Neuron ESB Neuron ESB is an application, service and workflow integration platform that simplifies messaging, system integration and Web service enablement.
Neuron ESB has clients around the globe in a variety of industries.
To learn more, visit: www.neuronesb.com.
About Kamstrup Kamstrup A/S is a subsidiary of Danish energy company OK and a world-leading supplier of energy and water metering solutions.