AGC Briefs D.C. Water Authority

On Monday June 6, 2009, AGC's Chief Economist Ken Simonson gave a presentation to senior management including capital planning, design and program management staff at Washington, DC's  Water and Sewer Authority (WASA).  WASA provides drinking water and wastewater services to 500,000 customers in the District of Columbia, and 1.6 million customers in Maryland and Virginia. In his presentation, Simonson discussed the outlook for construction markets and highlighted increasing unemployment and material price trends in the construction industry.  AGC's Municipal &Utilities Division Director Perry L. Fowler also participated in the WASA briefing and discussed current industry trends and regulatory issues impacting AGC contractors such as  American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Buy American requirements and recent waivers issued by the EPA.  Former AGC of D.C. president and AGC national board member Dragan Stojanovic, Norair Engineering Corp., also attended the meeting.  Simonson is scheduled to speak to the New York City Department of Environmental Protection at its Newtown Creek Water Pollution Control Plant on June 22. Both the Washington, D.C. and New York water agencies have multi-billion dollar construction plans and sought out AGC's chief economist for his take on the outlook for materials costs.  If you know of a water or wastewater agency that would like to schedule a similar presentation for its senior management and estimating or engineering staff, please contact Perry Fowler at fowlerp@agc.org.