The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District has extended its agreement with Veolia North America to manage and operate its collection and wastewater treatment system under a 10-year, $500 million contract, according to this Environmental Leader article. Since 2008, Veolia has cleaned billions of gallons of wastewater every year at MMSD’s Jones Island and South Shore treatment plants, which serve 1.1 million people in 28 communities. This project is Veolia’s largest in North America.
In addition to Milwaukee, Veolia North America has recently extended contracts to manage and operate wastewater systems and facilities in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and Washington, D.C. All of these partnerships are saving the cities or local agency millions of dollars annually, as well as furthering environmental sustainability.
Public-private partnerships are an exciting new way to structure procurement, project delivery, financing and operation for various infrastructure and construction projects — and wastewater treatment is only one of many areas to form partnerships. The City of Long Beach used a partnership to tear down and rebuild a new city hall, library, park and port headquarters. The Judicial Council of California used a partnership to build a new courthouse in Long Beach.
A growing trend, public-private partnerships allow cities, counties and other local public agencies to have private companies design, build, finance, operate and maintain (in whole or in any combination) their facilities and infrastructure projects.
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