Blueprint for a comeback.

When Hurricane Katrina formed as a moderate storm over the Bahamas on August 23, 2005, nobody could imagine the devastation it would leave in its wake as it strengthened over the next several days before hitting the Gulf Coast on August 29, and leaving its mark as the most destructive hurricane ever to strike the U.S. Though storm surge caused major destruction from central Florida through Texas, the hardest hit by far was New Orleans, where a catastrophic failure of the levee system left the majority of the city, as well as neighboring parishes, severely flooded. However, tremendous property damage occurred all along the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts, where waters reached as far as 12 miles inland.

While the visible destruction of homes, businesses, beaches, parks, and famous landmarks captured the attention of the world, major questions as to infrastructure -- from bridges and piers, to water and wastewater -- faced both coastal cities and the state. Soon after Katrina hit in 2005, a $500 million Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) was secured by Governor Haley Barbour and the Mississippi Development Authority from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide for the protection and enhancement of water, wastewater and storm water infrastructure. Given historical and probable future hurricane-caused damage and service interruptions, there was merit to funding new infrastructure in more inland areas. However, because that would likely discourage displaced residents from moving back to coastal cities, a compromise allowed funding to be allocated to both repair of existing infrastructure, and development of new.

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Getting quickly into the flow.

In partnership with the Mississippi Engineering Group, Pickering was selected to assist the State of Mississippi's Department of Environmental Quality in implementing the Governor's Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. The Pickering water resources team was given the task to prepare the water supply portion of the Mississippi Gulf Region Water and Wastewater Plan in just six months - a project that could easily have taken three times as long to complete. The plan satisfied the requirements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant program necessary for the impacted counties to receive 100% grant funding. Subsequent to the approval of the plan, Pickering developed conceptual design documents for eleven wastewater infrastructure and eighteen water infrastructure projects that were constructed in and distributed between hard-hit Hancock, Jackson and Pearl River counties in southern Mississippi. Pickering has continued to provide construction-phase assistance to both the MDEQ and the local utility authorities in each county.

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An environmentally-sound approach.

Before construction activities could commence on any of the Gulf Region water and wastewater infrastructure projects, the area in which the project was proposed to be located had to be "environmentally cleared" through the process required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Pickering scientists in the natural resources team from the Jackson and Biloxi offices did the required field work. The projects required an assessment of the potential impacts on such things as archaeological and cultural resources, air quality, surface and groundwater quality, wetlands, and floodplains. As a direct result of the work performed by the scientists, a number of the conceptual designs of the projects were changed in order to minimize, and in several cases, avoid, unnecessary environmental impacts. The process of getting all the clearances required has taken four years of work, but has been a classic example of how water and wastewater projects can be designed in such a manner as to minimize adverse environmental impacts and yet maximize socioeconomic benefits to the hurricane-impacted Gulf Coast population.

See related Gulf Coast project work here.

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