EBI News for July 30, 2025 – Rehab and wastewater to fuel decade of growth in pipe infrastructure
EBI News for July 30, 2025 – The following news section contains the latest stories for the environmental industry. Including, Rehab and wastewater to fuel decade of growth in pipe infrastructure, acquisitions, and more!
Azuria and Inframark to form $2B+ business
Azuria Water Solutions (St. Louis, Mo.) and Inframark (Katy, Texas) announced that they are merging to form a leading independent water solutions and services platform. Both Inframark and Azuria are portfolio companies of New Mountain Capital, which invested in the businesses in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The combined entity is expected to have more than $2 billion in revenues and more than 6,000 employees. Azuria, formerly known as Aegion, is a leader in the rehabilitation of water infrastructure. The company’s founding trenchless technology brand, Insituform, was established in 1971. Inframark is a national provider of outsourced operations and maintenance services to water and wastewater treatment facilities for municipal and industrial customers. It operates and maintains approximately 540 water and wastewater treatment systems across the country.
Rehab and wastewater to fuel decade of growth in pipe infrastructure
Capital expenditures on pipe infrastructure for municipal water and wastewater utilities in the United States and Canada are projected to reach $117?billion between 2025 and 2035, according to a new report from Bluefield Research. The forecast 10-year surge in annual spending is nearly double current expenditure, increasing from $7.9?billion in 2025 to $14.1?billion by 2035. Spending prioritizes water distribution and sewer collection networks. Over the next decade, rehabilitation of existing pipe networks is forecast to have compound annual growth of 15%, significantly outpacing both pipe replacement (5%) and new installations (4%). Even so, new installations will still command the largest share of total expenditures, estimated at $68.3?billion throughout the forecast period. “Amid rising material costs and national water loss rates exceeding 17%, there’s a growing emphasis on smarter rehabilitation—approaches that extend asset life while minimizing operational downtime,” noted Charlie Suse, a senior analyst at Bluefield Research. Historically underfunded relative to drinking water networks, wastewater collection systems now represent a new frontier, drawing increased financial focus, Bluefield concluded.
Alliance Technical Group acquires ESC Spectrum
Alliance Technical Group (Decatur, Ala.), a provider of environmental compliance, on-site testing and monitoring, and laboratory testing services, announced the acquisition of ESC Spectrum (Pensacola, Fla.), a continuous emissions monitoring Systems (CEMS) and data acquisition systems (DAS) company. “This transaction is a watershed moment for our company and the emissions monitoring marketplace,” said Chris LeMay, chief executive officer of Alliance. “ESC Spectrum’s proven, end-to-end solutions and scale instantly elevate Alliance to the leading provider of CEMS and DAS services across the globe. Together we will deliver unparalleled value – pairing world-class monitoring technology with the industry’s largest field-service, parts, and technology footprint.” The acquisition enables Alliance to deliver “the first truly end-to-end CEMS platform” and to bundle CEMS, stack testing, environmental compliance, and laboratory testing into programs that lower the total cost of compliance. Alliance is backed by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners.
Hazen partners with NASA water office
Hazen and Sawyer (Denver, Colo.) announced that it is partnering with NASA’s Western Water Action Office (WWAO) to explore the integration of NASA Earth observation data into the firm’s water resources management solutions. By incorporating data and imagery from NASA satellite missions into water resources modeling, Hazen expects to help clients gain a more robust understanding of the state of their watersheds—including snowpack, soil moisture, and vegetation health—in support of water resources planning. Data integration is already being used to help Hazen clients with drought management and tracking algal blooms in source water reservoirs. The mission of WWAO is to benefit water managers in the Western U.S. by putting NASA data, models, analysis, and tools to work for water management.
EDP Renewables announces 20-year PPA with Cal Water
The distributed generation business of EDP Renewables North America LLC (Houston) and California Water Service have signed a 20-year power purchase agreement for a 1.75 MWac /2.35 MWdc onsite solar photovoltaic array at Cal Water’s Northeast Bakersfield Treatment Plant. The partnership is designed to reduce the utility’s long-term environmental footprint. Cal Water and EDPR NA Distributed Generation expect the system to generate approximately 3,800 megawatt-hours of renewable energy annually. The solar array is anticipated to reduce grid energy costs by approximately $1.7 million over the term of the agreement based on current electric rates for customers in the Bakersfield District, one of Cal Water’s largest service areas.
Terracon helps out in wake of Texas floods
The Terracon Foundation has awarded two $2,500 grants to support recovery efforts after flash flooding devastated the Texas Hill Country on July 4, 2025. Local community relief will be provided through two organizations: the Kerr County Flood Relief fund created by the Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country and Sewa International. Terracon (Olathe, Kansas) is a national employee-owned engineering consulting firm. Established as the community investment arm of Terracon, the foundation has granted more than $5 million to community organizations, universities, dependents of employees, and disaster relief efforts.
Stantec selected for bridge replacement study in Florida Keys
Stantec (Edmonton, Canada) has been selected by the Florida Department of Transportation District 6 in partnership with Monroe County to lead the Project Development & Environment Study for the Card Sound Bridge replacement in North Key Largo, Fla. The bridge serves as one of only two ways motorists can access the Florida Keys. The study will address structural degradation and limitations of the current bridge, development of bridge alternatives, preliminary structural engineering, drainage design, traffic strategies, benthic surveys, cultural resource surveys, and coordination with multiple government agencies.
Gradiant announces lithium production facility
Gradiant (Boston, Mass.), a water treatment and resource recovery company, announced that its spin-off lithium business alkaLi will design, build, own and operate a commercial lithium production facility in the Marcellus Shale Formation in Pennsylvania. According to Gradiant, the site will be the world’s first to extract, concentrate, and convert lithium from oilfield produced water in a fully integrated process. The announcement follows last year’s launch of alkaLi’s EC² platform to accelerate the scaling of battery-grade lithium production. AlkaLi has signed an agreement to supply up to 5,000 metric tonnes annually of battery-grade lithium carbonate to a U.S. lithium-ion battery manufacturer for electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
Team spearheads onsite dispatchable power platform
Bedford Management Partners, Exus Renewables North America and the Energy Innovation Center Institute (EICI) announced an MOU to develop onsite dispatchable power generation for data centers and other critical infrastructure. According to EICI, this is one of the few groups focused on building on-site power systems using natural gas, renewables, batteries, and nuclear power stacks needed to meet the “always on” demand of AI data centers. The team will bring together big-name partners in the power industry, including Eaton, Emerson, Siemens Energy, and Northeast-Western Energy Systems USA with the goal of developing a scalable, flexible and reliable platform for delivering onsite power. The group is headquartered at the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh.
New non-stick coating could reduce PFAS
Researchers have developed a new non-stick material that they say rivals the performance of traditional PFAS-based coatings while using only minimal amounts of “forever chemicals,” according to the University of Toronto Faculty of Applied Science. Through a process called “nanoscale fletching,” researchers have modified silicone-based polymers to repel both water and oil. This breakthrough could pave the way for safer cookware, fabrics, and other products without the environmental and health risks linked to long-chain PFAS. The technique is described in a paper published in Nature Communications.
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