Marvin C. Nichols Papers Award: Ishita Rahman and Kendall Ryan
Congratulations to Ishita Rahman and Kendall Ryan, who received our 2021 Marvin C. Nichols Papers Award for their outstanding technical paper, How Much Rainwater Are You Treating? Solutions and Budgeting for Effective I&I Reduction for a TCEQ SSO Initiative from Conroe’s Perspective.
The paper itself highlights how the City of Conroe, Texas, aided by Freese and Nichols, was able to solve their problem of too much inflow and infiltration of rainwater. The City of Conroe currently provides wastewater to over 87,000 people but will, in the near future, triple to servicing 240,000 people, so finding a solution was critical for the future of their city. The high volume of rainwater would cause increased maintenance cost, reduction in wastewater system capacity and risk of sewer overflows.
Ishita and Kendall, both Water/Wastewater Master Planning engineers in Freese and Nichols’ Pearland office, thoroughly explained how the City overcame these challenges through the use of tools such as a sanitary sewer evaluation study (SSES) involving flow monitoring for 105 days. This gave the City the information they needed to take the right course of action. Read the full paper here for more insight on the project.
Our annual award for outstanding papers is named after Marvin C. Nichols, a leader of our firm for 40 years and the first Chairman of the Texas Water Development Board from 1957 to 1963. By recognizing employees who go the extra mile, these awards strengthen employees’ professional development, share their knowledge with others in the profession and enhance Freese and Nichols’ reputation for technical expertise.