Recent Projects

Water Treatment
Washington Aqueduct (US Army Corps of Engineers) produces drinking water for approximately 1 million consumers across the US capital region.  Latis Associates is providing technical oversight, stakeholder facilitation, and risk analysis to assist Washington Aqueduct with the Future Treatment Alternatives Study.  The Study goal was to determine whether additional or alternative treatment should be provided to improve public health protection and/or meet expectations of consumers.  With input from a variety of community and environmental stakeholders, this study developed a framework for prioritizing water quality challenges and identifying mitigation strategies.

WaHydrantster Distribution
The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) serves approximately 1.8 million customers in two counties in Maryland.  Latis Associates is overseeing a large, multi-year water modeling project to help WSSC better plan for growth and optimize operational activities.  The project includes creating a vision for integration of data sources and modeling activities across multiple departments using GIS as the central platform.  A key component of the project is development of a new hydraulic model incorporating individual customer billing data for more than 400,000 customers and a near 1:1 representation of the 5,500 mile distribution pipe network.


Regulatory Support
Water faucet
The Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water of USEPA protects public health by ensuring safe drinking water through implementation of the Safe Drinking Water Act.  All regulations are reviewed and updated on a periodic basis, a process which incorporates stakeholder input and public comments.  Latis Associates is supporting the USEPA on a variety of drinking water regulations, the most recent being the Lead and Copper Rule revisions and the Total Coliform Rule revisions. 


Qualifications



SpeightVanessa Speight, PhD, PE
Dr. Speight has been actively involved in consulting and research on a variety of water topics for the past 18 years. Her expertise is regularly sought as a member of Project Advisory Committees for the American Water Works Association, Water Research Foundation and the WateReuse Foundation, member of Technical Review Panels for EPA, peer reviewer for professional journals, and member of planning committees for several leading industry conferences. Dr. Speight received a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec and Master’s and PhD Degrees in Environmental Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Project experience includes Technical Facilitation for the Total Coliform Rule Distribution System Advisory Committee for US EPA, hydraulic model development and master planning for more than 40 water utilities across the US including several of the 10 largest systems, and Principal Investigator for the Water Research Foundation.

Selected publications:


  • LeChevallier ML, Besner M-C, Friedman M, and Speight VL. Microbiological Quality Control in Distribution Systems, in Water Quality and Treatment, Edzwald J, ed., American Water Works Association, Denver, CO 2010.


  • Speight VL, Khanal N, Uber J, Grayman WM, Friedman M, Martel K, Singer P and DiGiano F. Probabilistic Modeling Framework for Assessing Water Quality Sampling Plans, Water Research Foundation, Denver, CO, 2010.

  • Speight VL, Khanal N, Savic D, Kapelan Z, Jonkergouw P, and Agbodo M.  Guidelines for Developing, Calibrating and Using Hydraulic Models, Water Research Foundation, Denver, CO, 2010.