Water companies had quite the showing in 2011 cleantech acquisitions, with Ecolab’s acquisition of Nalco (~$8.4 billion) and CKI’s acquisition of Northumbrian Water (~$4 billion).  The trend continues (albeit, on a much smaller scale!), as Mueller Water Products announced it is selling US Pipe to Wynnchurch Capital for nearly $90 million in cash.  Details on this story and other news items can be found below.

M&A/ Partnerships

• Mueller Water Products has signed a definitive purchase agreement to sell United States Pipe, Foundry Company and Fast Fabricators, which together form US Pipe, to USP Holdings, an affiliate of Wynnchurch Capital, for $89.8m in cash, subject to post-closing adjustments.
  http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsmueller-water-products-to-sell-us-pipe-to-wynnchurch-capital
• Aqua-Chem Inc has entered into a strategic joint venture with Brazil-based Vicel Group, to manufacture and assemble Aqua-Chem’s fresh water makers at the Vicel facility in Rio Das Ostras.
  http://www.filtsep.com/view/24428/aqua-chem-forms-jv-with-brazils-vicel-group/
• IBM Research and the Sonoma County Water Agency have joined forces to better manage water resources in Valley of the Moon Water District (VOMWD) in California.  As part of the new initiative, IBM will provide analytics technology to address the problem of water loss and to potentially locate leaks in VOMWD.
  http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsibm-scwa-partner-to-resolve-water-conservation-in-us-state
• Watertronics and Pentair have combined forces to educate architects, consultants and engineering firms on how they can provide innovative rainwater harvesting systems that result in the health of plants and landscaping, and in year-round savings through reduced municipal water needs for their clients.
  http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/article-display.articles.waterworld.drinking-water.water-resources.2012.03.Rain-water-harvesting-education-partnership.QP129867.dcmp=rss.page=1.html
• MIOX has renewed and expanded its partnership with Colombian-based USA Global Market S.A. to include exclusive distribution of MIOX on-site water disinfection products in the municipal water and wastewater markets in 17 Latin American countries.
  http://www.oilandgasonline.com/article.mvc/MIOX-Expands-Exclusive-Distribution-Agreement-0001?atc~c=771+s=773+r=001+l=a

Projects

• Veolia Water India, a subsidiary of Veolia Water, has secured a 25-year contract from the provincial government of the Nagpur city in Maharashtra to provide drinking water to the region.
  http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsveolia-water-secures-operation-and-maintenance-contract-in-india
• South Korean joint venture ProSep Kolon is to provide a produced water treatment package to Hyundai Engineering Co Ltd for a gas processing plant under construction in Oman.  The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2012.
  http://www.filtsep.com/view/24568/prosep-jv-to-supply-produced-water-treatment-system-to-oman/
• Ofwat’s £4bn Thames Tunnel project will be seeking external finance backed by a government guarantee during construction.
  http://www.pfie.com/thames-tunnel-advisers-finalised/21005568.article
• Calgon Carbon Corporation signed a ten-year contract with the City of Phoenix, Arizona, to provide reactivation services for activated carbon used to treat the city’s drinking water.
  http://www.waterworld.com/index/display/article-display.articles.waterworld.drinking-water.treatment.2012.03.Calgon-Carbon-to-provide-reactivation-services-for-Phoenix.QP129867.dcmp=rss.page=1.html
• H2O Innovation Inc has secured C$2.8 million in new contracts to provide custom-built water treatment systems to industrial and municipal end-users in the US and Canada.
  http://www.filtsep.com/view/24413/h2o-innovation-awarded-water-treatment-contracts-worth-c-2-8mn/
• Pentair X-Flow will supply its Seaflex ultrafiltration (UF) membranes to the Al Zawrah seawater reverse osmosis plant in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, where the UF system is expected to produce 4783 m3/h of pretreated seawater to feed the reverse osmosis membrane system.
  http://www.filtsep.com/view/24430/pentair-x-flow-membranes-selected-for-al-zawrah-swro-plant/
• Energy Recovery Inc has signed a contract with IVM Minrav Sadyt to provide its PX Pressure Exchanger (PX) energy recovery devices to the Ashdod desalination plant in Israel.
  http://www.water-technology.net/news/newseri-to-provide-px-technology-for-ashdod-desalination-plant-in-israel

Innovation/ New Products

• Detroit-based H2bid Inc. has launched an e-bidding service that allows water and wastewater utilities to use an online bidding process for all contracts, including all products, projects, and services.
  http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/03/13/h2bid-announces-new-e-bidding-service-for-water-and-wastewater-utilities/
• Innovyze launched its InfoWater BackTrace eXtension (BTX) solution globally to identify contaminant injection locations and to provide complete event backtracking analysis, a tool expected to help water utilities to plan for and respond to contamination threats and incidents.
  http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsinnovyze-releases-new-contamination-threat-identification-tool
• H2O Innovation Inc’s Professional Water Technologies has developed SpectraGuard 350, a high performance antiscalant, to provide a higher level of control over inorganic and colloidal species in water reclamation plants and brackish water reverse osmosis plants.
  http://www.filtsep.com/view/24459/h2o-develops-chemical-pre-treatment-for-ro/
• The Gippsland Water Factory in the state of Victoria, Australia, is being implemented to reclaim domestic and industrial (pulp and paper) wastewater to provide a reliable and sustainable industrial water supply, replacing the high-quality raw water currently provided by Gippsland Water.  The plant involves membrane-bioreactor, activated-sludge incorporating biological nutrient removal and reverse-osmosis treatment.
  http://www.desalination.biz/news/magazine_article.asp?id=6410&title=MBR,+BNR+and+RO+combined+in+Gippsland+wastewater+reuse

Other

• Green infrastructure initiatives in New York City could see more than $2 billion in public and private investment commitment per a new agreement signed Tuesday.
  http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/a-greener-strategy-on-new-yorks-runaway-sewage/?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
• According to a new report by the American Water Works Association (AWWA), repairs and expansion of the US drinking water infrastructure will total $1 trillion over the next 25 years.
  http://www.water-technology.net/news/newsus-drinking-water-infrastructure-upgrades-to-cost-1trillion-awwa-report
• More than 90 schools, including Brown University and Harvard University, are banning the sale or restricting the use of plastic water bottles, unnerving the $22 billion retail packaged-water industry in the U.S.
  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-07/ivy-colleges-shunning-bottled-water-jab-at-22-billion-industry.html
• The world’s most pervasive groundwater pollution problem – nitrate in drinking water – is under scrutiny in the richest farming region of the United States.
  http://www.miller-mccune.com/environment/california-farms-get-testy-over-water-quality-40379/