ASCE has honored Suman Naishadham, Brittany Peterson, and Camille Fasset with the 2024 ASCE Excellence in Journalism Award for their outstanding coverage of intense flooding events and their impact on the nation’s sewage treatment plants.
The Associated Press team’s piece, Rising Flood Risks Threaten Many Water and Sewage Treatment Plants across the U.S., offers readers national and local looks at how severe rainfall events impact communities. The piece featured an interview with ASCE member Darren Olson, P.E., chair of the 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure and stormwater infrastructure expert. The piece touches on how a changing climate is impacting these systems that were built for much smaller capacity needs than they currently need to serve, even providing visually engaging maps with data that showcases flood risk to major wastewater plants. Most citizens don’t think about the connection between stormwater and wastewater and the ramifications on public health when a wastewater facility overflows. The piece was published on August 10, 2023, on AP’s national site and was shared by dozens of local affiliates around the nation. The Excellence in Journalism Committee recognized the Associated Press team for their ability to simplify a complex issue that is largely out-of-sight/out-of-mind for most American citizens, yet impacts all of us.
In 1994, ASCE established the Excellence in Journalism Award to honor newspaper journalists for outstanding articles that enhance public understanding of the role and impact of civil engineering in designing solutions for clean water, transportation, the environment, and other public works projects. In 2006, the award was expanded to include journalists and producers from English-language, general-interest regional and national newspapers, radio and television stations, magazines, and electronic and Web-based news outlets.
