The Water Alternative Delivery Changemaker

From design build to public-private partnership and a variety of methods in between, Brian Shell spends his days diversifying water supplies using alternative delivery approaches to help clients advance their resilient infrastructure goals.

United States | Wednesday, September 25, 2024
Reading Time : 4:15 minutes

From an early age, Brian Shell knew that he wanted to work on technical solutions that make society better. In high school, he participated in the Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition through the Water Environment Federation. This experience unlocked a full merit scholarship to his dream program — environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins University. After graduation, Brian began working as an engineer and giving back to aspiring water professionals.

Effective stakeholder engagement and structuring custom delivery approaches are at the forefront of Brian’s work. By applying collaborative or alternative delivery across a client’s total capital program where appropriate, he helps clients accomplish more for their communities.

What inspires your career?

Our public sector partners are being asked to do more with less, which can include a variety of things such as completing projects in less time, issuing fewer separate procurements or lowering the overall cost. I think what’s most exciting about alternative delivery is accomplishing more with less by using a combination of different delivery models across a program. As we look at the state of infrastructure and issues like deferred maintenance, the public sector has many challenges ahead of them. The negative effects of delaying projects may mean that communities don’t have access to clean drinking water or reliable transit. If we can figure out a more optimal way for them to deliver a program of projects now, we’ve helped society.

What are the biggest challenges in your field that you’re working to help resolve?

I think the backlog of infrastructure work we must accomplish in the U.S. is a big challenge. Alternative delivery can help an agency accomplish more of its portfolio of projects sooner and that sets communities up for better infrastructure in the future. Alternative delivery models can be part of the solution but it’s not all of it. Asset management is important for agencies in understanding the state of their infrastructure, so they can make wise capital planning, project delivery and investment decisions.

What are some impactful projects you have been a part of?

An exciting project was serving as the project manager for the Baltimore Regional Water Governance Taskforce. I lived in Baltimore for 16 years and I’m proud to be part of a project that will improve the water systems for generations. The taskforce, created by the government, studied the Baltimore City and Baltimore County water systems to create a utility of the future. Although separate administratively, residential drinking water comes from the same reservoir and stormwater flows don’t respect political boundaries, so coordination between the two entities was constant out of necessity. We helped develop a set of recommendations of what the utilities could look like in the future.

Brian Shell

Practice Lead, Water Alternative Delivery, Advisory & Planning

United States

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I’ve had the opportunity to be part of teams for desalination projects in California, Hawaii and Texas. We helped the clients to select the delivery method based on what made sense for each project.

I recently began working on a feasibility study with ten Mid-Michigan water providers to lead owner/operator alternatives development and the financial and economic analysis to determine if repurposing lime residuals for softening via a regional lime calciner facility can provide a significant cost and operational benefit for the communities.

Why do you enjoy working at WSP?

I like the variety of work that I’m able to do at WSP and the opportunity to serve as a thought leader in the industry. I'm passionate about water and wastewater but I've also worked on a lot of transportation projects as well. Being able to combine this experience is what interested me in joining WSP. The company has supported my passion to give back through the Water Environment Federation where I have served on several committees, contributed to manuals of practice and judged papers from the same high school competition I participated in.

WSP is truly at the forefront of so many exciting developments and I know that any time a client has a question, I can “phone a friend” at WSP and have an expert to help them through whatever they are facing.

Brian with colleagues at the Purple Line light rail groundbreaking. Delivered under a public-private partnership the project will provide faster and more reliable transit service between Bethesda and New Carrollton, Maryland, with 21 stations.

Brian is an active volunteer for the Water Environment Federation where he has served on several committees, contributed to manuals of practice and judged papers for the Stockholm Junior Water Prize.

What emerging trends or technologies do you find most promising?

More communities are looking to diversify their water supply because of the changing climate conditions. We are advising clients on several desalination projects. This is a valuable technology, whether used for seawater desalination, brackish groundwater protection or aquifer injection.

Communities are also more open to potable reuse, which acknowledges that all water is recycled. Reuse creates water efficiency by reclaiming treated wastewater before it goes out into the environment, and then using it as the input to a drinking water treatment process. It’s the future and a huge step forward.

The way we communicate about these projects and technologies to the public is incredibly important. In fact, we made a shift in the industry to refer to facilities as water reclamation facilities because that’s more reflective of reality than calling it a water treatment plant. By having a diverse portfolio of water using technologies ranging from desalination to potable reuse, it’s satisfying to help clients become Future Ready.

Alternative delivery can help an agency accomplish more of their portfolio of projects sooner and that sets communities up for better infrastructure in the future.