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The American Bottom, or Bottoms, is a Southern Illinois area of 175-square miles in the flood plain of the Mississippi River, protected from flooding by a system of levees and canals. The cities in the American Bottom, such as Granite City, IL (population 30,000), have to contend with seasonally high, fluctuating groundwater, which can have a disastrous effect on underground facilities like sewers.

George O. Vernon, 73, died on Nov. 2 at the Memorial Medical Center in Ashland, WI. He founded Northern Clearing Inc. in May 1966 and passed on the ownership to his sons Richard, Todd Craig and daughter Kristine in 1997.

Industry efforts are well underway to assist with the relief efforts stemming from Hurricane Sandy that that devastated portions of the Caribbean, Mid-Atlantic, and Northeastern United States during late October 2012, with lesser impacts in the Southeastern, Midwestern states and Eastern Canada.

Far beneath the surface of Austin’s Lady Bird Lake ‒ a 416-acre water reservoir that provides recreational opportunities as well as flood control ‒ years of intense “dirty work” took place, largely unnoticed by local citizens, as crews labored to create a huge wastewater tunnel that ran as deep as 80 feet underground.