Hazen & Sawyer’s Larsen Dies

The trenchless technology industry lost one of its leaders March 13 when JensPeter Larsen of Hazen and Sawyer, passed away. He was 57.

For the past 30 years, Peter developed SSES and sewer repair programs. He wasproficient at designing wastewater collection, transmission and treatmentfacilities but seemed to always gravitate to sewer system analysis and repair.
Peter held bachelor and master of science degrees from the University ofTexas at Arlington and was a registered professional engineer in Florida, Texasand Louisiana.

Early in his career, Peter performed SSES studies, a requirement for EPAfunding. At that time, the dig-and-replace method was the standard sewer repairtechnology. During the 1970s, he performed SSES studies in San Juan, PuertoRico, Jackson, Miss., and numerous other cities in the southeast.

He joined Hazen & Sawyer in May 1990 and formed the firm’sInfiltration/Inflow Group, managing I/I analysis and many sewer repair programsin southern Florida. Peter was a key team member of the Miami-Dade County Waterand Sewer Department’s $230 million sewer rehabilitation program, and was also amember of the County’s “New Technology Review Committee,” which evaluated andapproved innovative sewer repair technologies. He was working on the EPA-fundedMiami Dade Lateral Pilot Program at the time of his death.

During his career, Peter developed several sewer evaluation procedures andworked with many sewer repair equipment manufacturers and contractors to improvenew trenchless sewer repair technologies. He conducted sewer system evaluationsurveys, infiltration/inflow analyses and sewer system rehabilitation programsfor more than 7,500 miles of sewer lines and authored more than 15 papers onsewer inflow/infiltration techniques and repair programs.

Peter was an active member of several associations, serving on the Board ofDirectors for the Southeast Society of Trenchless Technologies. He was also amember of the Water Environment Federation, Inter-American Association ofSanitary Engineering, American Water Works Association, American Public WorksAssociation, AIDIS and the National Association of Sewer Service Companies. Hewas one of the first Pipeline Assessment and Certification Program trainers.

Peter was a strong advocate for trenchless technology repairs and provided alink between the industries’ field findings and the development of repairspecifications to ensure a quality product.