David (Tim) Chinn is a consulting engineer providing utility management, water treatment, supply and strategic planning services to both public and private clients in North America and globally. Based in Austin, Texas, he is also a member of the Engineering Faculty at Texas A&M University. Tim is a SVP and the former Director of AECOM’s Global Drinking Water Program and continues to serve AECOM as a senior Consultant on select projects. Mr. Chinn is a highly regarded expert in the use of membrane technology for water and wastewater treatment and prior to joining AECOM, was part of the Executive Management Team of Zenon Environmental when they were acquired by GE Water in 2006.
Experience
Mr. Chinn has more than 40 years professional engineering and consulting experience specializing in civil, environmental, sanitary and municipal engineering. His background includes special expertise in water and wastewater treatment; planning and design, water policy and regulation development, analysis, and compliance. He has special technical expertise in water treatment including inorganics removal (e.g., arsenic, lead, copper, iron, manganese, etc.) and corrosion control within water distribution systems. His management experience includes all phases of engineering personnel management and the formulation and administration of multi-million dollar budgets. He has been responsible for client relations and satisfaction on over 450 projects ranging in size from a few thousand dollars to more than $1 billion.
Prior to joining AECOM, Mr. Chinn was the Assistant Director for Governmental Affairs for the American Water Works Association (AWWA) in Washington, D.C. The AWWA is a major non-profit, scientific and educational society for more than 57,000 water supply professionals and organizations. He was responsible for monitoring, responding to, and influencing legislative and regulatory issues affecting the association. Many of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) were promulgated during Mr. Chinn’s tenure in Washington. Mr. Chinn routinely provided written comments to the Agency as well as testimony before Congress on behalf of the Association. As a spokesman for the Association on water policy in 1990, Mr. Chinn was quoted and is credited with coining the often-repeated phrase; “Water is to the economy of the 21st Century as Oil was to the economy of the last century. It is the fuel of our economic engines of the future.”
Mr. Chinn is nationally recognized in the drinking water arena and has written extensively and given numerous presentations on water issues. He has also served (and continues to serve) on several national committees concerning water supply and drinking water. Mr. Chinn coordinated a 3-year effort to complete the 2nd Edition of HDR Engineering’s “Handbook of Public Water Systems – published by John Wiley & Sons in 2001. He also authored the Water Supply Chapters of the 5th Edition (2003) and 6th Edition (2009) of Salvato’s “Environmental Engineering and Sanitation” published by John Wiley & Sons.
