University Park, Pennsylvania- Liquid Assets: The Story of Our Water Infrastructure, is the winner of the American Association of Engineering Societies 2009 Engineering Journalism Award. The documentary focuses on America’s aging water infrastructure systems. Produced by Penn State Public Broadcasting, the project architect and executive producer is Tom Keiter, Director of Creative Development at PSPB and 7group partner.

The AAES Engineering Journalism Award recognizes outstanding reporting of an event or issue that furthers public understanding of engineering. Each year, one award is presented in one of three categories: daily newspapers, general circulation print media, or broadcast radio or television. Past Recipients of the AAES Award include the Washington Post, Fortune Magazine, Time-Warner, and the Chicago Tribune.

Liquid Assets, an integrated public broadcasting and outreach initiative, debuted in October 2008 and has aired on public television stations across the country. The program explores our complex and aging water systems – some which have been in the ground for more than 150 years. The documentary has been broadcast over 1,000 times on over 350 PBS stations coordinated with hundreds of community public screening and outreach events; over 15,000 free DVD copies have been distributed nationwide with copies requested for members of the U.S. Congress and Senate. You can watch the documentary’s trailer and learn about outreach activities associated with the show at liquidassets.psu.edu.

Penn State Public Broadcasting is committed to the concept of public service media: developing non-commercial programming on important societal issues and helping to foster community discussions in concurrence with the broadcast. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Keiter, a 7group partner, has been a documentary filmmaker for 25+ years and now focuses his work on issues of sustainability and green building. In addition to his role at Penn State, Keiter maintains groupPositive, a communications consulting group that has produced numerous projects on green building including the Building Green videos utilized in USGBC’s LEED training, This Remarkable Place, produced for the Heinz Endowments and the Green Building Alliance, and High Performance Buildings: Perspective and Practice with the Rocky Mountain Institute. His work has received national recognition from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmys), CINE Golden Eagle, the International Film and Video Festival, and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.