NEW YORK, NY – STV today announced that Jim Mueller, PE, has joined the firm as national utility management market leader and senior client services manager. In this role, Mueller will lead client engagement for the firm’s water operating group across the Northeast and advance STV’s utility management services. He will help clients deliver more resilient and efficient water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure by integrating utility planning, design and operations.
Mueller’s appointment comes as utilities nationwide confront aging infrastructure, climate risk and pressure to balance affordability with system reliability. In the Northeast, legacy infrastructure, dense urban conditions and complex governance are complicating how utilities access funding and deliver long-term upgrades.
“Utilities are shifting from capital delivery to long-term system performance,” said Chris Haney, PE, president of the Water operating group at STV. “Jim’s experience across planning, design, construction and utility operations gives our clients a leader who understands how to move critical infrastructure programs from strategy through commissioning while balancing technical, financial and stakeholder priorities.”
Mueller brings more than 33 years of experience leading complex water and wastewater systems through capital investment, operations, regulatory compliance and long-term planning. Most recently, Mueller served as executive director of the Passaic Valley Water Commission, New Jersey’s largest public water utility, where he was responsible for treating and distributing more than 100 million gallons of drinking water per day to more than 800,000 people across northern New Jersey. There, he advanced a $900 million, five-year capital program and modernized the planning and development of new data management systems and dashboards that increased transparency and efficiency in water quality and management.
He previously spent over two decades at the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, managing the city’s combined sewer overflow and wet weather programs. His NYCDEP portfolio included major programs such as the $7 billion CSO construction program, $1.1 billion in nitrogen upgrades, $2.5 billion in state-of-good-repair improvements, the Croton Water Filtration Plant and the Newtown Creek secondary treatment upgrades.
Mueller holds an MBA from New York University and both a master’s degree in environmental engineering and a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from Manhattan University. He is a licensed professional engineer in New York, served on national peer review panels with the Water Research Foundation and held leadership roles with organizations including the National Association of Clean Water Agencies and the New York Water Environment Association.
For more than 45 years, STV has delivered integrated management strategies for water, wastewater, water resources and resource recovery projects for clients nationwide and is ranked 18th for Water Transmission Lines and Aqueducts in Engineering News-Record’s Top 500 Design Firms. Notable projects in the Northeast include floodwall protection for the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission in Newark, New Jersey, upgrades for the Southwest Pollution Control Plant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and flood mitigation at the Coney Island Yard Complex in Brooklyn, New York.
