ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Retired professional mechanical engineer Mike Higgins, 75, recently sent the city of St. Petersburg a letter with ideas on how to redesign backflow preventers to make them more ...

Brett Rathje (front) and Eric Egge (back) look on while Derek Young works on a valve as they try to repair a water main break in Onslow in Jones County in 2014. Rathje, Egge and Young were working for ...