The Many Meanings of ‘Mentorship’
Ask anybody in the water sector how they first entered the profession, and most answers will have something in common: the influence of a mentor. Read the full article in May 2022 Water Environment & Technology
Author Archives: Jessica Rozek
Words On Water #218: Andy Kricun on Best Practices in Workforce Development
LISTEN to @AndyKricun of @MoonshotWater discuss a compendium of 21 case studies on how water utilities improved workforces through educational programs and internships, recruitment practices, employee optimization, and transfer of institutional knowledge.
WEF’s Compendium of Successful Water Workforce Practices
“Perhaps no aspect of water and wastewater treatment is more important than the workforce that performs the day-to-day work needed to provide safe drinking water and to protect our public waterways.” says Andy Kircun in his WEF Blog about WEF’s Compendium of Successful Water Workforce Practices. Read the full blog. Download the full Compendium on …
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Operations Challenge 2021 Coverage
Coverage of the 2021 Operations Challenge competition in Water Environment & Technology magazine is now live! Take a look: PART 1 PART 2 This year’s coverage features stories from all three divisions and all five events, with many new and familiar faces making appearances. Congratulations again to this year’s competitors, especially Mount Pleasant Waterworks Controlled …
North Carolina jobs program fills vacancies, forges careers
Charlotte (N.C.) Water has a fresh approach to finding new utility technicians. That approach is a yearlong apprenticeship program offered by the utility trains recruits in a variety of skills — and even guarantees them a job upon completion. The program was created to tackle a high turnover and vacancy rate for the city’s utility technician position, which involves water and sewer maintenance. …
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Collections Systems Professionals Invent New Tools for Battle Against Non-Flushables
Flushing woven and nonwoven household products – such as wet wipes for restroom use or cosmetic wipes for removing makeup – is a global issue for the wastewater sector. These products are often mislabeled as “flushable” despite their inability to disperse in conventional collections systems. Flushing them can result in costly and messy septic backups, …
CDC Webinar on COVID-19 Vaccination for Water Sector – February 10
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is hosting a series of webinars on COVID-19 vaccination for essential workers, including a webinar specifically for the Water Sector on February 10, 2021. The webinar will provide an overview of vaccine distribution and implementation and briefly cover safety and efficacy. Participants are encouraged to submit any questions they have …
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PERL: This gem of an educational partnership is helping build Indiana’s water workforce
While known for top-rated university science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs that are educating the next generation of water professionals, the state of Indiana has a problem: convincing graduating students to stay. Half of the 2014-to-2016 bachelor’s-level STEM graduates of Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.), for example, found employment out of state, according to a study by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. Such …
SUNY Ulster’s evening training program designed for new and current water professionals
A hundred miles north of New York City, not far from the origin of the 107-year-old Catskills Aqueduct that supplies 40% of the Big Apple’s water, a new generation of professionals is being trained to protect the region’s coveted water resources. All are students of SUNY Ulster Community College (Stone Ridge, N.Y.). SUNY Ulster launched its new wastewater operator training program in January 2019 to address a looming worker shortage and prepare new and current operators to manage and maintain water resource recovery facilities, according to professional engineer Henry Jaen, the program’s director. Designed …
Columbia, S.C.’s atypical apprenticeship program is working, and here’s proof
When it rains, it doesn’t always pour. At least not at Columbia, South Carolina’s water resource recovery facility – even after a historic 1,000-year flood in 2015 and the wettest December on record three years later. “During these periods, we were treating sustained flows that were 25 to 30% above design capacity every single day,” said David Wiman, superintendent for the city’s 60-mgd plant. “And every single day, the plant was well within regulatory limits.” …
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