LABOR RESOURCES FOR UTILITY MANAGERS

• Six Essential Leadership Capacities Report

  We are up against the greatest challenges of our time — a looming climate crisis, skyrocketing expenses in major urban cities, deteriorating infrastructure, a nation that seems increasingly divided… there is so much to do and never enough time to get it all done.

• 50+ Links To Assist Small, Stressed Water Utilities

  While any drinking water or wastewater treatment operation can be challenged by demands from changing seasonal conditions or regulatory requirements, those pressures can quickly compound for personnel forced to wear multiple hats at small- to medium-sized utilities. Here are scores of links to helpful resources for such operators for the municipalities and consulting engineers who work with them.

• Serious Games: Transforming Customer Engagement And Professional Training In The Water Sector

  If you thought gaming was just for kids and couch potatoes, serious gaming may change your perspective — and how you manage your utility.

• Opportunity Bound: From Temp, To Intern, To Full-Time Employee

  Cian Davis helps protect crucial parts of Denver Water's complex system from the effects of corrosion.

• The Drive Towards Digital Transformation

  It seems that everywhere that you go in the water industry at the current time, somebody is talking about digital transformation…or if we go back five minutes, it was Water 4.0…and 10 minutes ago (it seems), it was “smart water.” These are all very well used buzzwords that the industry is destined to think about for a short-term and then promptly forget about. In reality, though, we as an industry have been hit by a number of different concepts for a number of different technological aspects for a good number of years now. For almost as long we have had a term for all of this — “widgets.”

• EPA Reveals The Key To Clean Water

  Water and wastewater treatment plant operators may not always love regulators, but they should love what the U.S. EPA water chief had to say about them. Speaking at the “BusinessH20 Water Innovation Summit” in September, the EPA’s assistant administrator for water, Dave Ross, referred to those who clean our country’s drinking water and wastewater as “silent, everyday unsung heroes.” While not as celebrated as others who dedicate themselves to public service, such as police officers, firefighters, and teachers, they are every bit as essential — if not more so.

• WWEMA Window: The Importance Of Character

  When we talk about what’s important in this industry (or our lives, for that matter), several things come to mind — money, for one, can be a dominant stressor, whether that’s from increasing costs or pressures on profitability. Maintaining and adding talent is also problematic. Skills and hiring have reached a critical point.

• WWEMA Window: In Memory Of Bridget O’Grady (7/11/1949 – 7/9/2019)

  This month I would like to celebrate and honor a dear colleague and friend who recently lost a short but heroic battle with cancer. Bridget O’Grady was just two days shy of her 70th birthday — the date that she had set for retirement. What makes Bridget remarkable is that much of her life and career was dedicated to making drinking water safe and secure for all of us; and she worked to the end to make that a reality.

• Denver Hosts The Biggest Water Conference Of Its Kind

  More than 12,000 people are expected to attend the international ACE19 meeting, focusing on ‘Innovating the Future of Water.’

• WWEMA Window: Investing In Associations

  This is not a shameless plug about joining an association. One of the key topics over the last decade at the Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association (WWEMA) and our affiliated organizations has been recruiting volunteers and getting membership stabilized.