LABOR RESOURCES FOR UTILITY MANAGERS

• What We Know About Coronavirus And Water Treatment

  During these challenging times, we want to be clear about what we know about coronavirus and water treatment. The obligations of the drinking water and wastewater treatment sector to the public and our workforce is not put on hold when new contaminants entering our systems come with unknowns.

• Meet The Influencer Who Organized A Well-Known Waterworks Company

  No one follows her on social media, yet she’s clearly a woman of influence. She has been described as a person of “keen business discernment,” someone respected for her “good judgment, common sense and foresight.” She is Sarah Charlotte Blair, whose idea to organize an iron pipe foundry in the South led to the formation of AMERICAN Cast Iron Pipe Company in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1905. John J. Eagan – a proponent of the Golden Rule in industry – was the company’s first president.

• Environmental Quality Of Life And Social Distancing

  Social distancing is one solution that will to allow for a “flattening” of the curve of COVID-19 (coronavirus). This is something each of us can do to help contribute to the timeliest reduction of this pandemic and speed the passing of this virus. It’s a major challenge as manufacturers: How can we adjust to do our part?

• West World: Lessons In Future-Focused Utility Management

  California always seems on the precipice, for better or worse. It can symbolize hope and prosperity — from the fortune seekers of the gold rush to today’s would-be Hollywood stars, it’s the place where a brighter future awaits (or, at least, where the sun always shines). Or, it can portend certain doom — a state on fire, both literally and figuratively, where (over)population and natural disasters eventually coalesce into catastrophe.

• 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.