Rhode Island Wastewater Boot Camp Trains Operators for Professional Growth

January 30, 2019

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Wastewater professionals tour the Narragansett Bay Commission (Providence, R.I.) Fields Point wastewater treatment facility as part of the Wastewater Operator Leadership Boot Camp. Photo courtesy of Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM).

Wastewater professionals tour the Narragansett Bay Commission (Providence, R.I.) Fields Point wastewater treatment facility as part of the Wastewater Operator Leadership Boot Camp. Photo courtesy of Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (RIDEM).

When you hear the term boot camp, visions of crawling through mud under barbed wire or climbing up a 6-m (20-ft) wall may come to mind. But wastewater operators in Rhode Island who have been through their version of boot camp, faced very different challenges.

The Wastewater Operator Leadership Boot Camp is training operators to move up the ladder at their utilities, according to a boot camp fact sheet. The program was developed by the state of Rhode Island, the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission (Lowell, Mass.), and the Narragansett Water Pollution Control Association (Cranston, R.I.)

Program participants enter a digester control building at the Narragansett Bay Commission Bucklin Point wastewater treatment facility to get hands-on education and ideas for how to improve processes at their own facilities. Photo courtesy of RIDEM.

Program participants enter a digester control building at the Narragansett Bay Commission Bucklin Point wastewater treatment facility to get hands-on education and ideas for how to improve processes at their own facilities. Photo courtesy of RIDEM.

“As an engineer, we focus on technical content, but the real goal [of the program] is to get them to think outside of the box,” said Bill Patenaude, a principal engineer in Rhode Island’s Department of Environmental Management Office of Water Resources, who created and has managed the program since its inception in 2007.

Those who have gone through the boot camp, which lasts for roughly a year beginning each October, were nominated by their employers. They were chosen because “they have exhibited leadership qualities and the potential for future growth within the wastewater operator profession,” according to the fact sheet. “While boot camp is not a guarantee of future employment opportunities, it is intended to provide professional development that can assist participants with career growth.”

Learning important skills all over the state

Boot Camp participants gather for a class at the RIDEM forestry and hunting education center for facilitated professional and personal development aimed at making them better managers and leaders. Program creator Bill Patenaude, a principal engineer in the RIDEM Office of Water Resources, shares his insights as facilitator Rebecca Twitchell listens. Photo courtesy of RIDEM.

Boot Camp participants gather for facilitated professional and personal development aimed at making them better managers and leaders. Program creator Bill Patenaude, a principal engineer in the RIDEM Office of Water Resources, shares his insights as facilitator Rebecca Twitchell listens. Photo courtesy of RIDEM.

Operators enrolled in the boot camp must attend one class each month. The coursework covers the topics of technical, professional, and personal development, which can range from laboratory work to discussing how to talk to the media, Patenaude said.

Classes are taught by volunteers and one instructor who receives a small stipend, Patenaude said. They take place all over the state of Rhode Island.

“When we first started the boot camp in 2007, it was definitely conference room-based training,” Patenaude said. But the program organizers “realized the importance of going to different plants. For the participants, they either see what everyone else is doing and take pride in what they’re doing at their plant, or they see how to up their game.”

Boot camp participants get a tour of the secondary treatment processes at the Cranston Water Pollution Control Facility. Photo courtesy of RIDEM.

Boot camp participants get a tour of the secondary treatment processes at the Cranston Water Pollution Control Facility. Photo courtesy of RIDEM.

Now the organizers try to get the attendees to go to as many water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) around the state as possible, particularly the WRRFs run by the Narragansett Bay Commission (Providence), which happen to be two of the largest facilities in Rhode Island, Patenaude said.

Classes also are offered at the R.I. Emergency Management Agency to discuss topics related to emergency management. They’ve even gone to the pavilion on the beach and had sessions in hunting/fishing lodge to show how wastewater treatment affects the environment and all industries, Patenaude said.

“We try to give them a wide view of what’s going on around the state rather than having them in one training room for all 12 sessions. We want them to see how all the decisions they make affect all these different things,” Patenaude said.

The attendees aren’t allowed to skip any classes; they must be made up later to complete the program. And at the end, participants graduate at the Narragansett Water Pollution Control Association’s annual tradeshow and clambake.

Graduates of the 2017 Wastewater Operator Leadership Boot Camp pose for a picture with program creator Bill Patenaude (right). Photo courtesy of RIDEM.

Graduates of the 2017 Wastewater Operator Leadership Boot Camp pose for a picture with program creator Bill Patenaude (right). Photo courtesy of RIDEM.

So far, 80 people have graduated from the program, many of whom are in management positions, according to a fact sheet. Some graduates even come back to speak to new attendees.

“We have [graduates] come back to talk to them the first day,” Patenaude said. “That helps set the tone for what their expectations should be.”

Evolving and expanding the boot camp

Since starting the program, organizers have made some changes. In addition to breaking out of the traditional classroom setting, Patenaude said the program now incorporates more interaction with environmental advocates since the work that they do correlates to the work done by wastewater operators. Both are trying to keep the environment safe and water clean.

Boot camp participants get hands-on education from others wastewater professionals as motivation to think outside the box. Photo courtesy of RIDEM.

Boot camp participants get hands-on education from other wastewater professionals as motivation to think outside the box. Photo courtesy of RIDEM.

The boot camp also has expanded outside of Rhode Island to all the other states in the Northeast. Those states have made their own spins on the program. Those versions, in turn, influence Rhode Island’s program.

“Maine was the second state to start a boot camp program and they ran with it,” Patenaude said. “They added the requirement that every participant do a final presentation at the end. We changed our boot camp to include something similar.”

Patenaude said it’s feasible for other states outside of the Northeast to start their own boot camps. But he reminds others interested in emulating the program in their home state that traveling across Rhode Island is “fairly easy”. Other states can conduct boot camps regionally or in their counties to make travel easier for participants, he said.

— LaShell Stratton-Childers, WEF Highlights

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