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North Carolina jobs program fills vacancies, forges careers

July 31, 2019

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Charlotte (N.C.) Water has instituted a yearlong utility apprenticeship program with the goal of attracting new talent from the local community. Pictured left to right: Charlotte Water apprenticeship program graduates Desmond McKinnon, Edi Cardoza, and Beanard Odom, II. Photo courtesy of Jackie Jarrell/Charlotte Water.

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 […]

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Regulator pens sci-fi murder mystery exploring tensions between engineers and operators

July 24, 2019

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Click here for more information about “A Printer’s Choice” as well as where to purchase a copy. Photo courtesy of Bill Patenaude.

Environmental regulator Bill Patenaude’s commitment to addressing climate change does not stop when he heads home from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM), where he assesses the effects of climate change on the state’s wastewater infrastructure. Last year, Patenaude published “A Printer’s Choice,” a science fiction novel set in the year 2088, when […]

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New Jersey high-schooler Sonja Michaluk wins 2019 U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Prize competition

July 17, 2019

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Sonja Michaluk (right), backed by her mother (left), receives the 2019 U.S. SJWP during the national competition, held June 13 to 16 at the Ohio State University (Columbus). Photo courtesy of Annelise Taggart.

Sonja Michaluk, a junior at Hopewell Valley Central High School (Pennington, N.J.), already boasts a career in water research that would be impressive for a scientist twice her age. And after the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) announced last month that she will represent the U.S. at the 2019 Stockholm Junior Water Prize (SJWP) […]

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As Seen on Television: Part 2

July 10, 2019

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Film and water getty image

Although water and wastewater treatment is a vital public service, often it is difficult for customers to understand the processes, products, and people that keep our water safe and our environment clean. Luckily, Hollywood has a way of bringing unseen and undiscussed concepts into the public eye through theaters and living rooms. Last November, WEF […]

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Phoenix suburb encourages residents to “Be G.R.O.S.S.”

June 28, 2019

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The Be G.R.O.S.S. campaign introduces a colorful cast of characters that capture the attention of both children and adults. WRM hopes the campaign will drive down maintenance costs associated with headworks clogs from improper waste disposal. Photo courtesy of WRM.

A new public education campaign is relying on social media, community outreach and kid-friendly messaging to motivate residents of a Phoenix suburb to rethink their waste disposal habits. Developed by the Water Resource Management (WRM) department in Surprise, Ariz., the campaign invites residents to “Be G.R.O.S.S” — that is, Guardians Regarding Our Sewer System. It […]

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Washington inmates bring drinking water to Ethiopian prisons through one-of-a-kind program

June 17, 2019

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Former California plumbing contractor Andy Pierce (right) is the founder of Project 41, an initiative that enlists Washington-state prison inmates to build water filters for use in water-scarce parts of Africa. Photo courtesy of Project 41.

This story begins with a bicycle-powered swimming pool pump in Haiti and ends with 400 inmates in Washington building water filtration systems for Ethiopian prisons. Many dots must be connected to get from one to the other, and they all pass through a California plumbing contractor named Andy Pierce. From aid worker to entrepreneur Pierce’s […]

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PERL: This gem of an educational partnership is helping build Indiana’s water workforce

May 21, 2019

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Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology civil engineering students toured several Citizens projects through PERL last spring. Photo courtesy of Citizens Energy Group.

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 […]

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Columbia, S.C.’s atypical apprenticeship program is working, and here’s proof

May 14, 2019

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Operator apprentices at Columbia Water complete walk-through practicals as part of their training and evaluation. Photo courtesy of Hickman.

When it rains, it doesn’t always pour — at least not at the City of Columbia (S.C.) Metropolitan Wastewater Treatment Plant. Even after a historic 1,000-year flood in 2015 and the wettest December on record 3 years later, the 227-ML/d (60-mgd) facility remained well within its regulatory limits every day, according to superintendent David Wiman. […]

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