Tag Archives: Operations Challenge

Operations Challenge 2020 to Begin Streaming Oct. 5

September 30, 2020

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Operations Challenge 2020 will stream live beginning at 10 a.m. EDT on Monday, October 5. This year’s competition features a modified format and a revised divisional structure. It will be available for the public to watch live for the first time in the competition’s 33-year history. Image courtesy of Kieffer Photography

Operations Challenge 2020 will stream live beginning at 2:30 p.m. EDT on Monday, October 5. This year’s competition features a modified format and a revised divisional structure. It will be available for the public to watch live for the first time in the competition’s 33-year history. Image courtesy of Kieffer Photography During WEFTEC Connect, 27 […]

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Register for the First-Ever Remote Operations Challenge Competition

August 6, 2020

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Coinciding with WEFTEC Connect, Operations Challenge 2020 will take on a remote format. Teams of two will compete in abridged versions of the Process Control, Laboratory, and Collections Systems events beginning Monday, Oct. 5. Image courtesy of Kieffer Photography

Operations Challenge – the high-energy, teams-based skills competition that each year draws the global wastewater operations community’s best talent to the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Virginia) Technical Exhibition & Conference (WEFTEC) – will take on a new form for 2020 to coincide with the digital WEFTEC Connect format. Coinciding with WEFTEC Connect, Operations Challenge […]

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WEF Members Todd Saums and Tom McGrain Aid Bahamas Relief Efforts

December 3, 2019

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Todd Saums (left) and Tom McGrain (right), water professionals working for the Northwestern Water and Sewer District (Bowling Green, Ohio), recently volunteered with Operators Without Borders to help restore water and wastewater services in the hurricane-battered Bahamas. Photo courtesy of Saums.

Todd Saums and Tom McGrain, who operate and manage water resource recovery facilities for the Northwestern Water and Sewer District (Bowling Green, Ohio) have had a busy year. Saums and McGrain, members of the Ohio Water Environment Association (OWEA) and the Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.), spent the first several months of 2019 practicing […]

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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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Apprenticeship Program: The “Secret Sauce” Behind Hampton Roads’ Success

April 30, 2019

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Hampton Roads Apprentice Featured

Faced with the challenge of staffing three new water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs), Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD; Virginia Beach, Va.) launched its wastewater apprenticeship program in 1979. HRSD has grown to operate 13 award-winning WRRFs that provide service to 1.7 million residents across 18 cities and counties. Its apprenticeship program has grown in tandem, […]

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WEF Staff Bike To Show Operators Appreciation on World Water Day

April 17, 2019

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Biking for Operators - Featured

On March 22, four Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) staff members strapped on their helmets and pedaled their way around the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area to celebrate water resource recovery facility (WRRF) operators. Jessica Rozek, Steve Harrison, Megan Livak, and Brad Lovett celebrated World Water Day by biking to three local WRRFs. The group […]

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Operators Without Borders Makes a Lasting Difference in the Caribbean

January 29, 2019

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Operators Without Borders Featured

When Valerie Jenkinson heard about the devastation in the small Caribbean nation of Dominica after Hurricane Maria, she was not content to just make a donation. She started an organization that will make a much larger and lasting difference: Operators Without Borders. Jenkinson knows the Caribbean area well since she spends about 6 month every […]

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In Memoriam: James (Jim) Miller Contributes 30 Years to Operations Challenge

January 18, 2019

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In Memoriam - Jim Miller

James “Jim” E. Miller, a member of the Water Environment Federation and Central States Water Environment Association (CSWEA) since 1977, died May 21, 2018, at the age of 62. Miller most recently had worked as a senior water and wastewater specialist and trainer at Wenck Associates Inc. (Maple Plain, Minn.). “Jim had been in the […]

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