WEF Highlights

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

At this year’s Water Environment Federation (WEF; Alexandria, Va.) Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC®), 44 teams of elite wastewater operators met in New Orleans to participate in the 31st-annual Operations Challenge competition. For 11 of those teams, 2018 marked their national-level debut. To help new teams acclimate to the rigorous pace and complexity of Operations […]