WRF is pleased to announce a new Tailored Collaboration project sponsored by the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) titled, “Collaborative Water Utility Benchmarking in North America” (#4659). This project seeks to determine if we can advance water and wastewater utility performance by combining industry frameworks including metric benchmarking and process benchmarking. It builds on past efforts and includes updates to the approaches used by WSAA and AWWA.

EPA has posted a recently developed Algal Toxin Strategic Plan on its Website. The strategic plan outlines approaches and projects that will control and manage algal toxins in source water and treat algal toxins in drinking water. Additionally, the EPA has released a pre-publication copy of its proposed Fourth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, which includes 10 cyanotoxins/groups. WRF has a number of recently published and updated resources to help.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released data that provides detailed information and age comparisons for employed persons in the Utility Sector. The statistics show the water sector had 238,000 employees, while 148,000 were over the age of 45. This data verifies that 62% of our nations Water Operations Specialists were eligible to retire within 10 years. The median age of a water professional was listed at 48.4 years.

There have been reports of issues accessing the updated Overflow Report Form. The issue appears to involve ADOBE 11, web browsers other than Internet Explorer, and mobile phone access to the form. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation is working on the problems, but in the meantime, here are some ideas to avoid those problems should you need to report an overflow before they are corrected.

1. Don’t download ADOBE 11. Continue using ADOBE 10 until the problem is fixed.

2. Use only Internet Explorer as your web browser.

Just a reminder to those that wish to send a letter and those that may wish to consider, we would like to repeat this message, please read on. 

DEC Issues Findings Statement Concluding Extensive Seven-Year Review

The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) today officially prohibited high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) in New York State by issuing its formal Findings Statement, completing the state’s seven-year review of this activity.