» Clean Water Current Archive

July 22, 2011

NACWA Conference Underscores Clean Water Agencies’ Rapidly Evolving, Expanding Role

NACWA’s 2011 Summer Conference & 41st Annual Meeting, Engineered for Success. . . Creating a First Class Public Utility, took place this week in Chicago with over 300 attendees and focused on the expanding role of public clean water agencies.  The conference featured committee meetings that provided a forum for detailed discussions of NACWA’s advocacy priorities, general sessions and workshops focused on clean water agencies’ role as resource recovery agents and drivers of innovation, as well as key actions by NACWA’s Board of Directors and membership.

NACWA’s committees have never been more highly attended, due in part to consecutive rather than concurrent meetings, affording all attendees a chance to engage in all issues and initiatives in which the Association is engaged.  These meetings featured robust discussions on progress being made by EPA toward a comprehensive sanitary sewer overflow (SSO) rule, the finalization of draft Money Matters™ regulatory prioritization legislation, the enormous implications of upcoming EPA regulation on stormwater,  and the Agency’s continued considerations on how best to address nutrient control.  NACWA will be providing all Association members with summaries from these committee meetings via Member Update soon.

Setting the pace for the meeting was a high-energy opening keynote address by Jason Ryan Dorsey, Crossing the Generational Divide: Unlocking the Power of Generations.  Dorsey, also known as ‘The Gen Y Guy’, provided a humorous and insightful discussion of strategies to maximize workplace productivity and overcome the often vastly different generational perspectives on the role of the workplace and technology. 

Provocative Session Explores ‘Cradle to Cradle’ Thinking

A facilitated workshop by William McDonough, From Waste to Resource: Cradle to Cradle & Clean Water, built off of a keynote address by McDonough that discussed principles from his book, Cradle to Cradle, on the need to recast how all businesses and service providers employ principles of sustainability and resource recovery into their activities.  The session focused on how to employ commerce and market principles to drive innovation rather than being largely defined and limited by current regulatory structures.  The highlight of the facilitated session were case study presentations by NACWA member agencies in Carlsbad, Calif., Fountain Valley Calif., and Milwaukee, Wis., outlining efforts to capture and reuse nutrients, develop creative water reuse approaches and technologies, and adopt on-site energy generation and energy efficiency approaches. 

An Industry Leader Roundtable featuring five CEOs from top engineering and consulting firms was also a highlight.  These industry leaders were able to draw on their broad national and international experience to discuss what utilities are doing to become more sustainable.  Ideas raised included demonstration-scale projects, the use of private capital, as well creative capital pooling to limit the financial risks that can stifle innovation and resource recovery efforts and the rapid adoption of innovative technologies. 

Board Takes Key Actions to Help Ensure NACWA Efforts Advance

NACWA’s Board of Directors took several key actions this week at NACWA's Summer Conference that will ensure the Association is on a solid financial and programmatic path going forward.  The Board voted to approve the fiscal year (FY) 2012 Association Business Plan which sets out the goals, objectives, strategies and actions for the upcoming fiscal year starting October 1, 2012.  The Board also approved the FY 2012 General Fund budget, as well as the Targeted Action Fund (TAF) budget.  One TAF request was also approved, providing support from the FY 2012 TAF to support ongoing work on toxicity and other water quality impacts on clean water agencies from pesticides and other consumer product ingredients.   The Board also approved NACWA’s filing of an amicus curiae brief supporting the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, in its appeal of a Missouri state court decision that invalided the utility’s stormwater fee program.

Williams Elected NACWA President

The Board also took action to elect NACWA officers for the 2010- 2011 term. David R. Williams, Director of Wastewater, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Oakland, Calif., will serve as President.  Suzanne Goss, Legislative Affairs Specialist with JEA Jacksonville, Fla., will serve as Vice President; Julius Ciaccia, Executive Director, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Cleveland, Ohio, will serve as Treasurer; and Karen Pallansch, General Manager of the Alexandria Sanitation Authority, will serve as Secretary.  NACWA would also like to express its sincere appreciation to outgoing President, Jeff Theerman, Executive Director of the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District, Mo., for his dedicated service as NACWA President over this past year.  Theerman will continue his service to the organization on the Executive Committee as Past President.  

The membership also elected or re-elected twelve new and returning Board Members.  New and re-elected members of NACWA’s Board of Directors are as follows:

Region 1-
Raymond J. Marshall
Executive Director
Narragansett Bay Commission, R.I.

Scott W. Jellison
Chief Operating Officer
The Metropolitan District, Ct.

Region 2 –
Carter H. Strickland, Jr.
Deputy Commissioner for Sustainability
New York City Department of Environmental Protection, N.Y.

Region 3 –
George S. Hawkins
General Manager
DC Water, D.C.

Region 4 –
Timothy Haag
Director, Utility Services & Planning
Emerald Coast Utilities Authority, Fla.

Region 6 –
Larry Patterson
Director of Operations & Water Resources
Upper Trinity Regional Water District, Texas

Region 7 -
John P. O’Neil
General Manager
Johnson County Wastewater, Kan.

Region 8 –
Steve Pearlman
Director of Environmental Services
Metro Wastewater Reclamation District, Colo.

Susan Tanner Holmes
Chairwoman
Central Davis County Sewer District, Utah

Region 9 –
Adel H. Hagekhalil
Assistant Director
City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation, Calif.

Region 10 –
Daniel C. Thompson
Division Manager, Wastewater Operations
City of Tacoma Public Works Department, Wash.

Mark Yeager
Utility Services Manager
City of Albany, Ore.

NACWA congratulates its new and re-elected Board Members.

Excellence in Management, Peak Performance Awards Honorees Recognized

Highlighting the Summer Conference was the ceremony honoring the Excellence in Management & Peak Performance Awards winners, featuring member agencies’ outstanding contributions to the clean water community. The awards ceremony featured a video set to music that honored the 134 Platinum Peak Performance Award honorees. 

All presentations from the NACWA Summer Conference will be made available on NACWA’s Conferences & Meetings webpage soon.  NACWA also wants to thank all of the participants, speakers, and attendees for making the Summer Conference a success.