Hank Erbele has been awarded the 2021 PNCWA Oregon Region Excellence in Service Award, which recognizes those who have given truly outstanding service in one or more of the following aspects of the water quality industry: providing leadership in Section, Region, or Member Associations, delivering conference teaching, and impacting operator training, including the development of training courses that advance the knowledge of water quality operators. Hank has served in various leadership roles in the Oregon Region and Oregon’s West Central Operators Section for about 20 years. Congratulations, Hank!

Resource Recovery in Action: City of Coeur d’Alene’s Coeur d’Green^TM Composting Facility turns municipal biosolids into nutrient-rich soil amendment.

The City of Coeur d’Alene has been a pioneer in the wastewater treatment industry since 1939, when it’s 10,000 residents passed a bond to build one of the first secondary wastewater treatment plants in the Northwest (for a whopping $140,000!). Then, in 1989, the City again demonstrated its pioneering efforts in resource recovery with the construction of a composting facility that converts biosolids from the City’s wastewater treatment facility into a high-quality soil amendment using the aerated static pile composting method. The Class A Exceptional Quality product has been affectionately coined Coeur d’Green^TM compost and is unrestricted for horticultural uses. Since 1989, the composting facility has gone through many upgrades to improve operations and the quality of the end product, including covered wood chip storage, added bays for aerated curing, and upgraded conveying, mixing, and screening equipment. Figure 1 below is a schematic of the current composting process.

On January 31, 2022, the White House released a comprehensive guidebook on the funding programs in the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the bipartisan infrastructure package.

“This guidebook is another step in our effort to be as transparent as possible, so you know what to apply for, who to contact, and how to get ready to rebuild,” according to Mitch Landrieu, White House Senior Advisor and Infrastructure Implementation Coordinator. “After all, most of the building will actually be done by state, Tribal, and local government partners.”

Join the Stormwater Committee’s next learning hour tomorrow, Feb. 23 at 11 a.m. PST. Matt Knudsen and Stephanie Rosentrater from Marion County Public Works will present on the environmental impacts to County property and right-of-way caused by the 2020 Beachie Creek Fire, which devastated many communities in the Santiam Canyon, destroyed thousands of properties, and severely altered the landscape. Connect via Zoom here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88313483166
Meeting ID: 883 1348 3166
Passcode: Stormwater

In recent newsletters, the Emerging Technologies Committee has highlighted topics to be covered in the upcoming CEU-eligible webinar, “Advances in Collection to Recovery: Tech Highlights from the 2021 PNCWA Annual Conference.” The final two topics are summarized below, and the committee encourages PNCWA members and non-members alike to grab a lunch or midday coffee and join this innovation-packed webinar at 12 p.m. PST on Wednesday, March 2.

The PNCWA Mentorship Program application is now open! This one-year program pairs seasoned clean water professionals with students and young professionals for a series of conversations and learning opportunities to challenge and inspire us and to help us stay connected. It’s a great way to grow your career as well as your PNCWA network. If you’re an experienced professional interested in guiding the industry’s future leaders, or a student or young professional seeking advice from someone who has faced the same career questions, consider participating in the 2022 program.

For more information, visit our webpage.

새해 복 많이 받으세요! In Korean, this phrase means, “Please receive many new year’s blessings.”

Whether you celebrate the start of the new year (per the lunar calendar) or cannot believe we’re already in the second month of the solar calendar, my hope is that each and every person reading this heads into 2022 with many blessings to come.

The Racial & Social Justice (RSJ) Subcommittee January newsletter focuses on environmental justice. The newsletter’s goal is to highlight diversity, equity, and inclusion projects and collect multimedia resources and book recommendations to advance learning and awareness of history, perspective, and action for environmental, racial, economic, and social justice.

The subcommittee welcomes your suggestions for content, such as educational materials (i.e. essays, books, podcasts, etc.); membership organization RSJ/DEI program (i.e. agencies, consulting firms); projects with RSJ elements; and volunteer opportunities. Email Frank Dick with your ideas and suggestions.

The Member Services Committee is excited to promote our amazing volunteers in our section of the monthly digest. If you know someone we should feature in the “Member Spotlight,” send an email to committee Vice Chair Jen Murphy. For our next spotlight, we would like to introduce you to Richard Finger. Take it away, Richard.

In the 1970s, Spokane County noticed that septic tanks in the area posed a threat to the Spokane Valley Rathdrum Prairie Aquifer, especially as urban growth increased in the Spokane Valley. This aquifer is the primary source of drinking water for Spokane County, Washington and Kootenai County, Idaho. So, in the 1980s, the County led an effort to install sewers throughout urbanized areas of Spokane County, eliminate septic systems, and connect homes and businesses to a centralized sewer system. During that effort, all regional wastewater was treated at the City of Spokane’s Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility.

The leadership committee will be hosting open discussions of relevant and interesting leadership-related ideas each quarter. These sessions, which will be held virtually via Teams, are open to any PNCWA member. The topic and date for each quarter session will be announced in the PNCWA Digest. If you are interested in joining any of the sessions, please contact Ana Arango at [email protected].

First Session:
Join us on February 14, 2022 for an open discussion on Margaret Heffernan’s TED Talk, “Dare to Disagree.”

Advances in sensor technology have made it more accurate and cost-effective to reduce or prevent overflows by remotely monitoring collection systems. With increasingly powerful analytical capabilities, these sensors and accompanying software use parameters like flow, sewer levels, and weather data to help sewer system operators predict and manage infiltration and inflow (I&I) more reliably than ever before.

Happy New Year! When the calendar changes from December 31 to January 1, the earth rotates 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds, just like every other day. But, for many of us, the new year is a sign of new beginnings.

The water industry is facing such tremendous challenges. COVID variants, climate change, worker shortages, supply chain issues, silver tsunami of retirees, increasing rural-urban divides, racial injustice, lack of equal access to sanitation and clean water, and the list goes on. Yet, in the midst of these challenges, there is a spark of hope. This spark is each and every one of you who raise your hand, refusing to be simply carried along by the challenges, but who instead plant your feet and take those challenges head on. You all are the spark that spurs on others, creating a chance for change.

The PNCWA 2021 Conference undoubtedly made several changes in how we chose to meet. One of the most notable ways the conference evolved was by reallocating the money spent on attendee swag, which often has a high carbon footprint. Instead, we asked attendees to select one of these worthy causes to give the money to:

Christmas. Hanukkah. Kwanzaa. Rohatsu. All of these holidays celebrate the strength of the human spirit in the midst of trials and tribulations. They remind us of the hope that is possible for the future and that, by joining with others, there can be something greater than our own individual lives. This is the time of year to pause, reflect, and celebrate.

For those of us in the water industry here in the Pacific Northwest, there are plenty of reasons to celebrate. We have made tremendous progress in creating awareness of the importance and interconnectivity of our water resources, more funding is headed our way to inject much-needed investment into our aging infrastructure, and the past year has brought a greater understanding of the impact that infrastructure has on social justice and equity.

***UPDATE: click here to register*** Please save the date for the Stormwater Committee’s next learning hour on Wednesday, January 26 at 12 p.m. PDT. Kaela Mansfield and Kevin Flanagan with Osborn Consulting will present on the West Plains Stormwater Action Plan completed for the rapidly developing West Plains area near Spokane, Washington. The study addressed the question of whether regional stormwater planning can be a catalyst for growth by blurring the interface between public and private stormwater management. The presentation will cover an approach to creating beneficial management strategies that incentivize developers to maximize their footprint by paying stormwater fees for off-site stormwater treatment. A sign-up link will be provided in the January PNCWA digital digest.

One of the latest technologies that’s gaining interest, and which was recently introduced at the 2021 annual conference, uses sludge as a resource. Called pyrolysis, this process is typically used to transform woody biomass into fuels, soil amendments, and filtration media, but could be a potential alternative to sludge disposal.

Save the date for the Watershed-Based Water Quality Management webinar, which will be held January 25-26, 2022.

The White House released updated state and territory fact sheets that highlight the nationwide impact of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the largest long-term investment in our infrastructure and competitiveness in nearly a century. The fact sheets detail how the historic legislation will allow states and territories across the country to repair roads and bridges, improve transportation options, build a network of electric vehicles (EV) chargers to accelerate the adoption of EVs, help connect every American to reliable high-speed internet, eliminate the nation’s lead service lines and pipes for clean drinking water, protect against extreme weather events and cyberattacks, and improve our nation’s airports. You can download the fact sheets by state here: Oregon, Washington, and Idaho.

The Member Services Committee is excited to promote our amazing volunteers in our section of the monthly digest. If you know someone we should feature in the “Member Spotlight,” send an email to committee Vice Chair Jen Murphy. For our next spotlight, we would like to introduce you to Erica Haide. Take it away, Erica.

A Message from Vicky Hollingsworth, PNCWA 2022 Conference Chair