PNCWA's Adopt-a-School Grant, organized by the Communications & Outreach committee, supports water science education, involvement and restoration activities by 4th–12th grade students in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho who are working toward clean water education goals.

These grants have let students in Olympia learn about plankton aboard a 103-year-old sailing ship, high schoolers from Eugene visit wetlands and wastewater treatment plants, and biology students in Salem test wastewater in the classroom, among other projects. (Read more about 2016 Adopt-a-School grantees in our annual report.)

School is back in swing, which means it’s time for the EPA’s annual Campus RainWorks Challenge!

Each year, teams from universities around the country come up with innovative new ways to manage stormwater on their campus. The RainWorks Challenge fosters a dialogue about responsible stormwater management and showcases the environmental, economic and social benefits of green infrastructure practices.

Exciting news for students in and around Western Washington! The EPA issued the following press release today:

"Manhole Diving for Walla Walla”

Each year, PNCWA’s membership honors and recognizes excellence in the clean water industry. The mission of the awards program is to facilitate and promote the recognition of professionals involved in supporting, operating, or managing wastewater collection systems, stormwater systems, or wastewater treatment/water resource recovery facilities in the Pacific Northwest. Here are the 2017 PNCWA Awardees as determined by the PNCWA Awards Committee:

The Arthur Sidney Bedell Award
The Bedell Award was established to acknowledge extraordinary personal service to a WEF Member Association. The award is named for Arthur Sidney Bedell, WEF's second president for his long devotion and service to the New York Sewage and Industrial Wastes Association, now the New York Water Environment Association. He was Chief of the Bureau of Sewage and Waste Disposal of the New York State Department of Health.

Every year, the PNCWA Student and Young Professionals Committee invites students and young professionals (S&YPs) in the water world to gather for networking, leadership development, and industry training. This year, the summit will be November 3rd at the Brightwater Center in Woodinville, Washington with a satellite location at the Bureau of Environmental Services building in Portland, Oregon. The theme of this year's summit is "Reach Your Peak."  Register here today! 

Next year, the Water Environment Federation’s 2018 Odors and Air Pollutants Conference will be held March 25–28 in Portland, Oregon. WEF is partnering with PNCWA to host the conference and wants your abstracts!

PNCWA is excited to announce that the official conference brochure is out! This handbook is packed with everything you'll need for the 2017 conference happening in Vancouver, Washington, from October 22–25th. You can download the brochure as a PDF here or browse it online by clicking below! 

 The PNCWA Board of Directors comprises the President, President-Elect, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Past President, two WEF Delegates, and four Regional Directors. This year, the PNCWA Nominating Committee is accepting nominations for the following positions: 

PNCWA Vice President
The Presidential rotation is a four-year commitment beginning with Vice President. To qualify, a nominee must have documented evidence of professional experience and capabilities including:

Next week, one thousand young professionals from around the world will gather in Copenhagen, Denmark, for the first ever Unleash Lab. For nine days, delegates will gather to tackle and discuss the UN Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) and find real, scalable solutions to issues like health, energy, education, and the environment.

Established in 2014, the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) is a federal loan and guarantee EPA program that assists with investing in water infrastructure through long-term, low-cost credit assistance for regional and national projects.

On December 10, 2016, President Obama signed the Further Continuing and Security Assistance Appropriations Act and Congress provided $17 million in budget authority for the WIFIA program. Earlier this year, WIFIA released its 2017 notice of funding availability. The EPA received nearly 50 letters of interest from public and private entities around the country. After a lengthy review process, WIFIA chose 12 prospective borrowers from around the country, which they announced today:

PNCWA is excited to announce our newest committee—the Utility Management Committee. While some think that utility management is similar to asset management, its range is much broader and encompasses finances, staffing, leadership, resiliency, data, customer service, communications, IT, sustainability, strategic planning, and more. The committee is dedicated to promoting and enhancing the use of best practices in utility management to efficiently protect human health and the environment. Per their official charter, they work to disseminate best practices in utility management internally to members and externally to stakeholders with an emphasis on fostering PNCWA’s vision of clean, sustainable watersheds for future generations. 

David Gordon, the chair of the UMC, is passionate about utility management. Gordon, who works at FCS Group in Seattle, spent some time talking to us about the new committee, why utility management is so important, their first workshop in October, and how PNCWA members can get involved. 

As wastewater treatment professionals, we work every day to ensure our communities receive clean, safe water. Now there’s one more way to advocate for your community. WEF, the Water Environment Federation, has created a new program—Water Advocates—to empower its members to impact water policy on a national level.

Registration for the 2017 PNCWA Annual Conference is now open! This year, the conference will be October 22–25 at the Hilton Vancouver in Vancouver, WA.

We’re already excited about this year’s conference, which has a great lineup of sessions, an awards banquet and—special to this year—an innovative technology track. You can view the entire session schedule here.

From June 6-7th in Lynwood, Washington, operators from across Western Washington gathered for the annual short school and training. Each day, concurrent sessions were held each day for water and wastewater operators, engineers and managers covering treatment, maintenance, pumps, distribution & conveyance, odor control, sampling, energy conservation, I&C, water chemistry and more. We hope you enjoy this quantitative assessment of the conference, below! 

Each year, PNCWA’s membership honors and recognizes excellence in the clean water industry. The mission of the awards program is to facilitate and promote the recognition of professionals involved in supporting, operating, or managing wastewater collection systems, stormwater systems, or wastewater treatment/water resource recovery facilities in the Pacific Northwest. The awards will be presented at our annual conference in Vancouver, Washington this October. Recipients of the 2016 PNCWA awards can be viewed here. 

The Awards Committee is now accepting nominations for 2017. Awards categories include individual, group and project recognition. You must be a PNCWA member in order to nominate anyone for awards (except the Safety Awards or OYA/COYA Awards). Nominations close July 28, 2017. To view all PNCWA awards and criteria, click here. 

Every year, high school science students from around the country compete in WEF’s Stockholm Junior Water Prize, which aims to increase students’ interest in water-related issues and research and to raise awareness about global water challenges. The winners from around the country go on to compete in the national competition, which this year is June 16-17 at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Students create projects aimed at improving of water quality, water resources management, water protection, and drinking water and wastewater treatment. PNCWA is thrilled to announce the regional winners: Bryan To (Oregon), Apoorv Khandelwal (Washington) and Ari Carter (Idaho).

Back by popular demand, the PNCWA Member Services Committee is creating a calendar for 2019 which we will distribute at the PNCWA Annual Conference this fall. 

• The types of photos we are looking for include PNW water professionals in the office or in the field, PNW water professionals participating in water-related community programs, wastewater facilities, pump/lift stations, stormwater infrastructure, collection systems, etc. Be creative, be silly, be yourself. This calendar is intended to be a celebration of our industry and the work we all do as professionals protecting our most important resource: water! 
• The photo must show water quality infrastructure and/or people from the Pacific Northwest. 
• Also, the photo must be owned with no copyrights attached or where permission can be granted to PNCWA.

• The photo must be digital and a printable quality of at least 300 dpi.

The Northern Idaho Section (NIOS) of PNCWA is gearing up to host the annual Idaho Operators Conference. Operators from all over the state—from Twin Falls up to Bonner’s Ferry (and even some from Eastern Washington)—will be arriving in Moscow, Idaho, on May 21st for three days of classes and activities.