Please join the Racial Social Justice Subcommittee on December 10th from 12:00 - 1:30 pm (Pacific) for a learning session with Danielle Pacifico-Cogan of DP Cogan Consulting on the intersectionality of race and disability.

Race, class, gender, and disability are the four overarching social categories our society uses to arrange people into hierarchies of power. Only recently have mainstream culture and scholarship caught up to disabled activists and scholars in recognizing the role disability plays in quality of life and access to opportunity. The Intersection of Race and Disability Learning Session explores the historical context and contemporary implications of race and disability in American life.

Idaho

• The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) is seeking comment on the 2024 Integrated Report. This includes an overview of DEQ’s surface water monitoring and assessment program; a discussion about public health issues; an overview of Idaho’s groundwater monitoring and assessment efforts; and a summary of public participation in the development of the report. The report is available for review on DEQ’s website https://www.deq.idaho.gov/deq-seeks-comment-on-2024-integrated-report/ and at DEQ’s State Office (1410 North Hilton Street, Boise, Idaho 83706). Written comments will be accepted through November 14, at 5 pm MT.

Oregon

• Oregon DEQ has just opened a public comment period for proposed rule changes for the Wastewater Operator Certification Program.  The Public Notice, which includes a link to the proposed changes, is found at this site: https://www.oregon.gov/deq/rulemaking/Pages/WasteWater2024.aspx. This effort includes updating the qualification pathways to certification for wastewater system operators, facilitating operator certification reciprocity among states, modernizing and simplifying the way wastewater systems are classified, and expanding options for attaining compliance when a supervisory operator is not available.

PNCWA2024 Awards

Each year, PNCWA has the opportunity to recognize exemplary people and projects in our industry. This year, during the Annual Conference Opening General Session and Awards Luncheon, 17 awards were given out, in addition to 9 student scholarships.

Congratulations to all of this year’s awardees on their accomplishments!

The WAVE program engages students and emerging professionals from diverse backgrounds with the water industry through a series of workshops and attendance of the 2024 PNCWA conference. The workshops focus on the various paths within the water industry, networking, skills development, employment opportunities, and conference preparation. This month, you get the opportunity to meet the WAVE Leadership Team for 2024, who have been working hard to continuously improve the WAVE program. Here is a quick introduction of our fearless chair, Asa, and our three awesome leaders, Angela, Juliana, and Anu!

PNCWA Participates in Water Week 2024 by sending 5 members to Washington DC

The National Water Policy Fly-In, part of National Water Week, took place the week of April 8, 2024. Water Week provided water sector professionals to come together in a forum to hear updates from our national water advocacy organizations and key federal officials and members of Congress about ongoing and emerging policy initiatives occurring at the federal level. The event culminated with Fly-In participants engaging with congressional lawmakers and staff from their respective home States

Date and Time: June 20, 2024 Tour at 4:00 PM, Social at approximately 5:15 PM
Hosts: PNCWA Utility Management Committee, Lower Columbia Section, Students and Young Professionals, and Clean Water Services. Tour led by Jeff Hart. 

Join the Utility Management Committee, in partnership with the Lower Columbia Section and the Students and Young Professionals on a tour of Clean Water Services’ Fernhill Wetland in Forest Grove. There will be time afterward to socialize with old friends or make new ones at the Grand Lodge in Forest Grove.

Federal

• EPA has proposed a draft analytical method for measuring 6PPD-quinone in stormwater and surface waters. Many of you may be following the increasing regulatory attention to 6PPD – a chemical additive in rubber tires to help extend a tire's life and use. These chemicals have been in use for more than 50 years and have been found to be very toxic to salmon and trout species as well as other aquatic life.

Student Design Competition. We are looking for volunteers to help out with judging the competition and will involve the following tasks, review of design notebook, attend video call where teams present project, submission of graded rubric for each team, debrief call to discuss team grading/score. If this s something you would be interested in, please reach out to Sam Nieslanik at [email protected].

Learn More

The WAVE program engages students and emerging professionals from diverse backgrounds with the water industry through a series of workshops and attendance of the 2024 PNCWA conference. The workshops focus on the various paths within the water industry, networking, skills development, employment opportunities, and conference preparation. Each month until the conference, we will highlight our participants. Here is a quick introduction of Theresa, Celeste, Max, and Mo.

Theresa Passe

The Leadership Development Committee is excited to continue our book club discussion series on April 18th from 11:00 am to noon PT. We’re reprising the January discussion with Designing Your Work Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. The book introduces design thinking to living, learning, and succeeding in our work lives. The concept is thinking like a designer. What exactly does that mean?

Design Thinking Includes:

Join us for a tour and social on April 17th, 2024, at the Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board (HARSB)! Starting at 3 pm, we’ll tour the facility then head over to Bees Knees Whiskey Bar at about 5 pm for a social gathering. If you’re interested, please register here – it’s free for everyone! The tour will provide 0.2 CEUs for Washington and Idaho, pending approval. This event is hosted by the Students and Young Professionals Committee, but everyone is welcome to attend.

Hi everyone and welcome to the Stormwater Committee! This article is the first quarterly newsletter from the Stormwater Committee to provide information on past and upcoming committee events.

2023: A Year in Review

Join us for a tour and social on April 17th, 2024, at the Hayden Area Regional Sewer Board (HARSB)! Starting at 3 pm, we’ll tour the facility then head over to a bar (TBD) at about 5 pm for a social gathering. If you’re interested, please register here – it’s free for everyone! The tour will provide 0.2 CEUs for Washington and Idaho, pending approval. This event is hosted by the Students and Young Professionals Committee, but everyone is welcome to attend.

Please consider supporting the cohort through participation or sponsorship!

The WAVE program engages students and emerging professionals from diverse backgrounds with the water industry through a series of workshops and attendance of the 2024 PNCWA conference. The workshops focus on the various paths within the water industry, networking, skills development, employment opportunities, and conference preparation. Each month until the conference, we will highlight our participants and the program. Logo, company name Description automatically generated.

The Leadership Development Committee is excited to announce monthly virtual book club gatherings featuring one of our favorites.  On the book club wish list for this year are a number of our favorites including Start with Why by Simon Sinek and The One Thing by Gary Keller.  We’re also looking for your suggestions.  Have a favorite that you’d like to discuss with your fellow PNCWA’ers?  Have one that you’ve wanted to read but needed the motivation to get to it?  Contact Mark Poling at [email protected] to share your title.  We’ll be reviewing them at our monthly Committee meeting.  We’d also love to have you join us!

We’re starting with Designing Your Work Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. The book introduces design thinking to living, learning, and succeeding in our work lives. The concept is thinking like a designer. What exactly does that mean?

Join us for a tour and social on January 11th, 2024, at the Riverside Park Water Reclamation Facility run by the City of Spokane! Starting at 3 pm, we’ll tour the facility then head over to Backyard Public House at about 5 pm for a social gathering. If you’re interested, please register here – it’s free for everyone!  This event is hosted by the Students and Young Professionals Committee, but everyone is welcome to attend!

Capital Improvement Plans (CIPs) are a roadmap used to document the plan for a utility to maintain, expand, and repair their assets. Whether your utility has a long-established practice of creating a CIP or you're just starting out, join us for a panel discussion and learning hour to discuss with your peers what they have learned about creating a CIP. We have two amazing speakers that are creating CIPs in real-time. Both Vanessa and Jeff are Capital Program Managers within their respective utilities who have been involved from the beginning of creating a CIP program and evolving them over time. The UMC is also creating a shared location where we can post examples of CIPs, and tools used in creating them.

Date & Time: December 6, 2023 @ Noon to 1 PM
Panel Speakers: Vanessa Johnson Clark Regional Wastewater District, Jeff Stallard Clackamas Water Environment Services 

Register Today

Federal

• The House Appropriations Committee is proposing to eliminate funding for the Clean Water and Drink Water State Revolving Funds by more than half in the FY24 budget. It’s critical that your Senators and Representative hears from you about the need to maintain federal funding for critical local water infrastructure investments. Use WEF Water Advocates call-to-action to send a message today!

Oregon: