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Inkspot
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Greetings
from the President... by Teresa Herrera The events that are
occurring in our world are still very present in my mind.
They will remain present with me and with all of us for a
long time to come. What
has occurred will forever affect us.
No matter how long this effort to eradicate terrorism will
take, it has already forever affected us. And
so we learn to live in a different state of mind, heart, and soul.
We learn to live with more and more uncertainty of the future
and of our safety. We
learn to live with the pain that this has brought to us.
AND,
we learn how to integrate these new pieces into our familiar pattern
of life. We must
proceed with our personal and our professional lives.
We must continue to function… particularly because we, as
wastewater professionals, hold an extremely important role in
society. That of
ensuring high public health standards.
When I think upon what we’ve chosen as our profession,
whether it is in the capacity of a laboratory analyst, an operator,
a mechanic, or an engineer, I am struck with the importance of what
we do. Sometimes we
have a tendency to downplay or forget the criticality of wastewater
treatment. Sometimes we
get caught up in the minutia of day-to-day efforts. What
we do, first and foremost, is protect public health.
Only after this primary function is achieved, do we move into
the realms of environmental protection and water supply
augmentation. So,
as the world is in a state of turmoil and uncertainty abounds, we
continue to do the work that we do.
We live with that same turmoil, and we task ourselves with
performing the critical functions that we have chosen to be our
profession. And, the San Francisco
Bay Section continues to perform its function.
Which is to facilitate and enhance the education and
effectiveness of our membership.
We do this through our dinner meetings, seminars and
luncheons put on by our committees, and sponsorship of regional
training conferences and the state conference. I want to encourage
everyone to participate as fully as possible in this great San
Francisco Bay Section. The
importance of what we do, as well as the camaraderie that is felt
amongst our members, makes participation quite satisfying. Check out the flyers
in this newsletter of upcoming events by our Professional
Development Committee and our Collections Committee.
As well as our dinner meeting on November 1.
Also, don’t forget
that the Awards Program is upon us!
Please take this opportunity to have your plant, program,
staff, and projects recognized by your peers!!! While we each may
question what we can do, on a personal level, to affect changes in
this world, we can take solace in the fact that what we do in our
professional lives DOES contribute to the greater good and
protection of our fellow humans. SBSA
One of First in Bay Area Required to Perform More Elaborate Fish
Toxicity Testing As
one of the first wastewater treatment plants in the Bay Area
required to perform more elaborate testing to assume that treatment
does not adversely impact aquatic life in San Francisco Bay, the
South Bayside System Authority (SBSA) Commission on Wednesday
(August 29) authorized staff to purchase specialized laboratory
equipment for toxicity testing. SBSA
Manager Jim Bewley said the equipment would enable staff to perform
effluent toxicity testing on very young fish.
The SBSA’s new NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System) permit requires fish toxicity testing using
“continuous flow” method on fish that are only a few days old.
Prior requirements used older fish for testing and were less
elaborate. Bewley
said the new test exposes the fish to a continuous flow of plant
effluent for four days and is required by the Regional Water Quality
Control Board to be conducted once a month.
The new NPDES permit requires the employing a newer test
protocol that includes the use of very young rainbow trout and a
lower temperate with tighter temperature controls.
In addition to replacing the test equipment, Bewley said a
refrigerated holding tank is required to maintain the fish at 54
degrees prior to the actual test. The Commission authorized staff to purchase the equipment and cooler from Aqua Science for $30,735. News
from the SFBS Collection System Committee by Sergio Ramirez As one of the representatives of the CWEA, SFBS Collection System Committee I am pleased to inform everyone of the overwhelming success we have had in the last several months. With the help of Paul Louis, Walter Lunn, Lenny Rather, Gordon White and a few more people the SFBS Collection System Committee has been revamped. We have developed a one year plan which will bring training to the local collection system crews and other personnel. The training will occur every other month with topics covering Rodder Operation, Hydro Jet Operation, TCP Training, and much more. The first session was a Rodding Operation class. The class was held at West Valley Sanitary District (thank you West Valley). We originally planned to train 60 participants but four days after the brochure was sent out we already had 59 registered participants. We felt the collection system personnel were eager to obtain new knowledge and receive training so we decided to arrange for a second day of training. In all we trained approximately 140 people. The first class proved to be a great success. The second training session was titled Hydro Jet Operation. Again it was a full house. The training was held at the Castro Valley Sanitary District (thank you Castro Valley). Even though we advertised no more than 50 people for the one day training session, we had 120 participants. What was supposed to be a one day training turned into a two day event in order to accommodate the need. Along with gained knowledge, the participants walked away with one of the latest CWEA manuals which the Collection System Committee included in the registration price of $25. The Committee also awarded a certificate of completion acknowledging the training received, which is always good to have on file or hang on a wall. The first two training sessions were a great success. It took a lot of effort by many members of the San Francisco Bay Section including some vendors. We plan on continuing this effort and would like to encourage more collection system personnel involvement. Please feel welcome to attend the monthly Collection System Committee meetings. For more information call me (Sergio Ramirez) at the Castro Valley Sanitary District (510) 537-0757. At this time I would like to thank on behalf of the SFBS Collection System Committee all of those individuals and agencies that volunteered many hours and an abundance of resources to this great cause. Including, and please forgive me if I leave anyone out, CCCSD, SSD, OLSD, WCSD, CVSD, Daly City, WECO, 3-T, Dukes...Thank You All!!! |
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