 the water rising. A brief look at New York's water and wastewater systems. Of all of the very valuable services that a municipality provides its people, water and wastewater are the most important. Think about it. Hopefully few of your residents will ever need a fireman or a policeman. Folks can live with a pothole in the street or without snow removal for a short period. The kids can still play ball if the grass in the park doesn't get cut on time. They can live without the library although I'd find that hard. But no one can live without water. Water is not a luxury. It is a necessity. During any natural disaster, be it Katrina or the ice storm in the North Country or Iraq for that matter, getting clean, potable water to people is the top priority. Nearly 95 percent of all New Yorkers, over 21 million people, are served by some kind of public water supply system. Most of those systems, especially in rural New York, are the community's largest asset. In many cases the water and wastewater system was the largest or close to the largest investment that that municipality ever made. The investment was made to provide fresh water to residents, protect the public health and promote safety. It helped and continues to help a community grow in many ways. New homes, new industry and improved recreation. But those systems require constant attention. Many are antiquated. We have systems in New York State that are over a hundred years old. Some even use wooden pipes. They really need sound management. Regulatory requirements must be met since they're there to protect the public health and our environment. As equipment wears out, it must be replaced and doing so sooner rather than later usually saves headaches and dollars. New cost-effective technology should be integrated into an existing system when possible. It will pay for itself in the long run. Water and wastewater staffs must be maintained and constantly trained. Planning for emergencies and long-term upkeep and an adequate annual budget is essential. What can happen if we don't manage them properly? Walkerton. Walkerton, Ontario, Canada is about 230 miles northeast of Buffalo. Their water system served 5,000 people utilizing three wells. The main well was shallow and located near a working farm. The wells were chlorinated but no other treatment was applied. In May 2000, residents of the community became sickly. They first thought that it was due to food poisoning and local doctors recommended that ill patients drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration. Then they thought it was the water but the operators in an attempt to cover up problems reported fictitious test results. Those operators had been grandparented in and had no formal training or experience. It was soon discovered that indeed pathogens including E. coli had entered their water system. Before the situation was stabilized, seven people died and 2,300 others became ill. An independent commission of inquiry set up by the Premier of Ontario concluded that for years the Walkerton Public Utilities Commission operators engaged in a host of improper practices including failing to use adequate doses of chlorine, failing to monitor chlorine residuals daily, making false entries about residuals in daily operating records and mistating that locations at which microbiological samples were taken. The operators knew that these practices were unacceptable and contrary to Ministry of Environment guidelines and directives. The operators were given jail time, house arrest and must live with the fact that their negligence caused permanent injury and death to their neighbors. The community was unable to use the water supply for eight months and anxiety, worry and lack of confidence in the safety of their water remains even today for many. It's estimated that this incident had $155 million economic impact on the community since the entire distribution system needed disinfection and property values declined. While Walkerton is a great example of what can go wrong, unfortunately there are examples here in New York State, the Washington County Fair, the fish kill in the North Country, the Geneva waiting pool and others. We point these out not to scare you but to impress upon you the challenges you face. There is little higher responsibility than the protection of the public health. System owners, board members and operators can assume legal and financial liabilities for failing water and wastewater systems. Systems operating without a certified operator violate the state sanitary code and subject the community to fines as well as negative press. Owners, board members and operators have a vested interest in ensuring that these systems are managed, maintained and run properly. The most important component in a well-run system is the operators. A water wastewater operator is a very unique individual. Not just anyone can do it. An operator needs the mechanical skills to run a backhoe, fix a pump, lay pipe, weld a joint and on and on. But at the same time, they must be able to go into a lab and analyze samples for pathogens in microorganisms. They work with chemicals and polymers to ensure that they're correctly introduced into a system. They have to manage people, deal with the public and report to boards. In short, they are mechanics, plumbers, engineers, chemists, biologists, managers and public relations professionals all rolled into one. And it takes individuals who are willing to work out in blistering heat or freezing cold at all times of the day and night and sometimes on weekends and holidays. The job requires a lot of book learning and a great deal of hands-on experience. It's not always simple and at times can get very technical. Let's listen into a couple of wastewater operators discussing a problem. You see plant that is fighting up a grease problem. They've got grease traps in the kitchen, but they're not being maintained. Consequently, he's getting a lot of grease into the plant. He's fighting it with chlorine. And I'm thinking he's overdosing because he's carrying a residual into the plant. Throughout the whole plant? Yeah. He's got a residual and and his alkalinity is is rock bottom. I mean, he's he hasn't blown his pH yet, but he's he's about to. Yeah, he's looking. I believe what has happened is is in trying to combat that grease with the chlorine. The chlorine burns or oxidizes the grease. But the residual is a secondary acid. So he has no buffering capacity. His pH is is very, very unbalanced to say the least. And at any time, he probably will have a real problem with everything turning sour all at once and losing the whole plant and it will turn septic. Yes, I can see that starting right now. So I've got him doing some supplemental alkalinity. We're adding some soda ash. You gave him a dose rate target number. Yep, seven. I'm gonna go with 75. Sounds reasonable. Sounds reasonable. Let's let's see what happens. Get him to back off on the chlorine dose and see if the alkalinity starts coming around and hopefully it'll start to clear things up. So the job can get complicated and requires an enormous amount of training with continual refreshment courses. Let's let Teresa Bipoli from the New York State Department of Health and Alan Cherubin from the New York State D.C. Tell us of the training requirements for certified water and wastewater operators. Do you know your water system operator as a manager of a drinking water system? This is a question that you need to ask yourself. New York State water operators are our front line in protection of public health. And they are the most valuable resource you have in your community to protect your public's health. These individuals are held to very high standards. In recent years, we've changed our regulation, our regulation to certify operators as sub part five dash four of the state sanitary code. These changes came into effect February 14th of 2001 and required all operators that operate community water systems and non transient non community water systems to be certified initially, as well as maintain their certification through continuing education. The highest level of operator we have, for example, is a grade one operator in order to become a grade one operator. Those operators would need to have 120 hours of classroom time, as well as 10 years of experience. And once their education and experience requirements are met, their application is sent to our local health department, and their their education and experience is verified prior to the time they become certified. To maintain a certification at the highest level, they would need 30 hours of continuing education over a three year period to maintain that certification. So you can see that these individuals have a lot of education and experience requirements that need to be gained in order to become certified. Out of sight out of mind. Hopefully that doesn't apply to the wastewater collection and treatment assets in your community. They're often unseen, but they perform a valuable public service. And they form the backbone of the economic vitality along with the wastewater or the water treatment system in your community. These are very valuable assets. And oftentimes the operators require the support of the board and community as a whole. On the wastewater side, operators at treatment plants these days are highly skilled professionals. They have a vast array of knowledge and electrical, mechanical. And it's important that they deal well with the customers, the community as a whole and also deal with the people who regulate them, the DEC and the public health departments. For wastewater operators, before becoming certified, our regulations require that at the highest level, a grade 4A operator, this person has to have 180 hours of classroom training and have eight years of operational experience at a wastewater treatment facility. Once they become certified, they're required to renew their certificates. And for our certificate period, it's five years. And in that time, that operator would need to have 80 hours of approved training. And so it's important that the community and the board itself support the operators as they go about attending the classes and gaining the training to get certified in the first place, and then to support them as they maintain their certification. So again, the job requires a lot of training. And needless to say, training costs money. It's been estimated that it can cost over $12,000 to train a new operator. One of the many challenges we are about to face is a statewide shortage of certified water and wastewater operators. It's been estimated that we could lose as many as 50% of our operators in the next five to seven years. The American Water Works Association says that within the next decade, the job market for water supply operators holds the promise of becoming a buyer's market. Because qualified operators are expected to be in short supply, those with ambition may see more opportunities for advancement, a choice of locations and utility size, work schedule flexibility, employer supported training and negotiable wages and benefits. Frank Diorio from Auburn wrote, as a lowly operator becomes trained and certified, there is always a better position available at another utility. Our crisis is in the offing. Let's listen to Brian Ruhmeiser, the operator from Manchester Shortsville, discuss this issue. I'm concerned with an exodus of water operators and wastewater operators in the industry. I believe that the exodus is caused by several things. One is the normal grain of our operators. We all started in the early 70s due to the Clean Water Act and now we're reaching 25 and 30 years and we'll be able to go in early retirement. The push on early retirement can be due by several things. The very first thing is, is that private industry now is offering us better jobs at higher pay than the municipalities can afford. C is the increase in requirements of the state and federal governments on the operators to do a better job with older existing equipment. Because they're in time, the operators view this as overstressing and underpaid positions, which is why they leave. So there seems to be a variety of reasons for this. Baby boomers are about to retire. Old operators want out. And it's hard to recruit new operators into a field where the salaries are low. The work is hard. Training is costly and the responsibility is high. Again, there is little higher responsibility than the protection of the public health. We're about to lose tons of experience. And in many cases, a great deal of knowledge about a particular system will leave along with the retiring operator. Compound that with a lot of old systems throughout the state, many of which will require major upgrades, then add to that a reduction in federal funds, both grants and loans, then impact the state revolving fund and in turn make it harder on local communities. And let's not forget increasing expenses like energy costs, chemicals, pensions and health insurance. As Alan cherubin of New York State DEC says, we're brewing up the perfect storm, reduction in federal funding, aging infrastructure, losing experienced staff, increased service demands and additional regulatory requirements. We have to find some solutions before we create a manmade crisis, the inability to deliver pure water to our people. We must face these anticipated problems or something like this can happen. My name is Carl Iverson. I'm the superintendent of Public Works for the city of Norwich, New York. We're a medium sized system. We have a grade three wastewater treatment plant and a grade two water treatment facility. One of the problems we've been having is that a lot of our longtime employees who have over 30, 35 years have decided to retire within the last seven years. And it's put a deep strain on our ability to hire fully qualified and certified water and wastewater treatment plant operators. We have tried to recruit on numerous occasions for fully qualified water or wastewater treatment plant operators and have been unsuccessful and recruiting people. Our wages are extremely low. And for the qualifications that we need, they got to be an electrician, they got to be a plumber, they have to be a laboratory person. They have to be a good PR person for the facility. One of the major factors that we have is that a large or medium sized municipality is usually unionized. And the wages are negotiated through a union contract. The thing is the training that are required for the operators to get so they'll be able to take the test and pass their tests is expensive. And the wages that we offer these people is not enough for them to pay back their college expenses. And as such, they go and they take jobs with private industry, which pays more. Again, our workforce is extremely old. And within the next five years, we will not have any operators here that started with the city. And we have nothing but problems in trying to recruit people. Thank you very much. One suggestion might be to run our water and wastewater systems more like the businesses they are. Water rates are not taxes. The money doesn't go into the general fund. Their user fees. These systems are providing a commodity water, just like gas stations sell gas or grocery stores sell food. If we took this approach, we could offer realistic salary and benefit packages, proper staffing, cover operational expenses, properly maintain the equipment, establish capital and repair reserve funds and maybe even produce a profit. Access revenue from public water systems can be transferred to general funds according to general municipal laws. Let's let Andy Domiano, the director of finance and administration for the city of Cortland, give us their approach to their water and wastewater systems. Cortland, we consider our water and wastewater facilities to be assets attaining those facilities. We market both our water service and our wastewater service to potential developers and include our water and wastewater professionals in all the meetings that do involve potential new developers and businesses in the community. We feel we need to protect the assets that we have, which are owned by the community and we need to safeguard for future generations. And one of the ways we do that is by having a commitment to training and a commitment to providing a salary, which is competitive in the industry that would attract good people so that we can continue to operate the facility at peak performance and provide the services that we need. Over the years, the city of Cortland has been very aggressive in maintaining both the water and wastewater facilities by making capital investments. And we also have a very aggressive preventative maintenance program, which has over the years identified deficiencies in the mechanics in those facilities and allowed us to make minor repairs that have virtually saved us thousands of dollars and demonstrated to the community that we're concerned about safeguarding their asset. In the wastewater facility in particular, we've treated that as a potential marketing tool that could generate revenue for the city and keep the plant operating at peak efficiency with a minimal financial responsibility for our residents. By doing that, we've been able to maintain the facility and do capital projects and capital improvements that will, again, safeguard our asset for years to come. We have actually entered into contract with the town of Cortlandville, the village of Homer, the village of McGraw, and the village of Freeville to provide wastewater services and generate additional revenue to control the local domestic rate as best we can. It's imperative, obviously, for all operations, whether it be water or wastewater, any public utility, that the rates we charge should be commensurate with the level of service that we provide. And obviously, one of the things we have to do is make sure we maintain our facilities, we upgrade our facilities, we train our staffs, and we encourage professional development in our people and pay them a competitive salary. We feel we've done that here, and as a result, we have two facilities we're extremely proud of, and we provide services to a wide range of communities that is fairly priced and extremely, extremely competitive in the market. We recognize that boards have a tremendous responsibility. It isn't easy and often some hard choices have to be made. Most systems have operated very efficiently for a long period of time. So much so that much of the public take these systems for granted. They just expect water to come out of the tap and the toilet to flush and haven't help us if it costs anything. But somehow we must convince the public that they are receiving real value. They are getting water that meets all regulatory requirements at way below the Walmart price. They must be shown that while there are some costs attached to it, good systems that are well maintained and staffed operate much more effectively and more cheaply than poorly maintained and operated systems. And they must be made to understand that for systems to survive they must be willing to pay a fair and honest price. So you can see water and wastewater systems in New York State will be facing some challenges in the next few years. We ask that you take a good look at your systems. What's the status of your staff? You could have a heart to heart talk with them about their future plans. Are they adequately compensated? Please remember you are not competing simply against other municipalities. These folks are professionals and should be paid commensurate with the training and experience they have acquired. Are there any plans in place to replace them? Maybe an intern program or a summer employment program for school kids might help. Is training available for current and future staffs? There is a lot of training provided in the state. Check with the New York State Department of Health or the New York State DEC. There are many organizations like the New York Rural Water Association that can bring training close to home but operators must be given time and funds to attend. Is maintenance of the facility being performed in a timely fashion? Perhaps a maintenance schedule and checklist would help. Our reserve funds set up for emergencies and long-term growth. You can check general municipal law 6-C. Are you utilizing asset management? Asset management is a planning process that ensures that you get the most value from each of your assets and have the financial resources to rehabilitate and replace them when necessary. It helps reduce cost while increasing efficiency and reliability of your assets. The process consists of conducting an inventory of your assets, prioritizing the rehabilitation and replacement of assets, developing an annual budget, implementing the plan and reviewing and revising the plan. EPA has a useful asset management guidebook with worksheets on their website. Are your rates artificially low or do they accurately reflect costs? Accurate accounting helps and there are many good rate-setting guidebooks available. Can you help educate the public on the value of the water and wastewater service you provide? School visits can work and positive press when things are accomplished is useful. Are you utilizing asset management? Asset management is a planning process that ensures that you get the most value from each of your assets and have the financial resources to rehabilitate and replace them when necessary. It helps reduce cost while increasing efficiency and reliability of your assets. The process consists of conducting an inventory of your assets, prioritizing the rehabilitation and replacement of assets, developing an annual budget, implementing the plan and reviewing and revising the plan. EPA has a useful asset management guidebook with worksheets on their website. Are your rates artificially low or do they accurately reflect costs? Accurate accounting helps and there are many good rate setting guidebooks available. Can you help educate the public on the value of the water and wastewater service you provide? School visits can work and positive press when things are accomplished is useful. Managing water and wastewater will be one of the most important things you'll ever be asked to do. Will your legacy be that you left your system in good working order meeting all regulations and with a strong highly trained staff looking toward tomorrow? Or will it be a disaster ready to happen that will require future fixing? I'm Pat Scalera CEO for the New York Rural Water Association. With over 1,400 members from all over New York State get a good overview of the challenges facing our water and wastewater systems. This industry has gradually changed over the past years and the operators who deliver our water and wastewater services are now required to be true professionals. Highly trained, experienced and responsible. They are under pressure to provide additional service with older equipment while meeting the ever-changing regulations. Two often salaries have not kept up with the increasing training requirements and workloads. Many operators are reaching retirement age with opportunities to leave the field or to go on to better positions. Communities are facing increasing expenses and reductions to the federal and state funding that forced them to become more self-sufficient. We could be developing some major problems so we hope that this presentation helps to make you aware of some of our concerns. Water and wastewater services are often the lifeblood of the community. People simply can't live without them. We all have an opportunity to address problems before they reach crisis. Have you considered your future plans when your water operators retire? Are your water and wastewater professionals receiving adequate wages? Are you charging enough for your water? Please think about these issues and plan ahead. Working together with you, we can meet these challenges. Thank you. This presentation was prepared by the New York Rural Water Association with help from the New York State Department of Health, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and the New York State Conference of Mayors and Municipal Officials. For further information, please call the New York Rural Water Association at area code 518-828-3155.