February 2019 - Jeff Simpson

We have come a long way.

Timeline: Somewhere around 1968, a young boy and his family are driving down an interstate.  They had just finished eating their drive-through lunch. Dad rolls down the window and throws multiple bags of food waste out of the window.  The boy watches the trash litter the highway and says, “Hey Dad! Why did you do that?” Dad says, “That’s what we always do.”

This affects the boy and a couple years later he joins the Ecology Club at school to help clean up these type of messes and help people be more aware of our resources and the value of protecting them.

Timeline: Around the early 1980s. The young man is working a construction job and digging a new process line with a backhoe for a chemical plant.  While digging, he uncovers a bunch of barrels with skull and crossbones branded on them. He immediately calls the supervisor for the chemical plant and asks him to visit and advise. The supervisor says to cover the barrels back up and move to a different area!

We sure have come a long way in protecting our environment and resources, as these two events would be met with legal repercussions today.

In case you have not guessed yet, that young boy/man in the stories was me.  I am still very passionate about protecting our resources, as I am sure you all are too.

Today, we speak of the environment, recycling and sustainability. These encompass water, land and air protection and ideas about how we can use the byproducts of the treatment processes we use to clean them.  Let us keep up the good work.

Finally, it is not too early to make plans for our 53rd annual Wastewater Conference in Green Bay at the newly renovated KI Center/Hyatt Regency Conference Center.

You can get all of the information online at www.wwoa.org, including registration, hotels and vender booths.

As always, the conference will feature golf, sporting clay shoot and a bike ride Tuesday morning with pre-conferences on Tuesday afternoon.  Tuesday night is the always famous, “Meet and Greet”.  Wednesday and Thursday will have Tech Sessions and vendor displays.

Thursday afternoon will be the business meeting, tech sessions, plant tours followed by the social hour and awards dinner Thursday night.

Friday will conclude the conference with the farewell breakfast.

I hope to see you all there.

Please remember to share your ideas as we strive to improve and educate.

Sincerely,

Jeff “Juice” Simpson 

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