January is the time for planning the new year’s agenda, and the National Association of Wastewater Transporters has the process well under way. Before talking about what’s ahead, however, I’d like to thank Bruce Fox for his service as NAWT’s representative on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Partnership for Sustainable Decentralized Wastewater Management Memorandum of Understanding. Bruce has been elected president of the Pennsylvania Septage Management Association.
Kit Rosefield, education coordinator for the California Onsite Wastewater Association, is our new representative. His experience will be instrumental as we work with the partnership to prepare online training programs for installers, regulators and real estate agents.
There are different ways to present online courses. NAWT’s vacuum truck technician training reflects the most basic method. Subscribers pay a fee, do the work, take the test, and receive a certificate. The next phase — and this is where we want to take the course — is interactive. A webinar enables subscribers to e-mail questions to an instructor and receive a response within 24 hours. The fanciest approach is a webcast. This is a scheduled live broadcast where subscribers log in and interact with a support team that answers questions. The more sophisticated the approach, the higher the cost, and finding funding is holding up the project.
As an aside, the partnership has elevated the waste hauling industry in the eyes of fellow agencies. We’re well respected for our active, vocal role, and I’m proud of that accomplishment. Bruce and Kit are great representatives of our industry.
Is it worth it?
One problem seen by the NAWT board is the limited success of the online vacuum truck technician training course. That’s disappointing because we put a lot of effort into promoting it. People who take the course say it’s great. One reason is because they have six months to complete the material. Another is the cost. Without travel and hotel expenses, it’s very economical.
However, the board has reservations about spending money with the partnership. If the online vac truck training had been more successful, we would know that the approach is the next educational advancement. Instead, we believe the industry isn’t ready to move from the classroom environment to cyberspace because training installers, inspectors and service providers require a hands-on component.
It’s a dollar commitment. Last December, we held our first NAWT version of the Consortium of Institutes for Decentralized Wastewater Treatment installer training course in California with instructors Jim Anderson and Dave Gustafson. We had hoped to partner with the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), the Consortium, and EPA to tape the two-day session, but we couldn’t reach a consensus on several important issues.
A webinar would benefit thousands in our industry and in real estate, but funding offers haven’t materialized. Consequently, NAWT is researching grant options outside our industry. For example, we’re looking at agencies like the Department of Energy. Why not? Septic systems are energy efficient and recycle water. Add disinfection and they can reuse water. There are all sorts of departments into which we fit, but have never considered until now.
We also have verification as to the quality of our training programs. NEHA studied test results of Iowa contractors taking the agency’s Certified Installer of Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems national credential test without preparation and with NAWT’s installer training before the exam. More contractors who took our course passed the test and with higher scores than those who did not.
Understanding land application
This summer, we’ll partner with the Pennsylvania Septage Management Association and the Mid-Atlantic Biosolids Association to bring a two-day land application workshop to Pennsylvania. The state is a hotspot as more and more municipalities try to figure out how to make land application unappealing. Municipalities can’t legally ban it, but they can regulate haulers to sample more, control hours when trucks can be on the roads, and levy tax upon tax upon tax.
In October, NAWT will launch its one-day waste treatment program in California. We’ll have a classroom setting with two instructors and visit a private processing facility to solidify the technical material. These two events will replace the September 2011 Waste Treatment Symposium.
The Pumper & Cleaner Environmental Expo moves to Indianapolis, Ind., in Feb. 2012. I mention that because a new private facility in Indianapolis that treats septage, grease trap, and some industrial waste has shown a willingness to host the Waste Treatment Symposium in September 2012. The Education Committee has penciled in the venue.
NAWT’s 135-page Policies and Procedures manual is a living, breathing document. Since its release, the directors have formalized the William Hapchuk Memorial Scholarship and written a procedure governing nominations for the Excellence in Service award. For example, nominees do not have to belong to NAWT, but the nomination must come from a member. Nominees must have done some exceptional things, inspired others, exhibited leadership, or made significant contributions to the wastewater profession or community. The nomination deadline for the 2012 Excellence in Service award is Oct. 1, 2011. More information is at www.nawt.org.
The manual also gave us a clearly defined and working Ethics Committee, and a formal process for filing complaints against NAWT members and certified inspectors. So far, the only complaints have been against the latter. Our harshest recourse is to rescind their certification. For example, we received two unrelated complaints against one Arizona company. In both instances, the state’s required inspection forms clearly show that the company did not inspect the system thoroughly. We’re going to require them to retake our inspector training course. When the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality requested help with complaint and enforcement policies, we gave them a copy of the manual. They were satisfied.
