The Onsite Wastewater Mega Conference is Oct. 13-16 in Loveland, Colorado, hosted by the National Association of Wastewater Technicians, the Colorado Professionals in Onsite Wastewater, the National Onsite Wastewater Recycling Association and the State Onsite Regulators Association. The NAWT sessions will be focused on “Septage Management, What Do We Do With What We Pump Out?” There are many alternatives, and our sessions will be discussing what you would need to know about building a wastewater treatment facility to process septage. 

NAWT will also have a session to help small municipal wastewater treatment facilities understand that they can accept septage and how to manage that in the smaller facility. Remind your municipality that this session is open to them and to register for the Onsite Wastewater Mega Conference.

For more information on the Mega Conference, go to www.nawt.org.

Scholarship applications

As the school season starts, remember to have your students apply for the William Hapchuk Memorial Scholarship. We now offer two scholarships each year. The information and forms are found on the NAWT website. The submission deadline date is Jan. 15, 2020. If you know someone who is currently enrolled in an onsite-related four-year program, encourage them to apply for this great opportunity.

Inspector training

We will be offering the Inspector Training Course during the 2020 Water & Wastewater Equipment, Treatment & Transport (WWETT) Show in a one-day format. We have recently revised and updated the course. New and current technologies have been added and much of the information has been updated, including the manuals. It is still the best nationally recognized onsite inspection training course used by many local, county and state agencies as the standard for onsite wastewater treatment system inspections. If you have not taken this course before, or if it has been awhile since you have taken it, please register and see what’s new. The course will be presented by Dave Gustafson. He has been instrumental in the development and refreshing of this course. Gustafson keeps the information relevant and entertaining.

Remember to attend the NAWT track at the Educational Day sessions during the 2020 WWETT Show. We will be discussing information installers will be keenly interested in. We are finalizing the revision of our Installer Training Course. This course gives both new and experienced installers information for good installation principles. There is a certain art to installations, and we will be discussing the importance of the installer in the life cycle of the onsite wastewater treatment systems. Some of the topics discussed will include deciphering the components of the design, planning for the installation, what the installer needs to know about the soils and how to apply that knowledge, and installing different technologies and pump systems. We are looking forward to rolling out our newly revised Installer Training Course in 2020, and this will be the introduction.