Please welcome new Associate member Baker Tilly!

Baker Tilly is the full-service accounting and advisory firm with nationally recognized utility expertise, providing services to more than 600 utility and energy companies. Our specialized professionals connect with you through refreshing candor and clear public power and utility industry insight. Baker Tilly speaks your language and identifies with your goals to consistently deliver comprehensive, strategic solutions that are just right for you. Baker Tilly is ranked as one of the 15 largest accounting and advisory firms in the country and is an independent member of Baker Tilly International, a worldwide network of independent accounting and business advisory firms in 147 territories.

Mark your calendars for this year’s IAMU Natural Gas Operator Qualification Workshop taking place August 29 – 30, 2017 at the IAMU Office and Training Complex.  This year’s workshop will cover a multitude of topics and offer many qualification opportunities.

Who Should Attend?

This workshop provides public gas employees the chance to learn more about the gas industry, while also gaining proficiency in skills that can be used in servicing their hometown gas customers.  It is designed for employees who administer, supervise, and work in public natural gas systems.  New operators, or operators needing a refresher on skills, should plan to attend this workshop.

The annual exhibit show and dinner will also take place at IAMU, giving participants a chance to check out the latest offerings from product reps.

For more information and to register here.

IAMU will be hosting the 2018 Water Distribution Training and Water Leak Detection/Line Locating Workshops, September 5th & 6th.

0.6 CEUs will be available each day for Water Distribution.

For more information, and to register, click here.

Hope to see you there!

Saw blades build up huge amounts of kinetic energy during cutting; and when they stop suddenly, the energy must go somewhere, leaving the operator with a potentially fatal injury from a saw blade or a saw that is wrenched from its fittings and is left running freely along the ground.

Kickback is a sudden reaction to a pinched, jammed, or bound up saw blade where the saw thrusts up and backward.

Another violent pressure that leaves the operator with uncontrolled equipment is the pull-in force, which may drag the operator toward the blade.

There are two main ways to reduce saw kickback: prevent the blade from stopping suddenly and reduce your chances of being struck if the saw does stop.

• Make sure you are trained in proper cutting techniques, safety, and how to hold the saw.
• Wear the appropriate personal protective equipment while cutting.
• Keep your blade sharp and clean. Dull or dirty blades tend to bind up in cuts.
• Do not use a saw that is too heavy for you to control.
• Never remove the guard as it is designed to capture and deflect the pieces of a shattered blade. Inspect the guard and make sure that there is no evidence of failure.
• Make a series of straight, shallow cuts. Set the blade at no greater than 1/8″ to 1/4″ more than the thickness of the material to avoid contacting foreign items while cutting.
• Operate the saw at the manufacturer’s recommended speed.
• Make sure your blade is the right size for the saw.
• Take your finger off the trigger or power switch if the blade binds up, the saw stalls, or the power is interrupted.

Stay out of the line of fire! Standing directly behind the saw increases your chances of being struck by the blade if the saw kicks back. Maintain your balance and footing at all times.

Terrorists are quite sneaky in their efforts to gain access to and attack our critical infrastructure, including utilities. Learn to recognize the signs of suspicious activity so that you can report it to the proper authorities. For more, check out these tips sheets:

• Recognize the Signs of Terrorism-Related Suspicious Activity
• Suspicious Activity Reporting Indicators and Behaviors
  

Contrary to popular belief, winter ice and snow with the accompanying slipping and sliding on roadways, don’t lead to the largest number of traffic accidents. Surprisingly, more fatal driving accidents occur in the summer months than in any other season, says EMC Senior Risk Improvement Specialist Scott Peterson. In fact, the three deadliest holiday weekends — Memorial Day, July 4, and Labor Day weekends — fall within the 101 most deadly days on the road, the dates between late May and early September.

To learn more about summer driving hazards, check out the article in EMC Insights.

The coliform bacteria sampling plan templates have been updated to include the revised total coliform rule requirements as well as to include the groundwater rule requirements that had previously been in a separate plan.  There are several templates available, to accommodate the various sampling frequencies and source water types.  The DNR website has both .doc and .pdf versions, in fillable format.  If you’d like a Word document that’s able to be modified, please ask your water supply contact in the field office or WS operations section, and it will be emailed to you.

The American Society of Civil Engineers has released their 2017 report card of the condition of the nation’s infrastructure, including drinking water. 

The drinking water report card’s  overview states:  “Drinking water is delivered via one million miles of pipes across the country. Many of those pipes were laid in the early to mid‐20th century with a lifespan of 75 to 100 years. The quality of drinking water in the United States remains high, but legacy and emerging contaminants continue to require close attention. While water consumption is down, there are still an estimated 240,000 water main breaks per year in the United States, wasting over two trillion gallons of treated drinking water. According to the American Water Works Association, an estimated $1 trillion is necessary to maintain and expand service to meet demands over the next 25 years.”

Under the 1996 reauthorized Safe Drinking Water Act, the DNR is required to publish an annual report of the status of its public drinking water program.  The 2017 report is available on their website.  

The report was compiled by the staff of the DNR, using data collected in 2017 from all active public water supplies in the state.  The report contains a summary of the program, a description of the requirements that systems must meet, the year’s violation statistics, and the list of the systems with each health-based standard or major monitoring or reporting violation incurred during the year.  

The photographs in the report are from Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund projects, primarily those that were completed during the year.  The maps depict the public water supply system universe in Iowa and the locations of the systems that incurred the health-based standards and major monitoring and reporting violations.  The maps are also separately listed on the website.

Iowa had 1,841 active public water supply systems in 2017. Of those systems, 95.8% were in compliance with all health-based drinking water standards, and 80.8% were in compliance with all major monitoring and reporting requirements. There were no waterborne disease outbreaks or deaths attributed to the drinking water at any active public water supply in Iowa during the year.