Aaron began the program in December of 2016 and graduated during May 2021.
For more information about the Apprentice Program, contact IAMU Director of Electric Services Bob Hiatt at bhiatt@iamu.org
Congratulations to Aaron Rasko of Indianola Municipal Utilities on completing the IAMU Apprenticeship Program.
Aaron began the program in December of 2016 and graduated during May 2021. For more information about the Apprentice Program, contact IAMU Director of Electric Services Bob Hiatt at bhiatt@iamu.org
0 Comments
Don't let rain ruin your day. Maintain drainage systems to avoid water damage to roofs and buildings.
Click here to read the EMC Loss Control Insights article. The 27th Annual Water and Wastewater Operator’s Training Workshop will be held November 17-19 at Prairie Meadows in Altoona. You don’t want to miss it.
This yearly training is a must for any water and wastewater professionals wanting practical information to help them do their jobs. The three-day workshop includes basic and advanced topics on water treatment, water distribution, and wastewater. Attendees can earn up to 1.2 CEUs toward certification, plus get a chance to connect with other municipal water professionals from around the state as well as check out products and services from water-related vendors. Under the 1996 reauthorized Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), the State of Iowa is required to publish an annual report of the status of its public drinking water program. The 2020 report is available electronically at the following address: http://www.iowadnr.gov/WS-Annual-Compliance-Report.
The report was compiled by the staff of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' Water Supply Engineering and Operations Sections, using data collected in 2020 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. Nine months of 2020 was during the COVID-19 pandemic, which curtailed many activities but did not adversely affect the ability of Iowa systems to provide safe drinking water. Iowa had 1,848 active public water supply systems in 2020. In 2020,
If you have any questions about the report, contact Mark Moeller at mark.moeller@dnr.iowa.gov Think you can communicate with your stakeholders every now and then and be good? Think again. To be effective, you need to make sure you’re engaging in ongoing communications with your customers, your boards or councils, and your employees.
The communication should be a dialogue – not just one way coming only from you. Consider how you can incorporate conversations into your communication strategy. It could be by asking questions on social media posts and then responding to the answers/comments you receive. It could mean surveys, seeking input on both big – and small – decisions. It could be holding an open house to bring the community into your facilities. Ongoing communication doesn’t mean you should bug your audience non-stop. That isn’t effective. People get annoyed and start to tune you out. You need to find a frequency balance, but what is that? You should try to have some type of interaction at least monthly even if you don’t have big news to share. Weekly works, too. You can get away with every few days if you need to get out important, timely information or if you’re gearing up for an event where you need to remind everyone at least a few times. And don’t forget to use multiple ways of reaching out. We may sound like a broken record on this point, but it’s so true. Find various outlets to get out the word. Media releases, social media posts, and posters throughout town all work and are easy to create. Everyone accesses information in different place these days, so be sure to cover all your bases. If you need help with your public relations efforts, IAMU has you covered. We contract with Jen Cronin to provide PR support as a member benefit. You can reach Jen at jcronin@jcronincom.com or on her cell phone at 616-610-2546. The State of Iowa is partnering with various stakeholders to provide disposable and reusable medical personal protective equipment (PPE) at no cost to local entities for the purposes of responding to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This effort includes providing mass quantities of PPE to various stakeholders within the state through special, one-time disbursements. At this time, members of IAMU are eligible under this initiative.
The following list of PPE is available upon request by completing the PPE Supply Request Form at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYdbaDQ5NEIRX-c8TseAHrhSeCZooNrH_DmhcQHPB4c72-uQ/viewform
The opportunity to request any of the items listed above is open until the close of business Tuesday, July 13. After the deadline, we will review all requests, the current inventory levels of PPE and allocate items appropriately. If there are any questions, feel free to direct those to jeremy.sroka@iowa.gov or 515-323-4324. In recent months, an increased number of ransomware attacks have occurred against U.S critical infrastructure, including targeted attacks against the water sector. Ransomware as defined by DHS’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is “an ever-evolving form of malware designed to encrypt files on a device, rendering any files and the systems that rely on them unusable.” Cybercriminals and state actors will leverage this technique to block access to these resources or threaten to publish any private or protected information to the public unless a ransom is paid.
In response to the pervasive ransomware threat, Anne Neuberger, Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, issued the memo, What We Urge You to Do to Protect Against the Threat of Ransomware, in which she outlines five best cybersecurity practices. The Office of Water urges all water and wastewater facilities to adopt these basic practices to reduce the risk of a successful ransomware attack:
CISA has created a website that contains a collection of resources devoted to preventing ransomware attacks: https://www.cisa.gov/ransomware . And EPA has a cybersecurity website tailored to the water sector: https://www.epa.gov/waterriskassessment/epa-cybersecurity-best-practices-water-sector. If you have questions regarding any of the information above, please contact David Travers, Water Security Division, USEPA (travers.david@epa.gov). From Sarah Petersen, Community Water Fluoridation Coordinator, IDPH
“Effective July 1, a new Iowa law requires an owner or operator of a public water supply system to notify consumers served by the system at least ninety days prior to taking any action to permanently discontinue fluoridation of its water supply. The public water supply must also provide notice to the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). The link to the legislation can be found here. Community water fluoridation is the precise adjustment of natural fluoride levels to the optimal level of 0.7 mg/L to prevent cavities. Some benefits of community water fluoridation include:
“This law will allow for consumers’ awareness of the status of fluoridation in their water supply to ensure they are receiving the needed amount of fluoride to prevent cavities,” said Dr. Bob Russell, Dental Director, Bureau of Oral and Health Delivery Systems. “We continue to support community water fluoridation as a safe, effective, and equitable way to achieve optimal oral health of a population.” The IDPH Bureau of Oral and Health Delivery Systems monitors the fluoride levels of Iowa communities and provides information, education, and assistance to water supply professionals, health care professionals, and the public. To see the fluoridation status of Iowa counties and towns, visit My Water’s Fluoride. Any questions related to this law should be directed to Sarah Petersen, Community Water Fluoridation Coordinator, Iowa Department of Public Health. 515-204-3450 or sarah.petersen@idph.iowa.gov.” A former safety intern for IAMU and graduate student going for his Master’s degree Michael Shultz and other researchers at the Occupational Safety program at the Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering at Iowa State University are looking into how stress is affecting decision-making on safety in the utility and maintenance work fields. This study will be used to assist in developing programs and policies to reduce the negative impact that stress has on the safety of workers in these jobs.
A short 10-15 minute, completely anonymous survey will ask participants about their stress and the trade-off between working quickly or comfortably and working safely. Would $5 help your stress? The first 100 participants will receive a gift card via email. CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY: https://iastate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1ETzSdR7DKp38wK. Stay safe out there! |
Archives
April 2023
|