The Advanced Water Workshops are just a few weeks away. Be sure to register. Come for one or both days. The workshops will be held March 6 – 7 at the IAMU Office and Training Complex in Ankeny.

• Day 1 (March 6): Advanced Water Treatment
• Day 2 (March 7): Advanced Water Distribution

 
Each workshop qualifies for 0.5 CEUs.
 
For more information or to register, click here.

Registration is open for the 2019 Gas Pipeline Welder Qualification Workshop.  This year's workshop will be held March 11th-14th in Emmetsburg, Iowa at the Iowa Lakes Community College.

Designed for beginning and advanced welding, this workshop is for gas distribution system welders who work for municipal utilities or welding contractors.  Included will be the opportunity to perform one or more of the pipeline welding procedures in the IAMU procedures manual. Instructions on current welding techniques will be given throughout both sessions.

For more information, and to register, please click here.

IAMU members should note that the annual deadline for posting the OSHA 300A injury summary is February 1, 2019. All incidents of work-related injuries and illnesses must also be logged within seven days (Form 300) and detailed injury and illness reports for each entry (Form 301) must also be completed.

If there are more than 10 employees at any time during that calendar year, the employer may come under these requirements. When counting employees, you must include full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal workers. This exemption is based on the employment of the entire city rather than the establishment. For example, if a city has two establishments such as water and public works, one with five employees and one with seven employees, the city must fill out the forms for each establishment because the city employment is greater than 10.

The summary should contain the total numbers of job-related injuries and illnesses that occurred in 2018 that were logged on the OSHA 300 form. Employment information regarding the annual average number of employees and total hours worked during the calendar year is needed to calculate incidence rates.

Even if there were no recordable injuries or illnesses in 2018, you are still required to post the form with zeros on the total line. The 300A summary must remain posted until April 30, 2019.

You may download forms 300, 300A, 301 from OSHA’s Injury & Illness Recordkeeping Forms Web page or contact IAMU at 800-810-4268.

By Julie Sievers, Senior Environmental Specialist, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Field Office 3 - Spencer
 
During extremely cold weather or during periods of high winds, water tower and storage tank piping can freeze, preventing water from entering and leaving the tower or tank. To try to prevent this, operators are encouraged to take steps to keep the water moving in and out of the tower or tank, using the recirculating pump if the tower is equipped with one, and monitoring system pressures. A drop in pressure when the tower or tank level shows adequate water is an indication of ice building up in the piping. 
 
These actions are especially important in storage tanks with industrial or business or school connections where the usage drops to very low levels for long periods of time (such as over a weekend or during snow days). If you encounter a situation where you cannot move water into and out of the tower or storage tank, contact your tower maintenance contractor. Typically, hot water or steam is used to thaw out the piping. You may need to request your customers conserve water and reduce usage until the piping can be thawed out. Please notify your local DNR Field Office and apprise them of the situation. If your system is depressurized, they will work with you to get the system back to normal operations.

All members will receive an invoice in the coming week from IAMU regarding annual dues renewal. This includes water, gas, electric, broadband, associate, and affiliate members. The invoice will come from either IAMU Staff Accountant Jamie Van Dusseldorp or from IAMU’s online system. The IAMU fiscal year goes from March 1, 2019 to Feb. 29, 2020.
 
If you have any questions, please contact Jamie Van Dusseldorp at 515-289-5206 or jvandusseldorp@iamu.org.

If your utility or city participates in the IAMU Safety Group Insurance Program, your 2018 Insurance Trust Distribution Check will be arriving soon. Expect a call from your local agent regarding your 2018 distribution.  If you have any questions, please contact your local agent. Thank you for participating in IAMU’s Safety Group Insurance Program. 

If your electric or natural gas utility is unsure of what to provide for energy-efficiency rebates and/or your resources are limited to help customers with energy efficiency, IAMU has you covered. With our new MunEE Buck$ program, we can simplify the process and reduce the time it takes to manage energy efficiency.
 
Our easy-to-implement, customizable, prescriptive rebate program is now live. The best part: There is no cost to sign-up and start using it today!
 
About the Program:
MunEE Buck$ is a web-based prescriptive rebate program where members have the flexibility to choose which incentives to provide your customers. The rebate and amounts and estimated savings have already been established by IAMU for 2019.
 
We’ve taken the hard work out of processing customer rebates with the MunEE Buck$ online portal. Whether you choose to process the online application for your customer, or want to let your customers do it themselves, the forms can be completed from virtually any web-enabled device.
 
We’ve also taken the guesswork out of telling your customers about the program. With customized marketing and outreach material, template web content, and even video-based training tools, your staff and customers will find this program simple to manage and user friendly.
 
With MunEE Buck$, you’ll also get quarterly and annual reports so you can easily track how many customers are participating, how much energy is being saved in your community, and more.
 
How to Participate:
Once your municipal utility has signed up, our team of program administrators will work with you to select your rebates, create your marketing and outreach content, and launch this program to your customers. If you have customers who would like to submit for rebates on equipment that they’ve already purchased this year, the program will also be retroactive to January 1st. All they need is proof of purchase.
 
With MunEE Buck$, you can start energizing your customers to save today!
 
For more information or to sign up, contact Jeremy Caron at 515.289.1999 or jcaron@iamu.org. If you have already reached out, Jeremy will be in touch shortly to assist you with enrollment.

IAMU has scheduled dates for Mobile Crane Certification and Examination Classes. All classes will be held at the IAMU complex (unless otherwise noted).

• April 29 – May 3 (Registration opens March 4)
• June 10 – 14 (Registration opens April 15)
• June 24 – 28 (NW Iowa Region) (Registration opens April 29)
• August 19 – 23 (Registration opens June 24)
• October 7 – 11 (Registration opens August 12)
• December 9 – 13 (Registration opens October 14)

 
Please click HERE or visit the IAMU website for available dates.

Hach will hold workshops for water and wastewater professionals on March 19 through 21 at the IAMU Training and Office Complex.
 
The workshops cover theories behind analytical routines and various laboratory techniques.

• Laboratory Skills for Water and Wastewater Operators
  March 19, 8 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
  Cost: $150
  Operators are challenged to perform critical water quality testing accurately and timely. This course is designed for attendees interested in gaining experience in laboratory skills such as pipetting, titration, pH, units of measure, dilutions, and standard preparations.
  
  
• Process Control Instrumentation for Chlorine Analysis
  March 20, 8 a.m. – 12 p.m.
  Cost: $125
  Controlling chlorine residuals by laboratory measurements can be a time-consuming and technique-sensitive activity. Using online instrumentation for chlorine analysis takes the uncertainty out of the equation. This course is open to anyone wishing to further their knowledge of online chlorine analyzers. Lab tests for chlorine will also performed to provide results to verify and/or calibrate the online analyzers.
  
  
• Nutrients & Nutrient Analysis in Wastewater Treatment
  March 20, 1 – 5 p.m.
  Cost: $125
  An estimated 65 percent of U.S. rivers and coastal water bodies are affected by excessive nutrient inputs. Nitrogen and phosphorous are the two main nutrients contributing to the increase, resulting in algal blooms, reduced oxygen levels and fish kills. This course is open to attendees monitoring nitrogen and phosphorous compounds in wastewater – for both process control and NPDES requirements. Nitrogen compounds (ammonia, nitrate, total nitrogen), phosphate and total phosphorous will be analyzed via laboratory analysis. 
  
  
• Chlorine Analysis for DW and WW
  March 21, 8 a.m. – 12 p.m.
  Cost: $425
  Are you suffering from questionable chlorine results? Chlorine is the most popular disinfectant used in drinking water and wastewater applications but measuring it comes with a unique set of challenges. This course reviews the best practices for collecting grab samples for analysis, proper techniques for measuring free and total chlorine, troubleshooting common issues, and verifying instrument accuracy using standards.

Course approval is pending.

Register

Questions about the workshops should be directed to Hach, not IAMU. Email HachTraining@hach.com or call 800-227-4224 x2344

The 8th Annual IAMU Municipal Broadband Conference is scheduled for March 13 and 14 at the Holiday Inn & Suites – Des Moines-Northwest, 4800 Merle Hay Road. The annual event is filled with educational workshop sessions and networking opportunities.

NEW FOR 2019: The Customer Service Boot Camp – Pivot Group will conduct a day-long Customer Service Boot Camp for all customer contact personnel on March 13.

For more information about the event or to register, click here.