3 minute read
FWEA Focus—Sondra W. Lee
FWEA FOCUS From Stormwater to Wastewater Treatment
Sondra W. Lee, P.E.
President, FWEA
My Wastewater Treatment Story
The Water Environment Federation (WEF) has been asking members to share their water stories, mainly relating how they ended up working in water. As part of its new strategic plan, WEF is working to amplify the stories of water to grow, strengthen, and diversify the water community. Members are encouraged to share their water stories with WEF and follow #WEFwaterstories on social media.
In my case, I stumbled into wastewater treatment through my stormwater background. One could say that it all started back when I was attending Auburn University. While in school I worked for a small consulting firm in Columbus, Ga., about a 45-minute drive from Auburn. We primarily did subdivision design work, and I discovered that I really liked to work on stormwater systems.
After graduating from Auburn in 1994, I began to work with the Florida Department of Transportation in Bartow. Once I completed the 18-month-long professional engineer trainee program, I began working in the stormwater group. A few years later, I returned to a consulting firm doing stormwater design for developments in north Florida. This work eventually led into managing site development projects at another firm where one engineer handled the utilities design for all projects.
One day he surprised us and went to work for one of our clients, so I needed to jump into utilities design for my projects, and I eventually became a utility liaison between the City of Tallahassee and my firm.
Over time, the city managed to recruit me to join its team. Honestly, I resisted at first because I was afraid of being bored of working for a government. Ha—was I ever wrong in that regard!
My work at the city started off with water and sewer design work; however, the wastewater treatment facility had some stormwater flooding issues that needed to be addressed, and I worked to find a way to snake in a stormwater collection system through all of the existing facility network piping. During this project the facility staff
Biological nutrient removal basin at the Thomas P. Smith Water Reclamation Facility.
members and I got to know each other, and they started to ask for assistance with other site issues as I showed interest in the workings of the facility.
Unknowingly to me, in 2005 a request was made to the utility director by Darby Dressel, the wastewater treatment supervisor, to reassign me to the wastewater treatment facility. From there I served as the project manager for the multiyear facility upgrade, which lead to my becoming the operations supervisor, followed by returning to the engineering office to manage the wastewater treatment capital improvement program.
I feel very fortunate that my water story turned into a wastewater treatment story. As I wind down my time at the city, I am glad to share my knowledge with the next generation of water storytellers.
There are several ways to get more involved or to learn more about wastewater treatment. For example, WEF is planning an Innovations in Process Engineering Conference, scheduled for June 6-9, 2023, in Portland, Ore. If interested, abstracts, session proposals, and workshop proposals can be submitted until Jan. 13, 2023. More information is available on the conference webpage at www.wef.org/events/conferences/ upcoming-conferences/ProcessEngineering.
For a Florida focus, the FWEA Wastewater Process Committee is a great source. The next Wastewater Process Seminar will take place on Jan. 24, 2023. This 10th annual seminar will take place in two locations! The presenters will be located in Pompano Beach, while an in-person remote telecast is available in St. Augustine.
To learn more about the committee and its upcoming seminar, visit www.fwea.org for more information. S
The names of the nighttime construction and inspection crews at a wastewater facility on a pipe to recognize their work for completing a challenging tie-in project and to thank their wives. Lee provides an addendum since her husband wouldn’t want to be called a “wife.”
