Florida Water Resources Conference in Review

Suzanne Mechler President, FWEA

What to say—a whirlwind! This year was the 98th Florida Water Resources Conference (FWRC). I’m going out on a limb by saying there probably wasn’t a FWRC app at the first one (or the 97th!), but we had one this year and the technology worked well, including making registration easier, allowing connectivity and schedule tracking, and providing a smoother way of gathering education credits for professional development hours (PDHs) and continuing education units (CEUs).

Conference Highlights

There were so many fun times and good events, but I wanted to use this column to highlight a few items.

Water Stories

We asked for your stories and we got them! Over the three-day period, we heard from over 50 of you, the attendees, about how you got into the water industry, what you’re passionate about, and ideas to encourage choosing a career in water. We can’t wait to go through all the footage and share your stories; I learned so much just by listening. Thanks to Joan Fernandez, Lisa Kelley, and Jody Barksdale for interviewing and to you for the excitement and participation. If you missed giving your water story, you can do it any time at www. wefwaterfuture.org.

Operations Challenge

Each year I’m impressed with the high level of competition at this event, also known as Ops Challenge. This year was no different— plus we filmed it! The teams, which were BioWizards (Polk County), Dirty Birds (St. Pete), and The Fecal Matter (JEA), put on a great show in the exhibit hall. They competed in each of the five contest categories: process control, laboratory, maintenance, collections, and safety. In the end, the Bio-Wizards came out on top—congratulations!

This year, they also ramped up the pipe cutting relay competition for all those interested. I saw a lot of sore arms afterward, but it was great fun. Special thanks to Bradley Hayes, Chris Fasnacht, Ada Levy, and all the Ops Challenge teams for representing the operations community!

Young Professional Events and Workshop

The Student and Young Professionals (S&YP) Committee put on a poster competition, YP reception, YP workshop, and Student Design Competition (SDC). The allday Saturday YP workshop, in collaboration with FSAWWA, which started at 7:30 a.m., was a crash course in how to boost your career potential with some amazing speakers.

Following that was the SDC with the University of South Florida, University of Florida, and Florida International University participating. With FWRC held later this year, they participated even after school let out—what commitment! A big shout out to Nicole Cohen, chair of the S&YP Committee, for taking such a strong leadership role and making this conference such as success.

Exhibit Hall, Technical Sessions, Awards, and Networking

I enjoyed walking the exhibit hall and seeing all the amazing products and services that support our industry, reconnecting with so many of my friends and colleagues (new and old), watching our awards ceremony celebrating the great work you all do, and listening to the engaging and educational technical workshops.

It’s quite amazing that our industry identified the importance of collaboration so long ago and we have continued to do it ever since. It constantly reminds me that our ability to work together sets us apart and I appreciate the continued relationship FWEA has with the Florida Section of the American Water Works Association (FSAWWA) and the Florida Water and Pollution Control Operators Association (FWPCOA) to make this conference a success!

Priorities for this Coming Year

As I said in my speech at the FWEA awards luncheon at the conference, my priority for this coming year is to elevate you. To do that, we will focus on the following:

S Expand our connectivity. By providing more opportunities to hear from you and incorporate your ideas, we can better connect the dots. We want this organization to reflect you and represent you while, at the same time, creating collaboration and partnerships that are integral to the future of our industry. This includes inviting everyone to the table who has influence and/or an impact on what we do: information technology, laboratory staff, procurement, etc.

S Provide more value. I would say that our technical committee chairs do a bang-up job on this already, but we will put an added focus on aligning our technical content with upcoming priorities. We recognize some of the biggest challenges, both regulatory and technical, will not be solved in the next year, but we can collaborate with you and your customers

Continued on page 26 to support immediate needs and solutions that better position us to move forward. S Communicate a common message. More important than ever, we need to develop and support education and outreach to our members and the public that’s informed, emphatic, and consistent. Our goal is to advertise the magnificent work this community does every day. We have started this process with the Water Stories and Operations Challenge footage collected on the FWRC exhibit floor and our long-term goal is to leverage our stories to advance our industry.

Innovation and Emerging Technologies

The excitement of the conference and the movement of our industry keep me focused on the future, which includes innovation, emerging technologies, and new partnerships.

I talked to so many amazing people at the conference who are trying to implement change with innovative solutions, sometimes so simple in concept, but not aligned with our normal operating procedure. As FWEA, we have no intent to disrupt this industry, but we recognize that we need to help move it forward and, if needed, to help remove limitations or constraints.

For example, can we really separate stormwater, water, and wastewater anymore? This month’s theme for the Journal is stormwater management and emerging technologies and all I can think is that many of the technologies for stormwater either came from the water/wastewater market or will eventually influence these markets. In Florida, improving water quality impacted many stormwater requirements initially, but we have also, more recently, seen the impact of septic-to-sewer, ocean outfalls, and reuse regulations.

There is so much overlap; not one thing is to blame for water quality concerns and all play a role in maintaining long-term water supplies. These issues create a world of innovation in monitoring techniques, as well as implementation of projects, such as alternative delivery and public-private partnerships. The water management districts in Florida are looking at mini-water treatment plants ahead of their aquifer storage and recovery systems. Water reclamation facilities are looking at mini-stormwater treatment areas to discharge reuse water that also allow for recreation and additional natural treatment.

In the hopes of continuing to support innovation, FWEA has added a new committee this year, the Intelligent Water Technology Committee. The intent of this committee is to promote the overall understanding of the application of intelligent systems and management of that information in the water environment. This will include process instrumentation, control equipment and automation, and computers and telecommunications, as well as monitoring devices and fully contained smart systems.

This committee mirrors some of the work that the Water Environment Federation (WEF) is already doing. If you are interested in this committee, please reach out to me at mechlerse@cdmsmith.com or Tim Ware, our director at large, at tim.ware@arcadis.com. S