C Factor—Patrick “Murf” Murphy

C FACTOR In Memory of Joe Habraken

Patrick “Murf” Murphy

President, FWPCOA

Another leader in our industry has passed away.

Joe Habraken died on July 10, 2022. I didn’t know him, even though we sat at opposite sides of the rooms we were in during Exam Review Committee meetings, or I was in the audience at presentations he gave during his tenure as an officer for FWPCOA.

He was the operations, treatment, and laboratory supervisor for the City of Akron Water Department from 1952 to 1982. He then became the treatment supervisor for the City of Tampa Water Department from 1982 to 1993. From 1993 to 2006, he was the plant manager, southeast sales manager, and senior technical service adviser for Kemiron Inc.

Joe was Ohio water treatment operator 111, wastewater operator 1 (retired), and had Florida water plant operator A license 0004426.

He held many offices and received many awards in the industry, including: S President of FWPCOA (1994) S Pat Flanagan Award (1996) S Inducted into the Florida Select Society of

Sanitary Sludge Shovelers by Bill Allman (1997) S FWPCOA honorary life member (2001) S Chair of FWPCOA Education Committee and CEU Committee S Past member and past chair for the National

Top Ops Committee of Florida Section

AWWA

Joe was an active member of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Exam Review Committee starting in 1984, instructed water plant operator courses for the Ohio Operator Training Committee, instructed required Florida water plant operator courses at Hillsborough Community College and Pinellas Vocational and Technical Institute, and had been an instructor at FWPCOA state and regional short schools for over 20 years. He also contributed to the California State University in Sacramento course manuals, writing a good portion of the coagulation section, specifically the marble test.

In 2007, he developed online training courses with CEU Plan for drinking water and distribution operators across the United States. After Joe retired, he returned to his roots in Ohio, enjoying fishing whenever he wanted.

During the FWPCOA board of directors meeting, recently held on July 22, several tributes were offered as testimony to Joe’s character and commitment to his profession and his fellow operators.

He will be missed.

FWPCOA 2022 Fall State Short School

The FWPCOA 2022 Fall State Short School, held August 1-5, 2022, at the Indian River State College in Fort Pierce had a lower attendance than usual (198 students), but from speaking with the students and instructors, there was great engagement within the classes. Let this also be a huge thank you to all of the instructors who voluntarily give their time and knowledge during these short school events, and also at the regional CEU courses; most of them have been doing so for decades.

Part of the succession plan for maintaining FWPCOA’s training schools is to have new folks who want to get involved in training shadow current instructors, which will help us in maintaining quality training classes through thick and thin. There were a number of trainees at the short school, some who jumped right into the fire and performed fantastically.

A special thank you was given by Tom King, Education Committee chair, to Jeff Elder for his tireless work on completing the water distribution manual, which was distributed to students at this event. Elder is an amazing water distribution instructor, and fortunately, he was recently selected to be on the FDEP Exam Review Committee, which will help ensure the quality of the state exams.

Many members of the Education Committee have been working on the different disciplines, and with the outstanding performance from ProEdit, the FWPCOA training library is getting closer to being completed. These manuals will give others a real run for their money: they will belong to FWPCOA and will be course work criteria that could be used throughout the U.S.

On Wednesday at the short school, the awards luncheon was a huge success; the food was absolutely delicious, catered by Carter’s, and the students showed respect for the award recipients by hanging around during the presentation of the awards. Renee Moticker presented the usual awards given during the fall state short school luncheon, and Chuck Nichols presented the safety awards.

There were a few other awards and recognitions that were preemptively given at the Sunday board of directors meeting due to the recipients not being able to return to Ft. Pierce midweek. They were as follows: S Scott Ruland received the Joseph V. Towry

Reclaimed Water Service Award S Phil Donovan for his many years of service as FWPCOA Publicity Committee chair S Tim McVeigh for building and managing the FWPCOA Online Institute S Darin Bishop for his work in developing the

FWPCOA training library

It’s very hard to call out everyone who has done amazing things when you have so many folks that deserve recognition, but I’m throwing one more in here: Thank you to Shirley Reaves, FWPCOA’s training coordinator; there are very few of us who would really want to walk a mile in her flip flops.

Joe Habraken

Florida Water Resources Conference

The Florida Water Resource Conference (FWRC) is now going to be held May 31 to June 3, 2023, in Orlando at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center. This is a move from the original Mother’s Day weekend dates to two days after Memorial Day as the start, which is a Wednesday. I’m sure I’ll be confused even though I’ll have a program in my hand

well in advance, but I’m just so used to having a weekend start to the conference.

Some believe having it start during the week will actually help with attendance from the beginning to the end. Regardless of when it starts, this event provides the most amazing offerings of technical programs, exhibits, awards luncheons, meetings, contests, competitions, networking, and other events. There is something for everyone in the water and wastewater industry to enjoy, and you get continuing education units (CEUs) and professional development hours (PDHs) doing some of it!

This change will move the FWPCOA Operators Showcase to Wednesday, May 31, and held from 2 to 4 p.m. This will be the sixth showcase and I encourage you to plan on attending. We will make sure there’s a great presentation, and as always, free beer!

There are several FWPCOA awards that are presented at the FWRC awards luncheon and annual meeting, and the recipients will be announced later. This is a great opportunity to acknowledge outstanding individuals in our association.

The awards are: S David B. Lee Award – Based on the operator’s plant operations and activities within FWPCOA. S Pat Flanagan Award – Given to an associate member, based on their assistance to operators and their contribution to

FWPCOA. S Richard P. Vogh Award – Given to the region judged most progressive during the year.

So, start thinking about your nominees now and set a calendar reminder to send those nominations to FWPCOA around January or February of 2023. At the FWRC luncheon, please stay until the awards are presented and give the recipients a huge round of applause for their service to our industry and our association.

Online Training Institute

A special thank you to Tim McVeigh for developing and managing the Online Training Institute; it’s great to see so many taking the CEU classes. Tim has recently added some new voluntary certification courses, so please take advantage of them: S Stormwater B S Utilities Customer Relations Level I

If you haven’t taken advantage of the training yet, you can access the online training by going to the FWPCOA website at www. fwpcoa.org and selecting the “Online Institute” button at the upper right-hand area of the home page to open the login page. You then scroll down to the bottom of this screen and click on “View Catalog” to open the catalog of the many training programs offered. Select your preferred training program and register online to take the course.

This is a great way to get those needed CEUs for your license renewal. For more information, contact the institute program manager at OnlineTraining@fwpcoa.org or the FWPCOA training office at training@fwpcoa. org.

Water Resources Management

Well, since this column was supposed to be on water resources management, which is one of the themes for this month’s magazine, I must throw in one item.

The water resources management division of the City of Plant City recently developed some public outreach educational videos, and they are being posted on the city’s YouTube and Facebook pages. For YouTube access, tag it, then do a search for City of Plant City; there should be a string of the videos that Plant City posts. Bill McDaniel, our city manager, does so many and they are very good. You might have to scroll around a bit to find them.

The mastermind behind these videos is John McGee, environmental coordinator for Plant City, and though he is a genius, I still am not sure why he scraped the bottom of the trickling filter for zoological film to have me star in the videos.

Fryed Egg Productions is producing the clips, and every two weeks a new one will be posted, with six in total. The topics include illicit discharges, water conservation, Floridafriendly landscaping, and stormwater, and all will include me as some know-it-all expert (those that know me will see the real humor in that). I’ll be a cowboy in one, a greaser, a hippie, and unfortunately for all, a superhero. This one hasn’t been filmed yet, since they are having a hard time finding a pair of tights that will stretch that much!

Finally, I want to thank all the hardworking people in our industry. Thank you for doing all you do every single day! Let’s keep that water clean! S