Water News

  • VRWA Celebrates Vermont Drinking Water Week -
    May 6 to 12, 2012

    VRWA passes along our thanks to all the public water system professionals as we celebrate Vermont Drinking Water Week. Many activities are taking place throughout the state to promote the importance of public drinking water including; tours of drinking water facilities, public service announcements promoting public drinking water, and The Water Fair taking place Friday May 11, 2012 at the Vermont Institute of Natural Science Center (VINS) in Quechee. As many as 300 school age children will be taking part in the fair with games and activities focused on the importance of water in our day to day lives. Winners of the poster and photo contest will be recognized for submissions focused on the 2012 theme, "Got Water?"

    For more information on Vermont Drinking Water Week activities please visit http://vtruralwater.org/industry/DrinkingWaterWeek/index.php

  • VRWA Updates and Gearing Up for Another Great Annual Conference!

    Good news on VRWA training programs -

    I am pleased to announce some good news in regards to funding support to continue our water operator training activities. The major portion will be through support from VT DEC Drinking Water and Groundwater Water Protection Division. Phil Acebo (Training Specialist) will continue to manage this program and looks forward to offering, coordinating and insuring varied training opportunities for all operators of the state. The other portion of support will come from the Vermont Department of Labor. I will be in charge of the VT DOL program and look forward to leading training sessions on various topics over this next one year time frame. The combination of these two water operator training programs, supplemented with wastewater training led by Wayne Graham (Wastewater Specialist) will insure the continuation of many training opportunities at low costs for the water sector.

    The timing on VRWA securing this training program support is of course very good and the VT DOL program in particular will allow us to 'bridge the gap' as we await decisions on rural water appropriations as part of the FY2013 national budget. Recall training activities, onsite assistance, and source protection planning had been conducted by VRWA through EPA sourced funds directed through our parent group National Rural Water Association up until this past fall. Given this was the program I started on when I joined rural water back in 1998 you can imagine my disappointment of the program loss. We are hopeful it will be reinstated. Toward that end, all of you that provided a letter of support in regards to this reinstatement when our call to action went out recently, thank you. Those commendation items were heartfelt and definitely illustrated the value of our services to your given systems and communities. We have shared this information with our elected officials and the National Rural Water Association is compiling all the letters received from across the country to submit them to EPA Headquarters.

    Team member and services information -

    One more recent staffing change to update you on, Paula Jackson is no longer employed with VRWA as of early April. In regards to all other team members, water circuit riders Aaron Perez, Brent Desranleau and wastewater circuit rider Wayne Graham continue their fulltime support assistance to all rural development eligible communities. Their assistance process hasn't changed, that is, they continue to work with various systems offering onsite assistance and other support at no direct cost to the system. To get into some program details, if your system is not eligible for rural development funding then VRWA will be in a position where onsite assistance will need to be fee based service. The question coming next is, how do I know if I am rural development eligible? The quick answer, if your system is located in a town or city with population of 10,000 or less, your system is organized as a public body i.e. municipal or fire district as examples, or is a non-profit corporation you are eligible. Bear with us on assistance requests since staffing reductions may impact response times.

    Annual Conference -

    While we have faced some significant program changes of late some positive news indicates we are turning the corner and we will keep on adapting and adjusting to the challenges presented and therefore continue to meet our mission. We appreciate your continued support and hope to see you at our upcoming annual conference on May 2 and 3 at the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee, VT. We have a great golf event lined up for Wednesday afternoon May 2. On Thursday May 3 we will have our vendor exhibition area, training opportunities, and our annual business meeting and lunch time entertainment by Rusty Dewees, aka The Logger, (see this link for more information including online registration page http://vtruralwater.org/industry/conference.php ).

    If you have any questions or comments please don't hesitate to be in contact with me and all of us at VRWA look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming conference.

    Sincerely,
    Shaun Fielder
    Executive Director

  • Message from Executive Director Shaun Fielder Regarding Source Protection Program Changes

    To VRWA Partner,

    Unfortunately relaying information on another program reduction here at VRWA. We have announced previously that funding support for our sole remaining source protection program, as managed by Liz Royer, ended 1/31. Due to the noted program end and combined with the uncertainty of future program funding, Liz has decided to take a position with another company. Liz is leaving on good terms and all of us at VRWA wish her the best on her future endeavors. Her last day of employment will be Friday February 24, 2012.

    We are hopeful national funding for this source protection program and for the EPA training and technical assistance programs will be reinstated in the National FY2013 appropriations as determined by Congress.

    Over the past 10 years our association has assisted 160 systems with source protection plans, updates and offered related services to many others. VRWA has made a decision to provide copies of any plans we assisted a system with as a courtesy and to show our appreciation to them. At this time the plans are being provided in electronic format to insure systems have direct access and a copy of the record for their use. We hope some of the systems will consider hiring VRWA for any updates they will be required to complete.

    It is our goal to be back in a position to offer this assistance at no direct cost, but this will depend on the decision for program funding at the national level. Even with all the recent programs losses our association has faced our existing eight full-time team members continue to assist both water and wastewater systems across Vermont and our association continues to meet our mission to promote public health and a clean environment by providing support to water and wastewater systems. Please let me know if you have any questions and thanks for your continued support of VRWA.

    Sincerely,

    Shaun Fielder
    Executive Director

    • Back to Top