Green, Energy Efficient, Sustainable, Ecofriendly, Environmentally Conscious… No matter what you call it, it is the future and it here to stay.

Usually when these words are mentioned a person’s initial thoughts are not led to wastewater. That is right, wastewater is a topic many of us avoid and would rather not think about. Nevertheless, it is my job to think about it. I am a Wastewater Treatment Operator from Chicago and have been in the field for close to ten years now. My education and experience in this field have taught me that green, energy efficiency, sustainability, etc. is a large part of wastewater. In fact, even before this terminology was a part of our daily language, wastewater embodied what was at the core of these topics. What is more sustainable than taking unusable water and making it usable again? Therefore, whatever word you prefer to use, all these topics have been a part of wastewater in the past and will be an even bigger part of the future.

To start, I would like to give a quick introduction to who I am and what brought me to the creation of this blog. I am 34 years old with a degree in Environmental Studies. I went to Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia and helped form an environmental club during my time there. I grew up with a love and appreciation for nature through the many classes I participated in at my local zoos, aquariums, forest preserves and arboretums about conservation and protection of local flora and fauna. I have spent quite a bit of time learning about the environment and the living organisms that call it home. It is a subject I have always been interested in and probably always will be. Therefore, it goes without saying I care about protecting the environment. I never thought that the time and experience I spent studying the environment would have led me to a job in the wastewater treatment field, but I am glad it has.

I had applied for the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRDGC) shortly after graduation, from a little encouragement from my father, who had been a pipefitter there for 10 plus years. I started in the lab washing bottles and preparing samples for analysis. I worked up from lab to lab absorbing all I could about the wastewater treatment process and its effects on the environment. Now I am working on the operations side of wastewater as a Treatment Plant Operator. I am grateful for my time in the laboratory and have been able to apply much of my knowledge and experience to grow even further as an Operator. Another critical component to aiding me in becoming a well rounded competent operator, has been the ability to work with and learn from our experienced Operators, Engineers and Trades people.

Presently, I have been given an amazing opportunity to expand my knowledge even further. I am participating in a job exchange program with Aarhus Vand for the next couple of months. This is a training program geared towards exchanging knowledge and experiences with each other on how to become greener, energy efficient, and sustainable. Hence, the origin of this blog, I am hoping this blog will be an effective tool to document what Aarhus Vand is doing to build a greener future and how some of these projects could benefit MWRDGC, and possibly, other organizations.