Steve Wilson Illinois State Water Survey – University of Illinois Jennifer Wilson Illinois Water Resources Center – University of Illinois Funding through The Midwest Technology Assistance Center / USEPA An Internship Program to Develop Small System Sustainability
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An Internship Program to Develop Small System Sustainability
Lessons learned from a pilot program that placed a new operator at several water/wastewater systems over the summer to assist with developing managerial capacity through asset management and emergency response planning.
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Steve WilsonIllinois State Water Survey – University of Illinois
Jennifer WilsonIllinois Water Resources Center – University of Illinois
Funding through
The Midwest Technology Assistance Center / USEPA
An Internship Program to Develop Small System Sustainability
1.Find a recent graduate of a certificate programwho has yet to find an operator position interested in our internship.
2. Work with the school, TA providers, and the stateto identify several nearby small communitiesinterested in developing an ERP, assetmanagement plan, long-range plan.
3. Work with the intern to understand what is expected of them, provide examples, have them read the study guides, etc.
And We Came Up With A Planto Pilot Our Idea (cont)….
4. Have the intern work with the communities todevelop those tools, providing free labor todevelop inventories, find costs, organize their information.
5. Evaluate the program and determine if it haspotential as a future effort on a larger scale
- Interview players and find out their perspectivesfor a video put on SmallWaterSupply.org
- Waiting on Community B to provide DW operatorcontract, NPDES permit, and ERP info
- Finish ERP, send them lengthy letter describingtheir options and providing recommendationson the level of operator/staff effort needed toproperly run their system
- Meet with Community A to provide completedCUPSS files and provide followup
- Nate was excellent in operations, knew a lot for being so young, but lacked some of the skills we needed for completing the project
- Not a good writer- Not very organized- Too passive to dig in and get answers
- Consequently, still working to complete program,utilizing a UI student on SWSO project.
- Partly our fault, we expected him to be able todevelop skills somewhat on his own, as anyoperator would have to do, and it took longerbecause of that
- Plan and prepare well in advance:- Talk to state and TA providers to find both intern and communities interested/with need.- Develop examples of the tools you want the interns to use and walk through a formal training process to be clear whats expected.- Be involved with communities early and determine exactly what they expect and need from intern.- Have interview process, list skills needed to be an intern in this program, plan to provide regular support during internship