What Role Should Your Utility Play in Your Community's Development?

Most of the time water and sewer professionals focus on the day-to-day tasks of operating a utility. But how involved should utilities be in advancing the growth of their community? How does community development fit within the utility’s role to provide critical environmental and public health services?

Board Member Responsibilities for Managing a Water Utility

Elected officials or board members may be members of a city council or county commission, or serve on the Rural Water District board. With a long list of to-dos and policy concerns, how are board members supposed to stay up-to-date and knowledgeable on all that goes into the proper management of a water utility?

Critical Assets - What Are They and Where Are They?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but, did you know a picture could save you 1,000 hours, or even $1,000? Knowing what your critical assets are, and where they are located, can save you time and money when responding to problems.

Keep Calm and Know Your Water Audit

Audit. This term scares many. IRS. Fraud. Prison. When it comes to water, however, there is no cause for alarm. In almost every circumstance, the water audit process is relatively pain-free and provides numerous benefits to your water system.

Dr. Brian Bohnsack (right) works with a team of researchers to collect blue-green algae samples from Marion Reservoir in Kansas.

Hazardous Algae Blooms- A Global Phenomena, A Global Problem

Did you know Kansas is not unique to having hazardous algae blooms (HABs)?  HABs are a global phenomena that occur in both fresh and salt water. They can occur at any time, even when lakes and water bodies are frozen over! They come in different types. In saltwater environments, the most common type is red tide. The type of most concern and most common in fresh water is blue-green algae bloom. Blue-green algae blooms have been reported in almost all 50 states, including all the way north to Alaska and south to Florida.

City of El Dorado’s Wetlands and Water Reclamation facility, an award-winning wastewater treatment plant with an average daily flow of about 2 million gallons.

Fish and Wildlife Biology Majors: An Untapped Resource Pool for Water Professionals?

Can you imagine receiving more than 100 applicants for an entry level water operator position in your organization? Wouldn’t that be a nice? These numbers of applications are common for agencies seeking to hire fish and wildlife biologists. If your system is struggling to find quality water professionals, then fish and wildlife biology majors may be the elusive applicant pool that you need to consider!

Yellow smiley faces.

Why Be Nice? Customer Service at Water Utilities

Customer service in the public sector is often underrated.  Governments must provide certain services to their communities regardless of how the public views the entity; however, that does not mean that customer service is not important. Good customer service can engage the community, provide resources, build relationships and foster trust.