New York Rural Water Association

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Joshua (Josh) Bossard and I am the most recent employee of New York Rural Water Association. I live in the "Gateway of the Finger Lakes", Geneva, New York, with my wife Amy and my newborn son, Parker. My family and I enjoy the outdoors and all sorts of recreational activities. I would describe myself as an outgoing, personable individual who enjoys meeting new faces and places.To give you some background about myself, I’ll have to start with where I spent most of my time growing up. I spent most of my years growing up in the Canandaigua-Farmington (Ontario County, New York) area where I attended Canandaigua Academy High School. After high school, I attended Finger Lakes Community College for two years. I majored in Science, with a healthy dose of conservation classes. This was the point where I started seriously thinking about having a career in the field of natural resources. After I finished up at FLCC, I transferred to SUNY Brockport so I could finish with a bachelor’s degree. I decided to pursue a dual major in both Biology and water resources because of my spurred interest in the field of natural resources. The environmental curriculum at Brockport was extremely broad and as a result of that, I was exposed to many different facets of the environmental/natural resources field. In between semesters from college at Brockport, I took a summer job as a Technician Aide at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station (NYSAES) Cornell University. The lab’s main research focus was the study of soil borne pathogens on various crops. After three summers of work in this program, I was hired as a research technician in support of a research grant that was awarded to the program. The main focus of the research was experimentation with Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the effects that different applications of IPM would have against soil borne pathogens. I worked for NYSAES for a little more than a year before I was hired by Ontario County Soil & Water District. My position was Conservation District Technician and my job duties focused on a variety of non-point source pollution programs. My main focus was to manage a county wide septic system program. This included soil investigations for new construction and failed systems, as well as inspections of systems upon the transfer of property. I also split time in one of Ontario County’s Agricultural Environmental Management Programs (AEM). In this capacity, I worked within the state adopted tiered process in evaluating farms and addressing environmental concerns. My employment with the District lasted three years before my start here as a "Source Water Protection Specialist" (fancy title) with New York Rural Water. I am extremely excited to start meeting all of you and getting the source water protection program underway. Please I urge you, don’t be shy, give me a call (315) 789-5872 or email me at Bossard@nyruralwater.org, and lets continue to protect those valuable water resources.