New York Rural Water Association

Well, this certainly has been the year! As we reflect on the year 2002 we have so much to be thankful for; our family, our friends, our health and our freedom. The world is changing and so must we. Let’s all make adjustments in our busy lives to spend more time with the ones we love, protect them and do our part in our communities.It is amazing to see how citizens have become neighborhood watchdogs of our water sources. With all the news reports of suspect intrusion at our waterways, it is the citizens that are reporting incidents, coming together to help protect our community supplies. We all must do our part and you can be a big part of that by completing the vulnerability assessments and working on an emergency plan. In 2002, through the efforts of the National Rural Water Association and the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators a vulnerability assessment template was developed for small systems. The NYS Department of Health is supporting this document and the NYRWA staff are available to assist you, if needed.During 2002, the NYRWA, was fortunate to receive additional funding through the USDA, Rural Utilities Service to provide another Circuit Rider to assist the small communities of New York. Dan Tousley came on board in February and has been assisting water systems in the western part of our state. It is a pleasure to report to you that USDA, RUS provided a grand total of $90M in loans and grants this year to water and wastewater systems across New York, including funds leveraged with other funders to spread the amount of projects even further. Please be sure to check out Dave Miller’s article in this issue of Aquafacts with the full scope of figures from the USDA, RD in New York.We again, were fortunate in obtaining a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grant this September to provide source water protection services to the small communities. Through the efforts of our leaders – Congressman Walsh, Congressman Hinchey, and Congressman Sweeney, and support from Mike Burke at the NYS Dept of Health, and Steve Gould at the EPA Regional Office the NYRWA has hired Josh Bossard to head up a program that works with small communities served by public water systems with highly or moderately susceptible drinking water sources to reduce or eliminate the potential risks to drinking water supplies through the development of Source Water Protection Plans. We are excited about this new program and will be working with four different areas throughout 2003.This past May we revisited Lake Placid for our Annual Technical Conference and once again were extremely pleased with the turnout, the professional speakers, the quality exhibits, the excellent service provided by the hotel staff, and the spectacular scenery. Thanks for all the hard work Lake Placid!! After reviewing the evaluations from our attendees, it looks as though we will be returning to Lake Placid again. Not even a small amount of snow could keep our devoted golfers away. During the conference, the NYRWA announced the 2002 Founder’s Scholarship winners. Ms. Kelsey Riley from Salamanca and Mr. James Wolfe from Lyndonville will each receive $500 to help defray the costs of tuition, books, or room and board at the college of their choice. Congratulations to our winners and we wish them good luck with their educational goals.In June, New York was the host state for the National In-Service Training of our peers from across the nation. This event took place in Buffalo and NYRWA, with the help from several of our Associate Members, hosted two events which included a trip to Niagara Falls and a cookout at our member system, Three Valley Resort. Bill Helmich and his crew did an outstanding job in providing our guests with some wonderful New York hospitality and great food.In August and September, the NYRWA conducted a Salary Survey. We appreciated your participation in this survey and have posted the results in this issue of Aquafacts. We will continue to survey on issues of importance to our members, so let us know if we can be of service to you.It is apparent that many of our members are using the Internet, so the NYRWA updated our website to provide our training agendas to you on-line. We have also developed quite a list of your email addresses and have been sending security updates and other news via the Internet. If we are not reaching you and you have an email address, please be sure to supply us with your contact information.In October, the NYRWA attended the National Rural Water Association Convention in Spokane, Washington, where we received training in Leadership/Personal Development; Public Relations/Marketing; Reviewed the Partnership Papers on the Compounding Effects of Regulations and Affordability of Drinking Water Regulations; and Security Vulnerability to just name a few. We are committed to our profession and serving our members.To wrap this up and toot our own horn, let me say, training opportunities with New York Rural Water Association were abundant throughout the year. In 2002 over 2000 water, wastewater, and solid waste professionals have attended our 47 training seminars carried out across the state. Realizing the need, this past year we incorporated lab training and will continue to expand on this service. We have provided over 2100 on-site technical assistance calls to NY community systems, from Annual Water Quality Reports to Vulnerability Assessments to line location and smoke testing…. This was a record year for us and we hope our members and the small communities of New York have benefited from these services. From all of us here at New York Rural Water Association, we wish to thank our members for their hard work, dedication and support throughout this past year. May peace, hope and happiness be yours during this holiday season and throughout the New Year.