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Online discussion: Successful Continuity of Water & Wastewater Services During the COVID-19 Emergency

The Ontario Municipal Water Association (OMWA) and the Water & Wastewater Regulatory Compliance Group (WWRCG) are once again collaborating to deliver a free fully-interactive event to discuss: “Positioning Your Organization for Successful Continuity of Water & Wastewater Services During the COVID-19 Emergency.”

This one-hour, online event is scheduled for 11:00 a.m., Thursday, April 9, 2020.

The event will feature a fully interactive “discussion room” format and the number of participants will be limited and limited to one registration per municipalities/utilities.

The OMWA and WWRCG have developed an online questionnaire consisting of several questions on various COVID-19 water & wastewater related operational issues that each association has identified based on input from our respective members.

After you register, you will receive a registration confirmation email within 8 hours and a link to the online questionnaire that will be the foundation for the event discussions. We would suggest that each municipality/utility coordinate their registration and their response.  Participants will be expected to complete the Poll questionnaire by 4:00 p.m. Wednesday, April 8th. The data from the completed questionnaire will then be compiled and presented on Thursday at 11:00 by our moderators, OMWA President Mike Mortimer, Justyna Burkiewicz from WWRCG and Laura Smit, OMWA Board Director.

Our registrants will then be welcome to discuss results, ask follow-up questions, provide further clarification or to voice their thoughts and opinions during the event to the benefit of all participants.

 Once again, participation in this free fully interactive “discussion room” is limited, so register as soon as possible. Please register as a municipality/utility and be sure to submit your answers and feel free to ask any other specific questions you may have before Wednesday, April 8 at 4:00 p.m.

To register in advance for this webinar, click here.

Webinar Moderators:

Michael Mortimer (President, OMWA)
Justyna Burkiewicz (Member of WWRCG), (Manager, Water & Wastewater Regulatory Compliance, Peel Region)
Laura Smit, (Board Member, OMWA), (Board Member, WCWC), ( Superintendent of Water Treatment and Supply, City of Orillia)

This one-hour event will feature a fully interactive “discussion room” format and the number of participants will be limited and limited to one registration per municipality/utility.
Disclaimer: Registrants acknowledge that this webinar may be recorded and may be shared online with participants and non-participants. Participant comments or questions my be included in the recording.
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Education Days details and posters

The Ontario Municipal Water Association is pleased to announce details of the upcoming Education Days events to be held this fall in Cobourg, London and Sudbury.

The Ontario Municipal Water Association, in partnership with the Ontario Water Works Equipment Association presents three Education Days aimed at delivering effective and economical training and networking opportunities to our member utilities around the province. Planned around our ‘One Water’ strategic concept, the working theme of the education days will be improving operations through innovation. Some courses are suitable for both water and wastewater operators.

All events feature CEU courses, a trade show, presentations, networking and more. There will be technical workshops for operators, as well as seminars and presentations suitable for senior managers and elected representatives.

For more details, a downloadable poster, and registration, visit our events page.

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President’s message, summer 2018

It sometimes seems that every week a challenge to our drinking water emerges. How can you stay informed about the threats and solutions? Easily – if you’re an OMWA member. We keep members informed about water-related issues and events through our twice-weekly newswire, through our website, and in our upcoming Education Days.

Challenges can come from unexpected sources. Like our clothes and household cleansers. We’ve reported many stories about microplastics and nanoplastics – microscopic bits of non-degradable plastic that scientists now realize pervade our environment.

They’re a new and difficult challenge for water professionals.

Plastic is so ubiquitous that it finds its way into everything around us, even our drinking water. One study found plastic in 85 per cent of tap water samples taken from a dozen countries (in the USA researchers found plastic in 94 per cent of their samples).

Continue reading “President’s message, summer 2018”

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Electricity, natural gas and water reporting

Did you know?

Electricity, natural gas and water utilities are required to give building owners who request it aggregated monthly data for their building’s electricity, water and/or natural gas use.

Ontario Regulation 20/17, Reporting of Energy Consumption and Water Use, outlines what building owners and utilities must do to comply with Ontario’s Large Building Energy and Water Reporting and Benchmarking (EWRB) initiative.

 How and what to report

To see the types of buildings that are subject to the reporting requirements, and the data building owners will need to report, visit ontario.ca/energyreporting.

If you have questions about the EWRB initiative, please call 1-844-274-0689 or email EWRBSupport@ontario.ca.

 

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Nick Benkovich given George Warren Fuller Award

Niagara Falls, ON, May 1, 2018: Nick Benkovich was named as the winner of the George Warren Fuller award, presented by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) at Ontario’s Water Convention, in Niagara Falls, today.

George Warren Fuller Awards are presented annually by the American Water Works Association to the sections’ respective selected members for their distinguished service to the water supply field in commemoration of the sound engineering skill, the brilliant diplomatic talent, and the constructive leadership which characterized the life of George Warren Fuller. The recipients of the George Warren Fuller Awards are selected by the individual sections of the Association from among their own members to recognize publicly the contribution toward the advancement of water works practice.

Sudbury-born Nick Benkovich retired from his long-time position as Director of Water & Wastewater Services for the City of Greater Sudbury at the end of December, 2017. He also stepped down from his position as director on the Ontario Municipal Water Association board at that time. He had been on the board since 2004, and served as its president in 2008.
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OMWA to sponsor Autumn Peltier at Water Conference

The Ontario Municipal Water Association is proud to sponsor Autumn Peltier as a key speaker at Ontario’s Water Conference and Trade Show in Niagara Falls. Autumn Peltier is a 13-year-old Anishinaabe-kwe, and self-described ‘water warrior.’

Autumn is a well-known and vocal advocate for safe drinking water for Indigenous communities and for clean waterways in Canada. She has been advocating for clean drinking water since she was about 8 years old. She comes from Wikwemikong First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Ontario. She will be joined by her mother, Stephanie Peltier.

Autumn was inspired by her great aunt, Water Walker Josephine Mandamin, whose 2003 trek around all five Great Lakes began a tradition of walking for water and bringing media and political attention to what threatens our most precious natural resource.

Autumn attended the 2015 Children’s Climate Conference in Sweden, a meeting of 64 concerned, engaged children from 32 different countries that delivered its message to the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. Autumn is the only Canadian nominated among 151 nominees for the 2017 Children’s International Peace Prize. She won the 2016 Canadian Living “Me to We” award for the Youth in Action (12 and under).

Her meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Assembly of First Nations gathering in Gatineau, Que., in 2016, resulted in his promise to take steps to protect Canada’s water.

Earlier this year, Autumn was chosen as the 2017 Ontario Junior Citizen award recipient from the Ontario Community Newspaper Association (OCNA). In late March, she addressed the UN General Assembly, telling its 193 member states to ‘Warrior Up’ in their efforts to provide clean and safe water for all nations. This week, Autumn will be speaking about the protection of our water and its significance to Indigenous peoples.

OMWA president, Rosemary K. MacLennan, said, “The Ontario Municipal Water Association is honoured and delighted to present Autumn Peltier as a speaker for this convention. Autumn is a role model for Canadian youth to engage in key issues such as water and the environment. She has proven that her generation’s concerns can and will be heard and recognized, not only by their local elders, but by the whole world. Through her passion and her wisdom, other Canadian youths are inspired to also speak out for their future. Their voices matter and we should all be listening. We hope all attendees at this event will take the time to hear her speak.”

Please join us in welcoming Autumn Peltier to Ontario’s Water Conference in Niagara Falls, and hear her words of advocacy for water: 2:15 p.m., Wednesday May 2, 2018.

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Call for submissions

The Ontario Municipal Water Association (OMWA) is looking for articles for our next installment of (Water)3, coming this spring.

The topic is Water 101: What Every Municipal Politician Should Know.

Whether they are an incumbent member of municipal council running again, or a candidate seeking election for the first time, we want to be the source for education about municipal drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems that politicians can easily access and refer to. We want to help politicians to be fully and accurately informed about municipal water issues even before they file their papers. And not just about drinking water systems: we want to know how you teach them about your wastewater and stormwater facilities and management, too.
Continue reading “Call for submissions”