Local Wastewater Operators Persevere to Improve Our Public Waterways
The adage “When it rains, it pours” is one that is becoming all too familiar and challenging for the future health of our local waterways. Heavy rainstorms are one of the biggest threats because they seem to be occurring with more intensity and frequency, sweeping pollutants off rooftops, sidewalks, roads, farmlands, and every impermeable surface imaginable into rivers and streams. But with careful research, planning, and collaboration, community leaders are learning how to mitigate these high flow wet weather events.
This is a story about the men and women who work in wastewater treatment plants—the last collection point before most wastewater and stormwater is captured, treated, and sent out to public waterways—in Massachusetts and Vermont. Their job is not glamorous by any means, but what they do 24/7, 365 days a year is not only admirable, but undeniably important to the health and welfare of our lives.
Excerpt from 'Local Wastewater Operators Persevere to Improve Our Public Waterways' (Bill Hobbs, Estuary Magazine)