Environmental Finance Center Network: Recent Episodes
EFCN
The Environmental Finance Center Network (EFCN) is a university-based organization originally created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EFCN works with states, tribes, local governments, and the private sector to promote sustainable environmental solutions through innovative training and assistance focused on actionable results.
The funding landscape is often treacherous, filled with complexities and challenges that can feel overwhelming, especially for smaller communities. Problems undoubtedly arise, from securing the right grants to fostering collaborations among various agencies. Understanding these hurdles and learning from those who are on the other side of this process can make a significant difference. Please join us for an informative conversation with Charlie Philion who brings years of experience, a multitude of knowledge, and an expert understanding of the funding landscape.
This podcast discusses the topics of power generation and heating using biogas produced during the digestion process in wastewater treatment. The focus of the discussion is the equipment required for power and heat production, related costs, and considerations related to the cost-benefit of potential heat and power projects. Presented by Tim Colling and Daryl Gotham
Join Program Associate Mike Tate as he goes through the long history of wastewater treatment.
In this podcast you will hear from Heather Himmelberger, Dawn Nall, and Mike Rivera on their perspectives of what you need to talk to your engineer about during both the planning and design phase of your project. Heather and Dawn are both engineers and Mike is a certified water and wastewater operator. They share their experiences and what they have learned by working with water systems around the country about collaborating with your design engineer.
Moonshot Missions (a partner of the EFCN) discusses the experiences they've had with the San Carlos Apache Tribe, one of the communities participating in EPA's and USDA's Closing America's Wastewater Access Gap Pilot Project. San Carlos Apache Tribe worked alongside EPA, USDA, IHS, EFCN, contractors and many others to develop a solution plan for issues they are facing with aging wastewater infrastructure. Challenges encountered and Important takeaways from this pilot project are highlighted in this podcast.
In this episode Dawn Nall from the Southwest Environmental Finance Center interviews Sarah Diefendorf and Elaine McCarty from the EFC West, or soon to be Capacity Collaborative, on the importance of communicating in the wastewater industry. Sarah and Elaine reflect on their vast experience focusing on community outreach and education to share what they've learned about communication in wastewater, especially the importantance of learning about your stakeholders, maintaining engagement with them, creating trust, and catering your outreach to the individual community.
In this episode Dawn Nall from the Southwest Environmental Finance Center interviews Sarah Diefendorf and Elaine McCarty from the EFC West, or soon to be Capacity Collaborative, on the impact unknowns have on septic systems and the communities they influence. Septic systems are an important tool used to meet the wastewater needs of many communities and individuals that can't access centralized wastewater treatment, but due to their nature as private systems officials and even the owners themselves often don't know the full extent of their functionality. Sarah and Elaine discuss strategies for addressing these knowledge gaps and the importance in protecting public and environmental health from septic issues.
Interview City of Tucson, AZ staff: John Kmiec, Tucson Water Director; James MacAdam, Administrator, Conservation & Stormwater Resources, Tucson Water; Andrea Achilli, Associate Professor, Chemical and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Arizona (UA) and deputy director of the UA Water and Energy Sustainable Technology (WEST) Center.
Embark on an exploration of the transformative odyssey undertaken by Moonshot Missions as we delve into the origins of this innovative initiative. In this enlightening podcast, Nathan Coey articulates the genesis of Moonshot Missions and recounts his personal involvement in fostering the growth of Moonshot Missions to its present prominence.
We want our assets doing their intended function as much as possible, but how do we make that happen? One way is the concept of reliability. Reliability helps us ensure we are doing the right maintenance activities to keep our assets in proper working order as much as possible. It helps us prevent catastrophic failures and can even improve operator safety. In this podcast we are joined by George Williams and Paul Crocker from Reliability X to talk about their experience integrating reliability into their work flow. Join us to learn all about how you can implement reliability and use it to optimize maintenance and protect your assets.
In this episode, we dive into collection systems. We discuss the basic components that make-up collection systems and their objectives. Wastewater starts at your homes, then travels to the wastewater treatment plant, and we will discuss all the parts that get it there. Finally, we talk about what it takes to maintain that system and what is done to protect it. Please join us for this in-depth journey from your drains through the sewers!
Severe storms and flooding can cause problems for wastewater systems whenever they occur, but these events are happening more frequently and with more intensity due to climate change. The impacts of these events on wastewater systems are not limited to more frequent flooding, power outages, and service interruptions, but also may include sewer overflows, reduced treatment effectiveness, and changing operations and maintenance needs. What steps can wastewater managers take to improve their ability to handle these issues and become more resilient to the impacts of climate change? In this podcast episode, we speak with Dr. Christine Kirchhoff, Ph.D., P.E., who has conducted extensive research on this topic. She shares her findings from work in Connecticut and beyond on the factors that contribute to utilities’ resilience and support their adaptation efforts, whether they are large or small, coastal or inland. We also discuss innovative adaptation strategies and helpful resources and guidance for wastewater systems that are interested in learning what they can do to improve their resilience now and in the future.
Justinn Overton, Executive Director Coosa WaterKeeper located in Birmingham Alabama patrols and documents the Coosa River and its tributaries from the land, water, and air, looks for pollution problems, responds to citizen complaints, researches and analyzes polluters’ permits, collects pollution samples for laboratory analysis, educates the public about the beauty of the river and threats to it, advocates compliance with environmental laws, and works on finding solutions to pollution problems. In short – she speaks for the Coosa River. In this interview she discusses the river's wastewater challenges and offers some solutions.
Dr. DeAnn Presley, PhD, a Professor of Environmental Soil Science and Management discusses how soil conditions impact different home waste systems with Tonya Bronlewee, Director at the WSU EFC.
Many communities’ wastewater treatment plants and related infrastructure are located in or near floodplains, which makes sense given how these facilities work. However, this also means that they are prone to flooding. The Town of Waterbury, Vermont experienced catastrophic flooding during Hurricane Irene in 2011, as did the rest of the state. Their wastewater pump station was inundated and rendered inoperable for several days. To reduce the chances of this happening again, they implemented several flood mitigation measures at the facility over the next few years. Then, in 2023, major floods hit the Town again, putting their mitigation projects to the test. In this podcast, Bill Woodruff, the Town’s Public Works Director, recounts their experiences and lessons learned from both events and shares the many ways that the Town has worked to improve all of their infrastructure’s resiliency to flooding.
On this episode, we are delighted to welcome Dr. Mercy Umeri from the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs at Wichita State University as our guest. Dr. Umeri shares valuable insights on the importance of implementing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion practices in the water sector. She also speaks on the significance of conflict resolution and provides us with helpful tips on how to improve our conflict resolution skills.
Join Jeff Severin, Program Manager from Wichita State University EFC as he discusses how we can better understand the burden that our utility may be placing on our customers and how we can utilize empathy to better serve them.
Marketing research has found that we are exposed to as many as 10,000 marketing/outreach messages daily. This podcast by Wichita State University Program Manager Brian Bohnsack focuses on practical ways wastewater and water utilities can increase their outreach and marketing messages.
There are many benefits of more holistic or integrated water resource management, whether that is across "types" of water resources or across municipal boundaries. The Derry Township Municipal Authority (DTMA) in south-central Pennsylvania has served as the local wastewater utility for several decades. Recently they took over management of the Township's stormwater system. Mike Postick, an engineer, has been involved with DTMA for several years and is currently the DTMA's Stormwater Program Manager. In this podcast interview, he recounts their experience of adding stormwater to the Authority's responsibilities and shares advice for other communities considering this type of integration.
Mike Tate discusses the development of an NPDES permit. He goes over the three facets of developing NPDES Permits: Technology Based Limits, TMDL Specified Limits and Water Quality Based Limits. Better understand your permit today!
Join Mike Tate who spent a bulk of his 40 year career working with smaller communities and their lagoon systems. He goes over 7 common issues that he encountered over his years and offers practical advice on how to prevent and solve these issues.
Martha Graham, Source Water Protection Specialist at New Mexico Rural Water Association, discusses the importance of a source water protection assessment and plan with the EFCN team. We dive into source water protection for small water systems and water systems in New Mexico including resources for those interested in implementing source water protection at their system.
Linda Hills from ERG, the organization who developed the SCAP Tool, discusses how the tool was created, the benefits to small systems who need to develop an asset inventory, and how the tool can be used to design, update, and maintain an asset management plan.
This podcast discusses the importance of asset management, what issues an asset management plan helps to address, and plan implementation.
This podcast compares centralized and decentralized wastewater systems and describes the advantages and disadvantages of each system type.
This podcast explains different service rate structures, methods and resources used to set service rates, and the challenges small systems face in setting rates.
This podcast provides an overview of how treatment lagoons are used for wastewater treatment, the types of treatment lagoons, and how to maintain an effective treatment lagoon.
In December of 2022, Buffalo, NY experienced a once-in-a-generation blizzard. Extensive snowfall and high winds impacted the city, devastating neighborhoods, and leaving community members stranded. In this episode, the Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center’s communications intern, Mya Bonney, interviews Rosie B. Nogle, a Principal Sanitary Engineer for the Buffalo Sewer Authority. Join us for a conversation on what happened before, during, and after the storm from the perspective of a wastewater treatment facility.
Easton Utilities won the MD Green Registry's Sustainability Leadership Award for installing a 2-megawatt photovoltaic solar array, which produces more than 100% of the energy needed for its wastewater treatment facility and removing up to 95% of pollutants through wastewater treatment system and selling the resulting biosolids to local farmers as fertilizer, among other things. This podcast will explore why they chose to do this, how they did it, and what financial and community benefits they've garnered from it.
This insightful interview with water quality expert Elin Warn Betanzo P.E. sheds light on the topic of lead contamination and compliance with the revised lead and copper rule. In this podcast you will be introduced to new research regarding lead sampling and monitoring, learn new ways to approach lead service line replacement projects, and find out how the Flint MI and Washing DC lead contamination events have taught us valuable lessons about maintaining water quality and protecting public health.
In this podcast we will discuss the basic of NPDES permit regulations. We talk to Ben Zimmerman, a data analyst and NPDES permit enforcement coordinator with the Albuquerque Water Authority, about typical permit requirements and program details. Processes for conducting compliance sampling, submitting EPA reports, the available resources, and enforcement are all touched upon in this interview.
This podcast describes the various safety concerns associated with wastewater treatment plants and details safe practices and procedures operators should implement to ensure a safe working environment.
Tonya Bronleewe, Director at Wichita State University EFC sits down with two interns that participated in the Work in Water program. Learn more about developing a work in water internship at www.wichita.edu/workinwater.
This episode explores the roles and responsibilities of wastewater treatment plant operators.
Today we will be discussing why emergency response planning is necessary and the three areas of emergency response that your utility can being to brainstorm to jump start your emergency response planning efforts.
This podcast describes the typical waste constituents found in wastewater, the importance of treatment, and general National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements.
This episode describes the process and purpose of activated sludge. The different components of a typical activated sludge process are provided, as well as duties and observations operators should be familiar with.
This podcast episode covers the latest version of the Lead and Copper Rule that came out in December 2021. This episode will focus on: action and trigger level exceedances, sampling and testing locations and requirements, lead service line replacement programs and their implementation, and notification and education requirements.
This podcast provides an overview of drinking water regulations and standards, specifically the Safe Drinking Water Act, regulated Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCLs), National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWR), National Secondary Drinking Water Regulations (NSDWRs), and other rules and regulations used to ensure safe drinking water.
This podcast details the various forms of tertiary treatments used by wastewater utilities in the removal of various contaminants found in wastewater. It emphasizes the importance of tertiary treatment in regards to unregulated and unmonitored contaminants of concern in wastewater as well as microplastic contaminants. Tertiary treatment includes bacteriological disinfection as well as additional treatment to remove and reduce other contaminants from wastewater. In this podcast, disinfection is briefly introduced but a detailed stand alone podcast will be offered in the future.
This podcast describes the use of water storage facilities and associated components to ensure a continuous, dependable, and clean supply of drinking water.
This episode describes the headworks and primary treatment process of a typical wastewater treatment plant. The discussion of the headworks focuses on the purpose, process, and components of coarse screenings, grit removal, and influent sampling processes. For primary treatment, the purpose, components, and operator duties are described for primary clarification.
This podcast describes the measures taken to address iron, manganese, and water hardness concerns in drinking water treatment.
This podcast describes the use of chlorine disinfection for drinking water treatment at Small Water Systems.
In this podcast, hear from the Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center's Director of Water Resiliency Initiatives, Khris Dodson, as he interviews Walt Walker, Water Equity Practice Leader and Associate at Greeley and Hansen. The two discuss the challenges of incorporating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion across all aspects of wastewater operations and drinking water operations, highlighting recent successes through their leadership in the New York Water Environment Association (NYWEA). Learn about Walt's work as co-chair of NYWEA's DEI Committee, the challenges of embracing broad definitions of diversity in the water sector, and the critical role he sees for other Membership Associations (MA's) affiliated with the Water Environment Foundation, a global not-for-profit technical and educational organization of more than 30,000 individual members and 75 affiliated MA's representing water quality professionals around the world.
This podcast describes the common treatment issues and challenges faced when using surface water as a drinking water source.
Tune in for a discussion of how wildfires impact wastewater and drinking water systems. As climate change further exacerbates natural disasters, water and wastewater systems will be put at greater risk for service and infrastructure failure or malfunction. In this podcast, we will begin to understand why more frequent wildfires are occurring, and will then explore how they may impact your wastewater or drinking water system. For more resources on how wildfires may impact your system, you can visit: https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/wildfires-how-do-they-affect-our-water-supplies
In this podcast Sarah Diefendorf, Director of EFC West, discusses water resources and drought in Imperial County, California with Alex Cardenas, Vice President of the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors representing Division 1 in Imperial County California.
This podcast describes what a sanitary survey is, its elements, and how conducting these surveys help protect the water supply from pollution sources.
Join us for the second podcast in a series exploring green infrastructure for small water, wastewater, and stormwater systems and utilities. Shannon Pepper, from the Southwest Environmental Finance Center, interviews Cameron Weber from Rio Grande Return, a nonprofit organization in New Mexico focused on ecological restoration of wetlands and watershed health. In this podcast we discuss and explore the Harvey Jones Channel Bioswale, a project that sits at the critical intersection of stormwater mitigation, source water protection, community engagement, and ecological restoration.
This podcast provides an overview of the Clean water act, the main provisions, history, and environmental benefits.
This podcast discusses the Effective Utility Management framework as a tool to improve management capacity from the perspective of an operator moving into management.
This podcast describes the function of groundwater wells and the importance of proper operation to protect the groundwater aquifer, an important source of drinking water.
In this podcast, we will be looking at energy efficiency for wastewater treatment. Energy used at treatment facilities is a large share of a plant’s operating costs. Assessing those costs and where to make improvements can provide long-term savings for utilities. Operators in New Hampshire are finding ways to drive energy costs down, with the help from the state government and incentive programs.
This podcast describes the various sources of water (i.e., groundwater, surface water, precipitation) that contribute to our drinking water.
This podcast describes the many roles and responsibilities of a Small Water System Operator.
Water from snow is a crucial resource for many communities. Unfortunately, climate change is causing snow resources to rapidly change. In this podcast, we discuss why water from snow is so important, how it's changing, and what this means for small systems. We touch on existing resources and new research aimed at helping communities monitor and plan their snow resources.
Today we will be discussing why emergency response planning is necessary and the three areas of emergency response that your utility can being to brainstorm to jump start your emergency response planning efforts.
This episode discusses the benefits of develop a green infrastructure initiative and key components in developing a program.
En este podcast en español, escuche una conversación entre Isabel McCullough Valentin, estudiante de la SUNY Colegio de Ciencias Ambientales y Forestales y la Dra. Kaira Fuentes, Gerente del Programa del Caribe en el Centro de Financiamiento Ambientales de la Universidad de Syracuse. La Dra. Fuentes comparte su experiencia trabajando con líderes comunitarios en Puerto Rico mientras construyen y mantienen pequeños sistemas de agua que brindan agua potable a más de 100,000 personas.
In this Spanish-language podcast, listen to a conversation between SUNY-ESF student Isabel McCullough Valentin and Dr. Kaira Fuentes, Caribbean Program Manager at the Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center. Dr. Fuentes shares her experience working with community leaders in Puerto Rico as they build out and maintain small water systems that provide clean drinking water to more than 100,000 people.
In this podcast Sarah Diefendorf, Director of EFC West, and Jill Sherman Warne discuss the history of the Hoopa Tribe in California and their relationship with water.
This episode provides examples in operations optimization including sewer cleaning and televising and data integrity and visualization.
This podcast discusses the new online Integrated Asset Management Framework which blends green assets into the existing gray asset management framework. The framework is for water, wastewater, and stormwater systems of any size that are interested in implementing asset management practices.
https://swefc.unm.edu/iamf/
https://swefcapps.unm.edu/gardb
Part 2 of this podcast on small water system governance and the ability to secure funding discusses environmental justice, BIL money, and strategies and recommendations for government officials and water managers to improve and navigate bureaucratic systems and access funding.
Part 1 of this podcast on small water system governance and the ability to secure funding discusses whose responsibility is it to provide safe drinking water to residents, the role of violations, and difficulties to secure funding.
Oftentimes, when we think about wastewater infrastructure costs we only think about the costs incurred during the construction phase. In this podcast episode, Dawn Nall, research engineer for the Environmental Finance Center with expertise in wastewater management, explains what else is included in wastewater infrastructure cost, and why customers should know about them.
This podcast provides processes and tools to communities who are interested in planning for resiliency in their wastewater system.
This podcast helps utilities understand how to obtain and manage project funding through USDA Rural Development funding programs.
This podcast helps utilities understand how to obtain and manage project funding through their State Revolving Fund program.
This is the first of three episodes in an EFCN podcast series about green infrastructure. Susannah Drake, founding principal of DLANDstudio in Brooklyn, NY (which has recently merged with Sasaki Associates), discusses why green infrastructure, though it is commonly only associated with urban areas, is a critical part of thinking about the future of rural landscapes and small water systems.
This podcast covers financing options available to wastewater systems and provides a thorough discussion about the process that utilities will engage in when financing infrastructure projects.
Join us for a discussion of how small (and large) water systems can leverage the EPA’s free WaterSense Promotional Partner program to encourage water conservation and efficiency in their communities. We cover what WaterSense is, available resources, and how to get started.
This podcast makes the connection between customer service levels, asset prioritization, and operation & maintenance activities.
This podcast discusses the benefits of asset management for improving utility capacity.