CH2M HILL has taken over operations of at the City of Wilsonville, Ore., sewage treatment plant, part of a $41.8 million upgrade and expansion project in which the company will design, build and operate the plant for at least 15 years. CH2M HILL will operate the plant for about six months before beginning construction, which is expected to be completed in 2014.

In Dodge City, Kan., commissioners recently voted to expand CH2M HILL’s scope of work and approved a 10-year contract extension. CH2M HILL has been providing contract operations and maintenance services at Dodge City’s wastewater treatment facility since 1988. The new scope includes
an effluent reuse program, farm soil analysis and limited capital
improvement financing.

 

The American Bus Association recently released its list of the Top 100 Events and Festivals in North America, and while you may be familiar with some of the more prominent choices such as Mardi Gras and the National Cherry Blossom Festival, there are plenty of other perhaps less-familiar events, festivals, jubilees and other celebrations worth checking out. Here are just a few CH2M HILL partner communities that made the cut for 2012:

• National Cherry Festival, Traverse City, Mich. – The Grand Traverse region is renowned for its world-record tart cherry harvest, and this festival, which began in 1926, attracts more than 500,000 people during its eight-day run in early July. CH2M HILL began operating the Traverse City Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant in 1990; the contract has since expanded to include the city’s industrial pretreatment program, design and construction of two plant upgrades and Grand Traverse County’s septage treatment facility.
  
  
• Dodge City Days, Dodge City, Kan. – If you’re hankerin’ for a taste of the Old West, round ‘em up and head ‘em out to this 10-day tribute to all things western held the last week of July. Approximately 100,000 visitors attend at least one event, including the popular Dodge City Roundup Rodeo. CH2M HILL has provided operations and maintenance services for the city’s wastewater treatment facilities since 1988.
  
  
• Pork & Brew State BBQ Championship, Rio Rancho, N.M. – This
  lip-smacking, finger-lickin’ good event held over the Fourth of July weekend just marked its eighth anniversary and is one of 330 such events sanctioned by the Kansas City Barbecue Society. More than
  60 entrants from all over the U.S., – including a CH2M HILL team, compete for $10,000 in prizes, including $3,000 to the Grand Champion. Rio Rancho has contracted with CH2M HILL for operations and maintenance of its water and wastewater systems since 2002.

 

CH2M HILL joined with the City of Farmington and San Juan County in
New Mexico recently to host a free household hazardous waste collection
day. Over time, most households accumulate a wide range of hazardous chemicals - everything from insecticides and auto fluids to liquid paint and aerosols – which can’t just be thrown away or dumped down a drain. In response, the three partners put on the event twice a year so those chemicals are either recycled or disposed of properly.

Marsha Englehart, industrial pretreatment coordinator for CH2M HILL, told the Farmington Daily Times the effort is “part of our pollution prevention program to try to keep chemicals out of the landfills and water systems.”

CH2M HILL has provided operations and maintenance services for the City of Farmington’s water and wastewater system since 1999.

The Children's Museum of Oak Ridge, Tenn., recently celebrated its
new parking lot and landscaping, which became reality thanks in large
part to the efforts of two CH2M HILL employees. Architect Patrick McMillan
and civil engineer Gina Inklebarger donated their time and talents to
support the project, which tripled the museum’s parking area. McMillan, an Oak Ridge resident, is a long-time museum supporter and has provided several pro bono designs for that facility as well as several other community non-profit organizations. In addition to the personal contributions from McMillan and Inklebarger, CH2M HILL provided a limited budget for the
project itself and donated another $1,500 to the museum through the
“Dollars for Doers” program.

Inklebarger says the museum, located in an old elementary school, houses an “incredible” collection about the Oak Ridge area history and includes many hands-on exhibits. “It is amazing to see what the museum has accomplished with limited resources,” she says.

Since 1998, CH2M HILL has performed comprehensive infrastructure
and public works-related services at a former U.S. Department of Energy enriched uranium facility near the Oak Ridge National Laboratories in
Roane County, Tennessee.

 

You just know you can run your city or county better than the people doing the job, right? Well, now you can try your hand at a fun and challenging game called “Counties Work” created by the National Association of Counties in conjunction with the private firm iCivics. In this game, you play a newly elected county leader who has the responsibility to set your budget, tax rates, and how you chose to interact with residents. Citizens are "constantly coming forward with issues and requests: inspect our bridges, create a community garden, upgrade our records system; create a discount prescription drug program" throughout the game.

CH2M HILL will have a prominent profile at the 84th annual Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibit and Conference in Los Angeles Oct. 15-19. More than a dozen CH2M HILL professionals will share their expertise as program panelists or speakers, and the company continues its sponsorship of Operations Challenge, in which facility operators compete in five events that test the diverse skills required for the operation and maintenance of wastewater treatment facilities, their collection systems and laboratories. CH2M HILL’s Fayetteville team, Ozark Royal Flush, will represent the Arkansas Water Environment Association. CH2M HILL is also sponsoring the Industrial Networking Reception as well as the WEF Students and Young Professionals Committee’s Networking and Career Fair and the SYPC’s fourth annual community service project, “Walkway to Wetlands.” That service project takes place Saturday, Oct. 15 when conference volunteers will plant trees along the perimeter of a constructed wetland in a formerly industrial area of downtown L.A.

 

For someone who earned an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, completed several internships and worked for Southern Company Energy Solutions before embarking on a progressively successful10-year stint in customer service roles, Maia Watkins never the less recently found herself at a crossroads. Her career had reached a plateau, and she wanted to go back to school. But she was looking for an interdisciplinary program that would feed her passions for advocacy, civic engagement and community service and possibly allow her to return to her engineering roots. Her answer came when she was offered a seat in the prestigious National Urban Fellows leadership development program.

Offered through the City University of New York’s Bernard M. Baruch College School of Public Affairs, the rigorous, 14-month, full-time graduate program is designed to advance multicultural, multiracial students. It involves two semester of academic course work and a nine-month mentorship, culminating in the awarding of a Masters of Public Administration degree. Watkins recently began the mentorship portion of her program, working under CH2M HILL’s Herb Washington in the firm’s Atlanta office, where she is working with the Georgia Conference of Black Mayors to create public-private partnerships that provide technical assistance to rural cities in Georgia.

Watkins says working with CH2M HILL not only allows her to utilize both her engineering background and customer service experience, she finds that the company’s culture aligns well with her own personal values.

“I love working with CH2M HILL, I learn something new every day,” says Watkins. “If I’m asked to stay, I’d jump at the chance.”

That, says Washington, is exactly why the company got involved with the NUF program three years ago.

“The mentorship is quite different from a traditional internship,” he notes. “These are seasoned professionals from diverse backgrounds who are interested in furthering their education, expanding and improving their skill sets, and who want to contribute their expertise for the betterment of their communities and the nation. As a company, we benefit from the work they do as part of the program and hopefully get the chance to bring them back when they complete their degree. It’s definitely a win-win.”

Is it really October already? Where has the year gone? Autumn is settling in across the majority of the northern hemisphere as Mother Nature again astounds us with the wide variety of reds, yellows, oranges and browns in her color palate. I had a chance to visit Rocky Mountain National Park recently, where the aspens were at their golden peak and the elk were everywhere. Pretty
awe-inspiring.

As I write this, it’s been a pretty good week. I was in La Jolla, Calif., for the National Association of Water Companies Water Summit where I spoke on a panel about values-based leadership. The gist of the message was, when we make decisions from the heart, rooted in our values, our employees, and customers almost always win. In addition, I was honored to accept a NAWC Management Innovation Award for our Project Sustainability Pilot Program. This program is near and dear to us because it reflects our core values, and I was particularly proud of the way our people responded when we challenged them last year to increase sustainability initiatives at their project locations. As usual, they put their creative imaginations into overdrive, coming up with innovative ideas that resulted in the reuse of 2.1 billion gallons of effluent, diversion of 5,600 tons of waste from landfills, and savings of 1.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity and almost 12,000 gallons of chemicals. In all, we catalogued a total of $1.2 million in savings — and we’re just getting started.

In addition to these savings, the
45 projects in the pilot program also created nearly 60 community involvement programs. Overall, we achieved our goal to capture and promote practices that generate environmental, social and economic benefits for the company, our customers and the communities we serve, integrating sustainability into our project delivery in ways that provide meaningful value to our clients while driving continuous improvement to service delivery and employee development. Based on the overwhelming success of the pilot project, we’ll be expanding the program to all our project sites.

And while we were in California, representatives from our
Fayetteville, Ark., team and the city traveled to Tampa, Fla., to accept one of the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships’ coveted awards for our application, “Creating a Sustainable Partnership Program.” In addition to increasing sustainability at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, we’ve partnered with our fabulous client on community outreach programs, supported green education conferences, and generally taken the lead in showing how to achieve sustainable practices.

These recognitions are nice, particularly since they come from our peers who have first-hand knowledge of what we do. But the true satisfaction comes not from the awards themselves, but from the fact that the projects and programs being recognized have made a significant difference for our clients and the communities we serve. That’s why we do what we do.

Have a safe and prosperous month.

Respectfully,

Elisa M. Speranza
President

Oct. 15-19
Water Environment Federation Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference
Los Angeles

Oct. 26-27
International Facility Management Association World Workplace 2011
Phoenix
Booth 1200

Oct. 27-28
Mayor's Water Summit
Washington, D.C.

Nov. 8-12
National League of Cities Annual Congress of Cities
Phoenix
Booth 1013