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2915 S. 13th Street Duncan, OK 73533 580-252-0629 FAX 580-255-4476 Contact: Kris R. Cash, nrwakc@nrwa.org
Systems Geared to a Safe Environment -
Due to economies of scale, the majority of small water systems possess limited resources. Small system operators, management, and governing officials must be trained to prepare for the environmental demands of growth and public environmental concerns. Other frequently-encountered problems associated with small rural systems include well-intentioned, yet uninformed boards and councils who volunteer their time only on a part-time basis; continuous turnover of operations personnel; and part-time personnel who lack the necessary technical, financial, and managerial skills.
Small and rural water system personnel will need technical assistance training to implement the increasingly complex regulations; determine how to comply with State and Federal regulatory mandates; enhance and expand their knowledge in the areas of technical, managerial and financial capacity development; and prevent non-compliance.
A sound, comprehensive technical assistance training program, established for small and rural water system personnel, was established to facilitate the translation of the potential public health advances from statutory mandates, rules and policies into tangible public health protection. This program provides specific training sessions that would be reinforced through on-site one-on-one technical assistance training designed to prevent and/or solve specific problems and to provide informational outreach and tools.
Through its classroom training sessions, conferences, publications, websites, and on-site training sessions, the National Rural Water Association (NRWA) reaches every rural and small community water utility in the nation on a continuous and systematic basis. This constant and continuous communication ensures that local systems are kept informed of the Drinking Water Technical and Managerial Training Program’s services, regulatory requirements, technical information, and training opportunities.
The NRWA maintains a full-time office in each of its 48 State Affiliates covering the contiguous 48 states and Alaska (the states of Rhode Island and Connecticut comprise Atlantic States Rural Water). These State Affiliates provide the points of contact for water systems within that state. Immediate assistance is available by phone, and information and resources are available via e-mail or a website. The central points of contact for each State Affiliate ensures that water utility system’s needs are met in the most practical and efficient manner; services are rendered without duplication of effort, the on-site training sessions are prioritized, and the array of equipment available is managed and targeted to the most pressing needs in a timely fashion. Last year alone 80,420 personnel attended 19,704 state-specific formal classroom-training hours. Training Specialists also provided 22,782 state-specific onsite technical assistance-training hours.
The NRWA has developed a team of highly competent professional Training Specialists. These Specialists, with several hundreds of years of practical hands-on experience collectively, are unrivaled in the industry. They have an extensive understanding of how personnel employed by our nation’s rural and small water utilities learn new skills. Since many of the Training Specialists have formerly worked as water utility system staff, it enables our professionals to create an immediate and unique bond with water system operators and system officials. The Training Specialists are locally based and are able to provide training to the same communities that they interact with on a day-to-day basis. When the Training Specialists provides an on-site training session to a community, they are able to do hands-on training with the water utility’s own equipment. The Training Specialists provide the type of assistance that offers “training” rather than “fixing,” so that operators will be able to continually maintain their water treatment system in the future.
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