Water operators at California Water Service are enjoying a little stardom as the utility kicks off Water Awareness Month. And actually, it’s not just the operators — even the customer service team, leak truck foreman and lab technicians are in on this social-media blitz.

The utility launched the “Day in the Life Of” campaign on May 5 during Drinking Water Week to show its customers exactly how a clean cup of drinking water is produced. Every Monday and Thursday throughout May, a new video will be uploaded and a new story told.

 

“The premise is most people don’t know what goes into their water,” says Yvonne Kingman, corporate communications manager at California Water. “But we also want to educate people on what goes into it because it’s a complex process.”

So after a little brainstorming and a lot of behind-the-scenes filming, a public-relations campaign was born.

Kingman began following employees in February, documenting an entire day on the job, which has since been condensed to one- to two-minute videos. The eight planned clips will include a certified pump operator, treatment plant operator, leak truck foreman, small systems operator, engineering design manager, water quality lab technician, customer service representative and conservation coordinator.

Whew. That’s a lot of jobs, and a lot to be said for the amount of work that goes into creating clean drinking water.

Take a peek at the first video in this series, which features a certified pump operator from the East Los Angeles District, and then follow California Water on Facebook to get updates throughout the month. Cal Water might be onto something with this one. We think that showing the faces behind the infrastructure is a perfect way to bring value to water.

As Kingman says, “We wanted to take this opportunity to spotlight some of the many who spend day in and day out getting that end product.”