Brad Moore isn’t comfortable taking credit for an educational video about wastewater treatment that won an award from the Water Environment Federation.
The video, which tells about wastewater treatment processes and explores associated careers in biology, chemistry and instrumentation, is shown to students who tour the Bangor (Maine) Wastewater Plant and is also presented in school classrooms. It has even appeared on public-access cable TV.
The video is the main reason Brad Moore, plant superintendent, won the 2006 WEF Individual Service and Contribution Award for Public Education. “I was flattered,” says Moore. “But it wasn’t my idea, I can’t take full credit.”
Casting calls
The idea was born in 2003 while Moore was serving on the public relations committee of the Maine Wastewater Control Association. The group was concerned with replacing aging wastewater operators and teaching wastewater fundamentals to students to encourage them to be good stewards of the environment.
“We wanted some type of media and I felt like a DVD was the best way to get the information into everybody’s hands,” Moore recalls. The association’s executive committee approved and funded the project, and Moore hit the road, meeting with a production company and interviewing professionals in the field.
Moore gave a lot of thought to casting, making a list of people he hoped to attract and making phone calls. Some agreed right away, while others took a little cajoling. “We used well-known people — engineers, professors, and others who have a real hand in educating youngsters,” says Moore. “We picked people who convey excitement. Those were the people I wanted.”
When Moore wanted a certain someone, he was persistent. “There’s a local sportsman, Tom Hennessey, who’s a well-known artist and used to have a regular piece in the Bangor Daily News,” says Moore. “He’s got major credibility, and I kept thinking if I could get him, he would make people stop and listen. It took a couple of phone calls, but I got him to do it.”
Beyond tours
Moore also called on industry professionals he knew. They included Dr. Jean MacRae, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maine, and Jim Fitch, a vice president with the consulting firm Woodard and Curran. The video was completed in December 2004, and is still in use.
At first, Moore planned to give the DVD to teachers after plant tours, but he soon realized it would serve better as an introduction. “Now we watch the DVD at the plant,” says Moore. “We have a lunch room that’s also a classroom and fits about 25 people. We bring the students in there and talk about safety and how they need to conduct themselves during the tour. Then we watch the DVD.”
Moore goes beyond student tours and takes his message to community residents and government officials. “For a number of years, we tried to get U.S. Senator Susan Collins to come in,” he says. “Then about two years ago, during Washington’s Thanksgiving break we got a call that she wanted to come in for a tour. Coincidentally, we had a class of kids that day. She addressed the children about her concerns and the importance of keeping water clean and safe.”
Finned educators
Another educational device sits in the treatment plant lobby. A 180-gallon aquarium there is stocked with Atlantic salmon, swimming in plant effluent. “One reason we put the aquarium in was to make a connection, so people know what they’re paying for,” says Moore. “When folks call and complain about their rates, we invite them to come down. Some folks take us up on it.”
Sewer rates in Bangor have increased by 10 percent every six months since the late 1980s because of treatment plant and sewer system upgrades costing some $40 million. Moore finds that when people understand where the money goes, they are more willing to pay the price.
At the plant’s 40th anniversary in October 2008, the Bangor staff held an open house and encouraged residents to take a behind-the-scenes look at wastewater treatment. Moore personally invited the plant’s neighbors and lured them in with food.
Some guests at first weren’t comfortable eating at a wastewater treatment plant, but before long they overcame their reservations and dug in.
