Do wastewater operators and wastewater workers in general get enough credit for the work they do? Leaders of the Denver (Colo.) Metro Wastewater Reclamation District didn’t think so. So in 2002, the district staff arranged for the governor of Colorado (then Bill Owens) to proclaim Wastewater Worker Recognition Week.
Since then, every year during the week of Earth Day in April, the state’s governor has issued the same proclamation. Taking things a step farther, the Denver district now marks the week by treating all employees to a special breakfast hosted by district manager Catherine Gerali and served by the six department heads.
The mastermind of it all was Steve Frank, district public information officer. He’d like to see similar recognition for wastewater workers spread around Colorado, and to other states, as well. After all, it’s a simple process that many clean-water plants and districts could easily replicate. Frank spoke about the initiative in an interview with Treatment Plant Operator.
TPO: Where did the idea for this initiative come from?
Frank: We felt that people in the wastewater profession were not getting the credit they deserved. People who work in water treatment get some recognition during Drinking Water Week in May. We thought our people ought to have similar recognition — they work just as hard, and their work is just as important. That was the impetus for it.
TPO: Why did you choose the month of April for the proclamation?
Frank: We wanted it to relate to something people already knew about. Earth Day is fixed at April 22, so we decided to seek recognition for wastewater workers every year during Earth Week.
TPO: How did you go about getting the governor to issue a proclamation?
Frank: I obtained a copy of another proclamation that the governor had signed, and I used it as a template. I thought of things people ought to know about our profession, and I wrote a new proclamation around them. I showed it to a few of my colleagues here. People made suggestions, and we finalized it. Then we created a cover letter asking that the governor sign it.
Rather than just send the letter in cold, we asked our government affairs people to take it to someone they knew in the governor’s office, to make sure it was seen by a real person. After three or four weeks, they called and said they were going to issue the proclamation. We have been fortunate enough to get essentially the same proclamation signed and issued every year. It has continued from one administration to the next regardless of party. Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, signed the first ones. Gov. Bill Ritter Jr., a Democrat, has signed the more recent ones.
TPO: Did you take any special steps to increase your chances of approval?
Frank: We gave the governor’s office three months of lead time. Every governor’s office differs in who needs to see it and how long approval will take. It’s not unusual for a governor to issue a proclamation. You just have to make sure that you provide background information, that the proclamation looks like others they sign, and that it involves something they can support.
TPO: What did you do with the proclamation once the governor had agreed to sign it?
Frank: Once we knew it was going to be signed, I told a number of people I knew in the Rocky Mountain Water Environment Association, and they got behind it. Tom Dingeman, who was in charge of the treatment plant in Greeley, took a copy of it to his mayor’s office and said, “Wouldn’t you like to issue a similar proclamation?” The mayor not only signed it, he went to the treatment plant that day, spent some time with the people there, and told them how much he appreciated what they were doing.
We produced two radio ads to run on four stations in metro Denver during Wastewater Worker Recognition Week. One was based on the governor’s proclamation, and it humorously reminded citizens of the value wastewater workers contribute to society. The other recognized pretreatment Gold Award winners we were honoring at that month’s board meeting.
We also issued a news release and scanned the proclamation and sent it around to all the buildings here, so everyone knew the proclamation had been issued.
TPO: When did you begin serving the special breakfast?
Frank: When Catherine Gerali took over as district manager three years ago, she wanted to up the emphasis, and so she added the breakfast to the celebration. She asked our six department heads to serve the breakfast burritos — about 350 of them.
We found a small shop that was willing to make the burritos for us. The owner and her husband stayed up all night cooking the burritos, and when I went to get them at 4:30 a.m., they were all hot and in insulated cases. I got the sauce to go with them, and we were off and running. It’s been the same every year.
TPO: How did you manage to serve breakfast to people in so many workplaces and on different shifts?
Frank: We started at 6 a.m. with the Resource Recovery and Reuse staff members who handle our biosolids. We set up a serving line in their employee lunchroom. Catherine came down and talked a little about the significance of the breakfast and told everybody how much she appreciated them. We served the burritos, and everybody was happy.
Then we took the entire setup over to the lunchroom that serves our operations and maintenance employees and repeated the performance there. Then we went on to the lab and information services area, and finally to the administration building. We made sure everybody got a burrito, and we also set aside burritos for our overnight people in operations and maintenance. We put them in their refrigerator along with some sauce.
There were a few things we learned going through it for the first time. For example, we didn’t think about paper plates and utensils until the last minute. But we got it all figured out and it became a tradition — one we will probably continue.
TPO: How would you describe the employees’ reaction to the breakfast?
Frank: I know they appreciate it. One thing we do in addition to serving the meal is scan the proclamation, blow it up real big, and put it on a display board that goes around to all the locations where we serve the breakfast.
Catherine is always out front. She spends a lot of time talking to the employees, making sure everything is going well for them, finding out what’s going on in the plant. So there’s more going on than just serving burritos. You can tell by the way people react and by the looks on their faces that they appreciate the fact Catherine is there. Most of them know her. She’s been with the district for 28 years.
TPO: What have you been doing to help spread this program to other communities in Colorado?
Frank: Last year, as the occasion was coming up, I called friends of mine at the Littleton/Englewood plant. They celebrated the day and served a breakfast. Tom Dingeman in Greeley got the mayoral proclamation signed again. I talked to several other people around the state, and they said they were going to do something. Some were just getting a proclamation signed. Others were considering a breakfast. It seems to be spreading around more as people become aware of it.
TPO: How difficult is it for a clean-water agency to do something like this in its own state or community?
Frank: The truth of the matter is that it takes some care and preparation, but it’s not terribly hard. Anyone who can write reasonably well can get a proclamation from the governor, use it as a template, and put their own words to it. They can use ours as a model if they wish.
