In many endeavors, frequency matters. In advertising a product, it takes several exposures to bring a prospect to the point of buying. In fishing, you have to keep casting. To grow a lawn, you have to keep watering — or those green sprouts turn brown.
In publishing, if you want a magazine to make an impression on readers, it needs to be there frequently. So, WSO is going monthly, as of this issue. Last year we dipped a toe in the water with every-other-month issues. Readers' reactions tell us the water is fine. So we're plunging in.
And, in keeping with the Internet age, we now offer online-only articles. Actually, we've been doing that for a few months. The online side helps us bring you articles of timely interest — something a monthly magazine just can't do. Colleague Briana Jones heads up that area.
Look to the print magazine articles on technical topics, sustainability initiatives, and applications of new equipment and technology, and for profiles of excellent operators, water plants and water systems.
Remember, this magazine is yours, and so is the online content. Tell us about the great things you and your team members are doing, and we'll consider sharing them with our readership of more than 30,000 water operators, superintendents and managers. Our aim is to help you share best practices, celebrate achievements, recognize and promote excellence and, above all, deliver the highest-quality water to customers.
Drop me a note to editor@wsomag.com and I promise to respond.
This issue's articles on Bellingham, Wash., and Syracuse, N.Y., are noteworthy for the approach these water systems are taking to ensure supply and quality. Instead of focusing solely on water plant operations, the teams look upstream at how to protect their source waters.
Watershed approaches to water quality are not new, and in fact are gaining favor, but we tend to see more attention to that area on the wastewater side. Nutrient reduction is a huge issue for wastewater treatment plants, and one alternative to costly plant upgrades is to remove those nutrients (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) from the lakes and streams by other means, such as progressive farming practices and erosion control.
Now it appears the drinking water side is turning in a similar direction. That can only be a good thing. After all, water doesn't obey political boundaries like city limits and county lines. It obeys gravity; that's how we get watersheds. Learning to approach water quality on a watershed basis requires new ways of thinking.
And on the subject of thinking, the Brazos River Authority in Texas has new thoughts on how to educate citizens about the importance of water quality and conservation (see "Winning Them Over" in this issue).
We see lots of water agencies sponsoring education programs for children, and of course they're great. The Brazos authority's online Water School caters to adults. This turns on its head the conventional idea (a sound one, by the way) that habits form early and we need to teach good behaviors to members of the next generation — who may then influence their parents.
An adult-oriented approach reaches the people who make the water usage and water infrastructure spending decisions today — and in the bargain are in a pretty good place from which to influence kids.
If we're going to fight that battle of public education, it makes sense to fight it on both these fronts. So here's a hat tip to the Brazos River Authority.
We hope you enjoy this and future monthly issues of WSO.
