Kevin Whitney’s career shows the range of opportunities available to water professionals with energy and initiative.
Whitney has been senior adviser with Cape May County (New Jersey) Municipal Utilities Authority since 2022. After earning a bachelor’s degree in environmental science, he spent four years with an environmental remediation company. He then moved on to Atlantic County Utilities Authority as a project analyst and later as a wastewater regulatory compliance coordinator.
His influences: My parents instilled in me a very strong work ethic: You get in early and don’t leave until the job is done. Joe Pantalone, vice president of wastewater at ACUA, was a great mentor, as is Joe Rizzuto, executive director at Cape May.
On the job: I deal with wastewater and solid waste management, as well as administration, policy, personnel and risk management. I’ve learned about behind-the-scenes sides of the industry that people in the field don’t often see.
What makes it exciting? I’m never doing the same thing. Some days I’m focused on solid waste, other days on wastewater, risk management or contract negotiations. I’ve also been lucky enough to generate some of my own projects.
Sources of pride: I’m proud of a landfill gas beneficial use project I’ve worked on for two years; a contract with a partner was recently approved by our board. My next project is getting solar energy at our authority. It’s rewarding to be able to see projects through from the beginning.
Looking ahead: I hope projects like these will segue into something I’ve always been interested in, which is how to leverage biosolids for energy generation. Also, while much of what I do is behind a desk, I would like to spend more time in the field.
Advice to young professionals: Don’t get so comfortable in your work that you just do what is asked of you without understanding or asking about things beyond that. The more you ask and learn, the more you create personal value and opportunities. You have to show something extra to get yourself to that next level.
The boss’s view: Kevin uses an analytical approach with strong operational knowledge and research skills to break down complex matters into discrete segments to produce a clear, understandable work product. He is instrumental in key initiatives that have a lasting impact on the overall success of our organization.
— Joe Rizzuto, executive director
