ILLINOIS WATER ENVIRONMENT ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTER
Volume 27, No.3 - Fall 2006
Director's Page
Having just returned from WEFTEC 2006 in Dallas, most
of our report this time will cover highlights from the Conference. WEFTEC
was a big success as usual (everything is BIG in Texas), and set some
new records for participation. For those who like numbers, there were
25 technical workshops on Saturday and Sunday, over 500 technical papers,
964 exhibitors and 17,376 attendees (through Tuesday). All of these
were records except for total attendance, which came within a few hundred
of the all time record set last year in Washington, D.C.
If you are keeping track of the WEF from an organizational and financial standpoint, you will be glad to know that we are doing well in both categories, according to Bill Butera, Executive Director. It is well known that the WEF staff does a fine job, and Bill recognized this in his Saturday presentation to the House of Delegates. He also reported the WEF is on a sound financial footing, salting away one percent or more of revenue each year as required, and showing a nice surplus each year on a $20.5 million budget. One major point he made is that WEF has no need to worry about the financial side, but can concentrate on its environmental mission: water and wastewater issues.
The opening session on Monday featured a thought-provoking talk by James Hansen, Director of the Goddard Institute for Space Science. His presentation, "Global Warming Awareness and Action" demonstrated the impact of global warming and had some fascinating data and charts about global climate trends. The emissions of carbon dioxide and methane have really shot up over the last thirty years and will have drastic effects if we don't change course soon. For example, experts predict that if we continue "business as usual" there will be a three degree Celsius increase in average temperature by 2100 which could result in the extinction of 50% of the living species on earth! On the other hand, if proactive steps are taken to slow the increase in emissions back to the rate experienced fifty years ago, Hansen's "Alternate Scenario", then we can limit the temperature rise to about one degree Celsius which would be expected to wipe out only about 10% of the species. While that would still be a problem, it shows that humankind can influence what happens for better or worse, so we need to get serious about this issue now!
Interestingly enough, Hansen pointed out that of all the major fossil fuels we use, the world can continue to consume oil and gas but needs to cut back on coal consumption. With conditions, that alone will reduce global warming. Overall, 25% of all carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere. Hansen concluded as he began, scientists and others "understand" the problem. The difficult mission is getting this "knowledge" to the public, policy makers, politicians and others to make a change for the betterment of the planet. You may learn more about Dr. Hansen and his work by logging onto: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/.
WEFTEC is a busy time for Directors, with an all day meeting of the House of Delegates (HOD) on Saturday and another meeting on Wednesday afternoon. On Saturday, the morning was devoted to strategy sessions to provide direction to the Board of Trustees (BOT) and WEF Committees on issues they need to focus on. The Long Range Planning Committee will compile the results from these strategy sessions into goals for WEF Committees in the coming year.
Saturday afternoon was a business meeting for the HOD, with the most important and controversial item being approval of a completely re-written Constitution and Bylaws (C&B) for WEF. The new document is streamlined considerably from the previous version, and generally continues the transition to provide more flexibility and authority for governing the organization with the BOT and at the same time, to shift some responsibilities from the HOD directly to the membership. For example, any future changes in the constitution and bylaws will now be approved by vote of the entire membership rather than the HOD. Another minor change is that Directors are now called Delegates by WEF, so we are now officially Directors from IWEA and Delegates to WEF. WEF will be requiring us to revise the IWEA C&B at some point to eliminate the title Director, which to them implies some fiduciary role in WEF.
In addition to the HOD vote on the C&B, new articles of incorporation were proposed by the BOT and passed. These two votes became the last of the MA directors under the ìoldî way of doing WEF business. We would like to point out, however, that our attempts to get the Grievance section back into the C&B and make other changes beneficial to IWEA were thwarted. These two new documents are available on the WEF website.
On Wednesday there were two important votes in the HOD regarding WEF participation in the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) and support for the proposed Clean Water Trust Fund legislation (H.R. 4560) in Congress. Apparently WEF had dropped out of WIN due to concerns about the trust fund and has not supported the proposed Clean Water Trust Fund based on a concern about the proposed funding mechanism. Members of the HOD had serious reservations about both of these positions and after considerable discussion, voted to recommend that WEF reconsider supporting the Trust Fund. A similar motion to recommend WEF reconsider joining WIN was narrowly defeated. Although these votes have no binding authority to change the positions of WEF, they do provide WEF a better indication of where state associations and the membership stand on these important issues.
If you are completing your scorecard, the new WEF President is Dr. Mohamed Dahab, from Nebraska. The newest Vice President is Rebecca West from South Carolina and Chuck Weir is now WEF Treasurer. Other officers move up. The Stockholm Junior Water Prize nominee from WEF was Emily Brownlee from Pennsylvania. Delta Airlines was added as a sponsor with ITT and Coca Cola. The upcoming WEFTEC sites are San Diego in 2007, Chicago in 2008, Orlando in 2009 and New Orleans in 2010. My how time flies! Will 2011 be in Chicago as voted on by the WEF Board of Control? Place your bets, this and other things at WEF could change. IWEA was honored by both WERF and Water for People for their continuing contributions. Public announcements were prominently displayed.
If you are keeping track of the WEF from an organizational and financial standpoint, you will be glad to know that we are doing well in both categories, according to Bill Butera, Executive Director. It is well known that the WEF staff does a fine job, and Bill recognized this in his Saturday presentation to the House of Delegates. He also reported the WEF is on a sound financial footing, salting away one percent or more of revenue each year as required, and showing a nice surplus each year on a $20.5 million budget. One major point he made is that WEF has no need to worry about the financial side, but can concentrate on its environmental mission: water and wastewater issues.
The opening session on Monday featured a thought-provoking talk by James Hansen, Director of the Goddard Institute for Space Science. His presentation, "Global Warming Awareness and Action" demonstrated the impact of global warming and had some fascinating data and charts about global climate trends. The emissions of carbon dioxide and methane have really shot up over the last thirty years and will have drastic effects if we don't change course soon. For example, experts predict that if we continue "business as usual" there will be a three degree Celsius increase in average temperature by 2100 which could result in the extinction of 50% of the living species on earth! On the other hand, if proactive steps are taken to slow the increase in emissions back to the rate experienced fifty years ago, Hansen's "Alternate Scenario", then we can limit the temperature rise to about one degree Celsius which would be expected to wipe out only about 10% of the species. While that would still be a problem, it shows that humankind can influence what happens for better or worse, so we need to get serious about this issue now!
Interestingly enough, Hansen pointed out that of all the major fossil fuels we use, the world can continue to consume oil and gas but needs to cut back on coal consumption. With conditions, that alone will reduce global warming. Overall, 25% of all carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere. Hansen concluded as he began, scientists and others "understand" the problem. The difficult mission is getting this "knowledge" to the public, policy makers, politicians and others to make a change for the betterment of the planet. You may learn more about Dr. Hansen and his work by logging onto: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/.
WEFTEC is a busy time for Directors, with an all day meeting of the House of Delegates (HOD) on Saturday and another meeting on Wednesday afternoon. On Saturday, the morning was devoted to strategy sessions to provide direction to the Board of Trustees (BOT) and WEF Committees on issues they need to focus on. The Long Range Planning Committee will compile the results from these strategy sessions into goals for WEF Committees in the coming year.
Saturday afternoon was a business meeting for the HOD, with the most important and controversial item being approval of a completely re-written Constitution and Bylaws (C&B) for WEF. The new document is streamlined considerably from the previous version, and generally continues the transition to provide more flexibility and authority for governing the organization with the BOT and at the same time, to shift some responsibilities from the HOD directly to the membership. For example, any future changes in the constitution and bylaws will now be approved by vote of the entire membership rather than the HOD. Another minor change is that Directors are now called Delegates by WEF, so we are now officially Directors from IWEA and Delegates to WEF. WEF will be requiring us to revise the IWEA C&B at some point to eliminate the title Director, which to them implies some fiduciary role in WEF.
In addition to the HOD vote on the C&B, new articles of incorporation were proposed by the BOT and passed. These two votes became the last of the MA directors under the ìoldî way of doing WEF business. We would like to point out, however, that our attempts to get the Grievance section back into the C&B and make other changes beneficial to IWEA were thwarted. These two new documents are available on the WEF website.
On Wednesday there were two important votes in the HOD regarding WEF participation in the Water Infrastructure Network (WIN) and support for the proposed Clean Water Trust Fund legislation (H.R. 4560) in Congress. Apparently WEF had dropped out of WIN due to concerns about the trust fund and has not supported the proposed Clean Water Trust Fund based on a concern about the proposed funding mechanism. Members of the HOD had serious reservations about both of these positions and after considerable discussion, voted to recommend that WEF reconsider supporting the Trust Fund. A similar motion to recommend WEF reconsider joining WIN was narrowly defeated. Although these votes have no binding authority to change the positions of WEF, they do provide WEF a better indication of where state associations and the membership stand on these important issues.
If you are completing your scorecard, the new WEF President is Dr. Mohamed Dahab, from Nebraska. The newest Vice President is Rebecca West from South Carolina and Chuck Weir is now WEF Treasurer. Other officers move up. The Stockholm Junior Water Prize nominee from WEF was Emily Brownlee from Pennsylvania. Delta Airlines was added as a sponsor with ITT and Coca Cola. The upcoming WEFTEC sites are San Diego in 2007, Chicago in 2008, Orlando in 2009 and New Orleans in 2010. My how time flies! Will 2011 be in Chicago as voted on by the WEF Board of Control? Place your bets, this and other things at WEF could change. IWEA was honored by both WERF and Water for People for their continuing contributions. Public announcements were prominently displayed.
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