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• AWWA Director’s Report—Dennis Mitchell, P.Eng.F
• Canadian Water and Wastewater Association Report—Frank Belfry, P. Eng, BCWWA Director

AWWA Director’s Report

Dennis Mitchell, P.Eng.F

2002 Winter Board Meeting Report
This article was written immediately after the AWWA Winter Board meeting in Scottsdale Arizona. Once again, unseasonably cool weather has greeted the AWWA representatives, staff, guests and invited friends. To attempt to give you a flavour of the discussions that took place, and attempt to piece together the events that occurred, following is a time capsule presentation.

Everyone arrived in anticipation of resolving the Efficient Utilities controversy, so casual discussions inevitably found their way to this issue. Themes seemed common, with Directors having to deal with their Vendor representatives boycotting Section events and restating their dissatisfaction with Efficient Utilities. To facilitate discussions, a Special Session of the Board was held on Saturday afternoon. The Special Session is an opportunity to discuss issues prior to the formal Board meeting.

Saturday Special Session
After a few opening items, debate began on efficient Utilities. AWWA President Ron Schwarzwalder opened discussions with a few ground rules, the notable one being “keep personal attacks out of presentations.” There was then an acknowledgement by Bob Willis that the mistrust the MAC felt over Efficient Utilities was warranted considering how the Ecommerce initiative began.

Presentations were then made by AWWA Past President and EfficientUtilities Board Chair, Bob Willis; Public Advisory Council (PAC) Chair, Wendy Nero; Manufacturers/Associates Council (MAC) Chair, Jim Farmerie; Water Utility Council (WUC) Chair Howard Neukrug and Executive Committee representative Dave Cornwall. Highlights of the presentations were as follows:

• Willis stated that due to the controversy, both Vendors and Utilities have been reluctant to join, resulting in a performance that has been less than anticipated. Reduced participation has in turn translated into reduced vendor participation at the upcoming New Orleans conference. A worst-case financial scenario will result in a $US1.0 M loss in revenue in a $US4.0 M budget.
• Nero stated Vendor and Utility attitude surveys conducted for EU accurately confirmed Vendors’ wide spread concerns and Utilities’ cautious concerns regarding EU.
• Farmerie extended the survey results to say the opposition by Vendors to EU is far greater than AWWA is projecting, and will continue to grow.
• Neukrug reported that the WUC is firmly behind EU, however subsequent presentations by Board members brought that statement into question.
• Cornwall reaffirmed the AWWA Executive Committee’s endorsement of EU.

AWWA’s legal counsel, John McCabe then made a presentation to the Board on the AWWA/ENI contract for EU, outlining its terms, conditions, duration and mechanisms available to both sides. Numerous questions were asked of McCabe, which cannot be reported due to their confidential nature. The Board was effectively informed of available options open to them.

Open Discussion
Following McCabe’s presentation, an open discussion followed, at which time Director’s voiced their concerns and opinions. Highlights were:

• The contract with ENI is open for discussion of EU management principles in April of 2003. This is NOT a contract termination or renewal date, and despite being asked, no termination date or process was reported.
• The contract is understandably based on both parties operating on good faith. Attempts to undermine the agreement will be viewed negatively by the Courts.
• Success of EU appears to be inextricably tied to AWWA’s endorsement of the site, so the sale of EU would severely diminish the site’s value.
• Steps are being taken to meet with Vendors to resolve the differences that have developed with AWWA.
• Full integration of EU into a Utility will cost tens of thousands to hundredsof thousands of dollars, with many thousands annually to maintain the software. Vendors connecting to EU would incur minimal costs. Numerous opinions were expressed that these costs will prove prohibitive and the venture may fail as a result of the expense. Similarly, lack of Vendor and Utility participation may result in the site to being unpopular, resulting in market forces addressing the entire issue.
• Vendor concern that “the site was not the issue” was restated, the concern being “AWWA’s participation in a perceived competitive business venture.”
• Suggestion was made that AWWA offer major incentives to Vendors and Utilities to encourage them to use EU to determine if the concerns are warranted.

In summary, a great deal of emphasis was placed on the issues related to use of the site and its limitations rather than the issue of AWWA involvement in this business venture. It appeared that AWWA was resolved to proceeding with EfficientUtilities, allowing market forces to dictate its outcome, and most importantly healing the rift with the Vendors.

Sunday Board Meeting
After dispensing with some opening items, the election of Officers resulted in the following successful slate of candidates:

• President Elect – Marlay Price
• Vice Presidents – Dixie Fanning, Pat Lachmaniuk (Ontario), Andy Richardson, Terry Rolan, Chuck Van der Kolk
• Director at Large – Curtis Truss

With the intent fairly clearly laid out at the Special Session, the Board meeting became almost anti-climactic. A resolution was passed which instructed the Executive Committee to develop a Reconciliation Plan to bring the Vendors back to the Association. Your Director suggested an EU Exit Plan be developed in conjunction with the Reconciliation Plan, however this was not supported. An Ad Hoc Committee was struck, chaired by the President-Elect and comprised of three Vice-Presidents and two representatives including the Chairs from each of the Manufacturers/Associates Council, the Public Affairs Council and the Water Utility Council.

In other issues, the AWWA Strategic Plan was re-adopted with changes developed by an Ad Hoc Committee; the 2002 budget was approved with potential prioritized cuts in expenses if needed; and the business plan was approved. It was confirmed that the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) has agreed to fund Standards development by AWWA in support of Utility Accreditation, which should go a long way in promoting accreditation in North America. In the interest of brevity, I have omitted many details, which took place over the three days. Please contact me at Dmitchell@UMAGroup.com for further information.

Canadian Water and Wastewater
Association Report

By Frank Belfry, P. Eng, BCWWA Director

Federal Activities
A report on Federal Activities is as follows:

• The Senate has passed senate Bill S-18. The Bill is a proposed amendment to the Food and Drug Act to include “drinking water” as a food. The Bill will now go to the House of Commons for review. It is expected that this will prompt considerable discussion of both national and provincial regulatory issues.
• In parallel to the proposed federal legislation, the Federal- Provincial Drinking Water Subcommittee and the Canadian Council of Ministers for the Environment are working collaboratively on a new framework for managing water quality in Canada.
• Environment Canada has added four substances to List of Toxic substances. These are ammonia in the aquatic environment, inorganic chloramines, nonylphenols and their ethoxylates and textile mill effluents. Under the Act, Environment Canada has less than 18 months to develop a draft management strategy. This could result in municipalities being asked to develop and file plans for the prevention of pollution that could include greater emphasis on pre-discharge treatment by industrial and commercial agencies.
• Operator Training and Certification: it is expected that all provinces will be requested to implement certification programs for all operators.

CWWA Database Projects
The CWWA is also involved in three projects that are relevant to municipalities and industry. The programs are:

• A Water Treatment Technology Database that will be accessible on the CWWA website this month, see www.cwwa.ca
• A Road Map to Water Treatment Technology is to be produced which may involve cross Canada consultations over the summer
• A database of legislative and other requirements for water and wastewater services in all jurisdictions. Health Canada and Environment Canada as part of their framework for managing water quality fund this project.

10th Canadian National and 1st Policy Forum on Drinking Water
This is a significant national event that takes place every two years and this year includes a policy forum. The conference is in Halifax on April 27 to 30th. For details see www.cwwa.ca.