This year, we can truly say the New Year came in just like a lion.
On New Year's Day, the world was still reeling from devastation of tsunamis that struck South Asia after an earthquake in the Indian Ocean Dec. 26. Initial criticism of the slowness of the world – and the U.S. – response was quickly dwarfed by the outpouring of support globally by governments, companies and individuals alike. A summary of the water industry's efforts can be found in this issue.
With the New Year, it's also traditional to get a new calendar. So, also in this issue, we offer a new listing of water industry events. What appears on p. 27-28 is only a summary of a larger, more comprehensive global calendar that can be found by clicking on the "Events" tab on our website: www.industrialww.com.
And what would the New Year be like without resolutions. As such, we checked with a few industry associations on what goals they've set for industrial water treatment in 2005.
"Of our top six or seven priorities for the year, the only one with an industrial focus is educating policymakers at EPA that write legislation governing industrial waste dischargers on related issues," said Dawn Kristof, president of the Washington, DC, based Water and Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers Association. "We'll host a series of brown bag lunches, which we hope will guide them on future regulation or whatever rules they may choose to impose on industrial facilities."
She added that WWEMA plans also to focus on compiling better market data to benchmark industry output and performance and gauge growth so the industry can make better projections on where it's going.
Meanwhile, Chuck Stolberg, executive director of the Submersible Wastewater Pump Association, in Highland Park, Ill., said his organization's emphasis will be on improved industrial training resources.
"The industrial market makes up a really small portion of our members, overall markets, but it's one of the areas of which we have talked about expanding by providing additional services, i.e., in the industrial sector," Stolberg said.
"That would include training programs for users users, specifiers, design engineers, etc., based on some new publications that are in the works, including recommendation guidelines for system components such as valves and control panels."
Stolberg also was excited about SWPA's 4th Annual Pumping Systems Training Seminar to be held March 14-15 in Nashville, Tenn., which is co-sponsored by Industrial WaterWorld and its sister publication WaterWorld. About 100 people are expected.
Rob Schweinfurth, who heads up the Water Environment Federation's industrial initiatives, said the plan for the Alexandria, Va., organization is to expand on industrial offerings at WEFTEC.05, which will be held in Washington, DC, in October.
"The things we have planned for this year include the networking reception. We had that last year for the industrial folks and plan on doing it again this year. We also plan on increasing the amount of sessions, although I can't give you specific topics at this point, in the industrial area," Schweinfurth said.
Lastly, Jon Runge, communications, marketing and customer service director for the American Water Works Association, was a bit more circumspect on the year to come.
"In 2005, the service providers who market goods and services to utilities will continue to feel the economic pinch that's squeezing the budgets of water suppliers and municipalities," Runge said. "AWWA service providers see aging infrastructure and future water supply as critical and under-addressed issues in the industry, but their ability to help address those issues is limited by the capital funding available to utilities."
Carlos David Mogollón, Managing Editor
