Water and wastewater plant operators can take advantage of several upcoming training opportunities from the Penn State Environmental Training Center and the PA Section - American Water Works Association detailed below.

Certification Courses: A variety of courses are now available from the Penn State Environmental Training Center to water and wastewater plant operators to help meet continuing education requirements by the Department of Environmental Protection.

Courses include: general exam overview, filtration, distribution systems, chemicals and much more. Visit the Environmental Training Center for more information on these and other courses.

Water Incident Response: A free one-day workshop will be held on September 14 at Harrisburg Area Community College to provide training to water and wastewater plant on incident command and management.

"It is important that water and wastewater personnel become NIMS compliant for two reasons,” said Mike Snyder, PA-AWWA, Project/Security Coordinator. “First, FEMA requires NIMS compliance in order to receive Disaster Relief Funds and second, US DHS has determined that water & wastewater personnel responding to an emergency are classified as ‘first responders.’ All first responders must be NIMS compliant.

"These courses, ICS 100 and NIMS 700, are entry level courses that water and wastewater system personnel need to take in order to begin the process of NIMS compliance. These two courses have been specifically adapted to water and wastewater systems so they are relavent to their professions.

"This training is a great partnership between US EPA, PA Section - American Water Works Association and the South Central PA Counter-Terrorism Task Force. All three agencies are helping sponsor this important training," explained Snyder.

Registration is being handled by Horsley Witten, who is teaching the course for EPA. To register, click on "register for course” on the Harrisburg course webpage.

The course is limited to 40 attendees so register early! Questions should be directed to Mike Snyder at 717-774-8870 or send email to: mikesnyder@paawwa.org .

8/17/2007