BILL PATENAUDE, a principal engineer in the R.I. Department of Environmental Management’s Office of Water Resources, recently received the Clair N. Sawyer Award from the New England Water Environment Association. The award honors those who have given their service to multiple aspects of the wastewater industry, including university teaching, operator training and innovations to improve the water environment.
Can you describe the Wastewater Leadership Boot Camp you started and its benefits? Developed in 2007, boot camp is a yearlong professional- and personal-development program designed for wastewater professionals who’ve shown leadership potential. Since its inception, every New England state has adopted Rhode Island’s program. Boot camp is free and its schedule of once-per-month, all-day meetings builds camaraderie in a profession that can, by its nature, be isolating. Its mix of technical and soft skills builds up the whole person.
Can you explain your efforts in improving resiliency of the state’s wastewater facilities? By design, wastewater infrastructure is built at low points to optimize the use of gravity. That means you build it to withstand flooding. But what happens when rainstorms grow more severe and rising seas demand a rethink of design standards? DEM responded with a statewide impact analysis of our 19 wastewater systems. We’re requiring communities to continually evaluate threats and we’ve developed planning and design guidance with resiliency in mind. Protecting our wastewater systems has been highlighted in the Resilient Rhody strategy and it’s been supported by voters who approved last November’s Green Economy & Clean Water Bond, which included $5 million to help protect Rhode Island’s wastewater sector.
How is the state better equipped to preserve waterways and protect infrastructure from severe weather? DEM’s strategy is to combine the goals of clean water and infrastructure resiliency. For instance, when DEM required … Warren to reduce its nitrogen discharge, the town asked all the right questions. It worked with DEM to design its new treatment works higher than existing systems. Communities [such as] Warwick and Narragansett have elevated pumping stations. Protective berms have been raised and new ones built. We’ve cultivated stronger relationships with the National Weather Service, National Grid and [the Emergency Management Agency] to better prepare and respond to storms.
What needs to be done to continue to minimize the impacts of climate change? Two things: Keep working with resiliency in mind and help the wastewater sector become more energy efficient while expanding its use of renewable energy. In terms of adaptation, the Resilient Rhody strategy noted the need to expand current efforts to protect our clean water infrastructure and find ways to include the upfront costs of investing in resiliency within the costs of operating and maintaining that infrastructure.
