In April, the Environmental Finance Center Network’s (EFCN’s) Water Leadership Program announced the inaugural cohort of 38 water professionals from around the country who will participate in a three-month professional development program. The program aims to give rising water leaders the training and resources needed to face the challenges of utility management with confidence and improve the quality of life of their residents. Through the pilot program, water professionals will participate in three months of sessions focused on asset and data management, disaster resiliency and planning, environmental justice, strategic communications, culturally responsive leadership, and other subject areas that are critical in an increasingly diverse and rapidly changing water sector.
The program is funded by a grant awarded by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Innovative Water Infrastructure Workforce Development Program, which launched in 2021. The pilot program is one of several receiving a total of $3.8 million in funding to help build the water workforce and connect individuals to career opportunities in the drinking water and wastewater utility sector, as well as expand public awareness about job opportunities at drinking water and water treatment utilities.
In Puerto Rico, more than 250,000 residents lack basic access to clean water or sanitation. While there are several barriers, one obstacle is a lack of coordination. How can we make sure all groups canadvance community goals of ensuring clean water? One community that is creating a new model for engagement is Las Curias, in greater San Juan.
We did not record the Hybrid Funding Roundtable on March 29th, 2023 but we encourage you to watch the recording from our virtual Fall Funding Roundtable available here.
Are you interested in learning more about funding and financing municipal infrastructure in your town or village? At the Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center (SU-EFC)’s upcoming hybrid event, you can learn about funding opportunities for safe and clean water management, renewable energy, and other community investments from state and federal agency representatives. Lunch will be provided.
In-person attendance is encouraged, but sessions will be livestreamed for hybrid viewing. If you would like to attend virtually, please indicate so on the registration form.
Presenters will include representatives from:
New York State Homes and Community Renewal
New York State Departments of State, Health, & Environmental Conservation
New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation
The National Environmental Policy Act is one the most far-reaching environmental laws in the United States. If you are new to environmental project development and planning, this webinar is a great place to begin learning about NEPA. Join us for a discussion of important NEPA background and processes, knowing when NEPA applies, and what NEPA means for local projects.
When employees leave their positions, they take with them all of the experience and knowledge that may have been essential to the work they did, and critical to your organization, community, and current and future employees. If that knowledge is lost, it can undermine organizational capacity, and cause disruptions in services and performance.
In this webinar, we will share examples of the impact of when knowledge transfer goals were not met, examples of ways to prevent too much knowledge loss, and will discuss completing a Position Knowledge Inventory. This allows organizations to get an idea of the knowledge and responsibilities required to fulfill all current positions in order to seamlessly transfer key information to future employees.
Check out this blog from the SU Environmental Finance Center! Available in both English and Spanish, this blog discusses the challenges community aqueducts in Puerto Rico face, as well as their resiliency following natural disasters like Hurricane Fiona.
Description: Are you interested in learning more about funding and financing municipal infrastructure in your town or village? At the Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center (SU-EFC)’s upcoming webinar, you can learn about funding opportunities for safe and clean water management, renewable energy, and other community investments from state and federal agency representatives.
Presenters included representatives from:
New York State Homes and Community Renewal
New York State Departments of State, Health, & Environmental Conservation
New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation
Who should attend: Consulting engineers Fiscal advisors Water utility managers Municipal board members Elected officials And others interested in clean and safe water for New York communities!
This virtual event is supported under a grant by the Rural Utilities Service, United States Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in the webinar are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Rural Utilities Service.
Scientific breakthroughs show that levels of coronavirus genetic material in wastewater systems can provide an unbiased measure of coronavirus transmission for a community to guide public policy and response to the pandemic.
This free, 1-hour webinar introduces the New York State wastewater-based epidemiology network. The network provides real-time monitoring of wastewater for coronavirus RNA. In collaboration with the New York State Department of Health and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Dr. David Larsen’s team is working to scale a wastewater surveillance network across New York State to aid the response to public health threats.
By January 2022, this new network aims to include at least one wastewater treatment plant in each New York State county to monitor for COVID-19. Join us to learn more about the current progress for monitoring wastewater for public health benefit and ask questions about the network during a facilitated discussion. Wastewater treatment staff are encouraged to attend.
Check out SU-EFC’s new webpage of resources focused on Wayne County, New York. Find innovative tools to explore flood risk for property parcels along the Lake Ontario shoreline.
Approved for 1 CEC for Certified Floodplain Managers by ASFPM.Registrants must have attended the full duration of the live broadcast on November 15, 2021 to receive a certificate of attendance. Each viewer must register and attend individually, and participate for the entire duration of the webinar. Attendees, please contact adavis02@syr.edu to request a certificate of attendance.
Increasing intensity and duration of rainfall events and impervious surfacesare causing runoff that can overwhelm stormwater and combined stormwater/sewer systems. High flows into aging, undersized systems can result in localized flooding and overwhelming flows to municipal water treatment facilities.
One strategy to reduce runoff into stormwater systems is to implement municipal downspout disconnect and green infrastructure programs. Disconnecting downspout connections and redirecting the water to green infrastructure reduces runoff into pipes and roads and results in: cost savings for wastewater utilities, decreased combined sewer overflow events, reduced demand on already stressed and aging pipes, and reduced stormwater runoff in neighborhoods and local waterways.
This free, 90-minute webinar provided an opportunity for municipalities to learn about the regulatory, financing, and implementation of a coupled disconnect/GI municipal program from experts who have experience working with municipalities to implement these types of projects. Participants learned how these approaches can – and have – helped NYS communities manage their stormwater.
Speakers
Andy Sansone, Industrial Waste Engineer, Monroe County Stormwater Coalition/Monroe County
Khris Dodson, Associate Director, Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center
Kristen Hychka, Research and Outreach Specialist, NYS Water Resources Institute
Panelists
Ethan Sullivan, MS4 General Permit Coordinator, Assistant Engineer, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Dave Gasper, P.E., Stormwater Permits Section, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation
Mary MacSwan, Chief Environmental Compliance Specialist, Erie County: Department of Environment & Planning/Western NY Stormwater Coalition
Nancy Heinzen, Program Coordinator/Coalition Director, Stormwater Coalition of Albany County
For more information on developing a Downspout Disconnect and Green Infrastructure Program, download the resource below. This document was developed in collaboration with the Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center and the NYS Water Resources Institute at Cornell University.
