Taken from the Spring 2018 edition of our Authority View newsletter

In January, AEA met with Ridgewood Water and discussed many areas of shared interest. Pictured here are (from l) Christine Ballard, AEA board member; Jill Fasano, RW Senior Engineer; Dave Harpell, AEA president; Daniel Timmeny, RW business manager; Richard Calbi, Director of RW; and Michael Drulis of Morford Drulis Associates.

In January, a contingent from AEA met with Richard Calbi, Director of Operations for Ridgewood Water, and his staff. From AEA were Executive Committee members Dave Harpell (president) and Justin Flancebaum (vice president), Board Member Christine Ballard, Executive Director Peggy Gallos, and Dan Kelly of Kelly Engineering.

Calbi introduced AEA to the Ridgewood Water system and its history, and AEA provided an overview of its activities on behalf of public clean water and solid waste agencies.

Ridgewood Water gave an overview of the innovative monitoring system they recently installed. The PRS Monitoring Station is an essential tool for drinking water systems to aid in tracking, controlling, and improving the water quality received by customers through the distribution system. Ridgewood Water is utilizing the PRS Monitoring Station to study the potential impact of a consecutive system’s change in corrosion control treatment on water purchased by Ridgewood Water.

Establishing ties to municipal utilities – non-authorities that do water or wastewater – is one of Harpell’s top priorities as president.  AEA believes that broader cooperation between our association and municipal water/wastewater agencies can be beneficial to both.

Two years ago, Harpell, James Schilling and Richard Brand toured the Roosevelt water and sewer system and met with its staff and town leaders. The three executive directors helped Roosevelt prioritize a long list of repairs and upgrades needed and pointed out ways the town could affect repairs that would save it money. This visit was done as a service to the town.

If you know a small public system that does not belong to AEA but that might be interested in this type of consultation, please contact Peggy at (609) 584-1877.