Steve Wilson posted on June 25, 2010 08:49
Who Is ASDWA?
ASDWA is the Association of State Drinking Water Administrators. They are the professional association that serves the states' drinking water programs. They work with the states and serve as their voice in Washington with Congress and the USEPA. They do a lot to serve you, the water operator, and have been a partner with many of the other organizations that provide direct assistance to operators, like AWWA, NRWA, and RCAP.
Their Small Systems Page
ASDWA has put together a great webpage of information for small systems and those serving small systems regarding capacity development, operator certification, small system security, and other organizations and resources that can help you. There is more there than I can fit in this blog post, so today, I wanted to tell you about their capacity development page, where they have pulled together some great reosources that you might find helpful. The Small Systems page is HERE, the sections are clickable on the far left side of the page.
Capacity Development Webpage
Capacity development is defined a number of ways, but what it really boils down to is developing more knowledge at the water system so that the system can be ran better financially, managerially, and technically. So, that knowledge comes from you, the operator, and your mayor, and/or water board if you have one. Everyone's goal is to have enough system knowledge and experience so that the system is managed safely and so it can be sustainable. That's what we all want, right?
Capacity Development Resources
ASDWA's Capacity Development page includes the USEPA guidance to states on their capacity development program, and for you, a bunch of useful tools that you can download to learn more about ways to run your system more effectively, including the "short version" summaries of most of the drinking water standards and rules. What you really need to take a look at are the ASDWA-RCAP Web Series materials. These were presented as webinars in 2006 and 2007 and ASDWA has provided all of the presentation materials here. You can look through the presentations and see information about rates vs fees, asset management, management strategies, and a lot of other useful info.
Answering Your Questions
At the very bottom of each of the presentation pages is a link to questions asked during the original webinars and the answers that were given. If you look at nothing else, I'd check out the Q & A pages which are alot of questions that you might also have asked if you attended the original webinar. Here's a great example, click HERE to link to the Q & A from the "Managerial Capacity: Making the Connections" questions and answers. (This opens into a Microsoft word Document, if you can't read it and would like a PDF version, just submit a comment asking for it with your email address.) Someone asked about liability. Someone else about the state's role in capacity development. The Q & A's have some really useful info.
At SmallWaterSupply.org
You can find additional information in our document search HERE. Just click on capacity development in the "select" categories list, then type a keyword(s) that matches what you are interested in. I used the keyword "budget", and the result is 32 related documents from a number of states, agencies, and technical assistance providers. Some are specific to budgeting and some are more useful than others, but they give you an idea of the information that is available through SmallWaterSupply.org. Another good keyword is "guidance"! Call us if you need search help or would like something printed and sent to you.