Veolia North America

We had a blast at today’s Water Palooza event, an education fair organized by the Water Environment Federation as part of the #WEFTEC24 events. Held at St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans, this fair welcomed 300 students from grades Pre-K to 8 to engage with Veolia staff to learn more about the value of water and water conservation. Our booth included an interactive demonstration of “What happens after you flush?” to show how we treat wastewater, plus viewing of microbugs through a microscope and our new wastewater treatment plan model. Thanks to our New Orleans team for organizing our booth for this event! DeShanon Cobb (Russell), Nadine Robertson, and Laboratory Manager Shaina Howard

As we gear up for the Water Environment Federation's #WEFTEC24 in New Orleans next week, we're excited to see our municipal water personnel competing in the Operations Challenge, an event that tests their skills in timed events simulating real-world challenges faced in operating and maintaining wastewater treatment facilities. This year, we have six teams participating: 💧 Mass Chaos (Massachusetts) 💧 Deep South Madness (Mississippi) 💧 Digested Dragons (Long Island, NY) 💧 Mudbugs (New Orleans, LA) 💧 RICONN (Rhode Island/Connecticut) 💧 RIsing Sludge (Rhode Island) "The Operations Challenge is essentially the wastewater Olympics," says Jason Swain, Project Manager at Veolia Holyoke. "It consists of five different events— process, lab, safety, collections, and maintenance. These different events simulate real-time incidents that operators have to face in the day to day for the jobs that they do." Check out this video of our teams in action, and we look forward to seeing you in New Orleans!

A big thank you to the Community Leaders of America for inviting us to Oklahoma City to present our insights on managing critical infrastructure, planning for a sustainable, economically vibrant future and finding a way to pay for it all. Central Region President Brian Bruce and VP of Business Development Josh Berezowsky presented on the economics of water, with a room full of city leaders who understand their water and wastewater systems are critical to the vitality of their communities. Government Funding Lead Caroline Cotugno dove into a robust discussion of energy and water infrastructure, regulation and finding federal funding to help local leaders make the bold decisions necessary to move their communities forward. Thanks also to Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt for co-hosting and sharing the story of this city’s amazing rebound and growth.

We’ve got a busy October ahead of us and we’re looking forward to connecting with you! Whether you’re interested in learning more about how we can support your municipality, how we can help implement digital technology solutions to your water utilities or what projects we are working on for a more sustainable future, we’ll be at these events to answer all your questions.  A few highlights to keep an eye out for: 💧 We have a table at Water Harvest, an in-person event at the Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility in El Segundo, CA. This free, family-friendly event welcomes community members who participate in a number of fun, educational activities including tours of the water recycling facility, stage shows, interactive water education booths, games, kids’ costume contests, opportunity drawings and more! 💧 David Connors, PE will be speaking at the Connecticut Rural Water & Wastewater Association annual conference and trade show about our internship program. Discover how our program prepares the next generation of water professionals and the exciting opportunities it offers.

#NYCClimateWeek might be over, but the work has just begun. From AI's growing pains to the urgent need for water security, the message was clear: "It's Time!" to move beyond pledges and into tangible action. Nate Pepper, Vice President of Communications at Veolia North America, reflects on the conversations and presentations of the week, highlighting his key takeaways in our latest blog. Check it out at https://lnkd.in/ebtCEfkJ

Congratulations to the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC), which today broke ground on an infrastructure improvement project critical to the South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant's rehabilitation, expansion and permit compliance. This is a pivotal moment as together we begin construction that will transform flow control at South Bay and strengthen the plant’s ability to protect the San Diego coast from extreme levels of highly polluted cross-border wastewater. The project to refurbish Junction Box 1 (JB-1) will install two new gates on an 8-foot-wide pipe that carries wastewater from Mexico to the plant. The non-functioning JB-1 has impacted the plant since 2021. For the first time since then, the plant will be able to control how much wastewater it accepts, including during heavy rains, thereby protecting its equipment from damage and flooding, and meeting its treatment capacity limit of 25 million gallons per day (MGD). Reducing the inflow will make it possible for the plant to more efficiently treat water it sends into the Pacific Ocean through the 3.5-mile South Bay Ocean Outfall, once again achieving federal water quality standards on a consistent basis. Read the full release at https://lnkd.in/epqTU8ct

We had a great turnout this weekend for the Historic Milwaukee, Inc. Doors Open event at the Jones Island Water Reclamation Plant, with nearly 1000 people stopping by to learn more about the water reclamation process and the making of Milorganite® Fertilizer. Visitors enjoyed exhibits, tours, kids activities and more—it was a fun way to connect with our community and celebrate the work we do with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District (MMSD) to serve more than 1 million people in the Milwaukee area. You can learn more about our work in Milwaukee at https://lnkd.in/e6a8jXRu

Congratulations to Shari Gold, who received the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) WaterSense Excellence Award on behalf of Veolia at the American Water Works Association WaterSmart Innovations Conference in Las Vegas this week. This award recognizes Veolia’s customer conservation rebate program, which encourages its New York customers to replace their outdated fixtures including shower heads, toilets and smart irrigation controllers with new high performance models that save water and energy. Our partnership with WaterSense is a strong reminder of the importance of water efficiency, as we work together to support ways to conserve water for future generations.

The countdown to the #WEFTEC 96th annual technical exhibition and conference in New Orleans has begun!  We’ll be at booth #2229 to connect with colleagues and share insights on our latest water solutions, with a number of exciting events on the agenda, including: 💧Veolia’s Erick Gomez and Nadine Robertson will be joining the InFlow panel on Tuesday, October 8, aimed at introducing future leaders to opportunities in water. The Water Environment Federation (WEF) InFlow program is focused on enhancing diversity and inclusion in the water workforce. 💧Karine Rougé, Veolia CEO Municipal Water, will speak about workforce development on a panel hosted by The Water Council on Wednesday, October 9. 💧Four Veolia teams will compete in the Operations Challenge, testing their skills in timed events simulating real-world challenges faced in operating and maintaining wastewater treatment facilities. 💧We’re also taking part in several pre-conference events, including the Water Palooza fair for local students, a community service day alongside other WEFTEC sponsors, and guided tours of the New Orleans Eastbank Wastewater Treatment Plant. Hope to see you there!

Thanks to the Columbia Climate School for inviting us to the Rethinking Water conference on Tuesday, September 24. We were able to connect with more than 200 students who were all eager to learn more about how our unique solutions in water, waste and energy continue to lead in the #ecologicaltransformation.