This story was originally written by Rebecca Thiele at Indiana Public Broadcasting and was published August 25, 2024. In May, Russian hackers targeted a wastewater treatment plant for Tipton. Fortunately, workers at the plant noticed something was wrong and were able to switch to manual operation until they could address it. Cyber attacks don’t just threaten your money, they can also put your access to clean drinking water and a functioning sewer at risk ..read more

If you came to this article after Industrial Pretreatment Part 1, welcome back! If this is the first article you are looking at, I recommend reading Part 1 to get an understanding of the threats that unregulated industrial discharges present to the environment, public infrastructure and public safety. This blog will explain what role pretreatment plays in protecting the health of the environment, the safety of the public and the stability of the infrastructure that serves our needs ..read more

Recently, I attended my fourth Wastewater Industrial Technical Training Education Conference (WITtec) in Greenwood, Indiana. The conference attendees included wastewater professionals from government entities throughout Indiana, as well as private consultants and vendors who specialize in wastewater treatment processes and equipment. I learned a lot at the conference this year, but the one thing that stood out to me the most was learning about a couple of disasters that are prime examples of the consequences of unregulated industrial discharges to our local infrastructure and ultimately, our ..read more

  The following article was published in the Spring 2024 issue of The Indiana Digester with the permission of its publisher, Craig Kelman & Associates. Consider the plethora of careers paths that are available out there. Then consider your own choice of career. For many of us who have had the privilege to do something we excel at in the field that we're passionate about, we may oftentimes take that privilege for granted. Day in and day out, we seamlessly navigate through our daily routines, honing our skills until they become second nature. For Tyler Hammerle, however, there's a ..read more

Attention Indiana Drinking Water and Wastewater Operators and Cybersecurity Contacts  As many of you may have seen on recent news reports, water sector utilities in several states and European countries have been targeted by cyber-attacks believed to originate in Russia.  These instances seem to be an organized effort targeting internet facing devices that are unsecured, or poorly secured using default or overly simplistic password protocols.  IDEM is providing the guidance below from WaterISAC to help mitigate utility exposure from internet facing devices ..read more

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released their much-anticipated final rule announcement for the legally enforceable new drinking water standards limiting exposure to a class of chemicals called PFAS, known as “forever chemicals.” Under the new rule from the EPA, water utilities must monitor drinking water supplies, ground water and surface water for PFAS chemicals and be required to notify the public and reduce contamination if levels exceed the new standard of four (4) parts per trillion (ppt) for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. One ppt is equal to a grain of sand in ..read more

For Eastern Heights Utilities, it’s been business as usual for more than 50 years. Based in rural Greene County, Indiana and serving more than 7,000 connections across six counties, this water utility system contains 12 elevated storage tanks, three wellfields, four booster stations and more than 500 miles of water mains in the distribution system. The utility employs 14 staff who reside within the Greene County limits with the average employee having worked at EHU for more than 20 years; a tight knit team, to say the least! EHU employees work seamlessly together to tackle difficult issues wi ..read more

We are very pleased to announce that Dylan Lambermont, P.E., LEED AP has been promoted to the position of president of Wessler Engineering. Following 14 years of exemplary leadership under Brent Siebenthal, Dylan becomes just the fourth person to serve as president, with responsibility for the day-to-day operations and executive leadership of the company ..read more

The use of drones in civil engineering applications offers numerous benefits that can increase the efficiency, accuracy and safety of various tasks and can be easier to learn than one might think ..read more

The following article was originally published in the Summer 2023 issue of Indiana Digester ..read more