At the beginning of each year, most people make a list of resolutions and goals to keep them focused in the upcoming 12 months. Oftentimes they are about exercising more and eating better. Like many, I, too, am guilty of letting those goals slip away rather quickly, but last year was different. I resolved to push my career another step forward and find a job closer to my family members, whom I rarely got to see throughout the year.
This year’s resolution is an extension of last year’s for me. By this time last year, I was an editor for three weekly newspapers in southern Illinois near St. Louis. It was my first job after graduating from Illinois State University, and it taught me a great deal about work ethic and about myself, but more importantly, it forced me to interact with people from all walks of life. I resolve to use that experience with Industrial Water & Wastes Digest as managing editor.
Much like I was when working at the newspaper, I am eager to learn something new every day, and this first issue of iWWD in 2017 has a solid foundation to inform my understanding of the industrial wastewater industry.
In the following pages, we cover solutions to problems at various facilities, like a dairy facility in the upper Midwest whose wastewater facility fell out of regulatory compliance—page 8. That matter had a sense of urgency, but other solutions were planned changes much like the chicken processing plant in Arkansas that sought to reduce its energy expenses and improve processing efficiencies by replacing aging equipment—page 14.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, a Chinese coal-fired power plant worked with GE to develop a zero liquid discharge strategy to comply with strict emissions and discharge limitations—page 17.
Reading about this variety of applications is only the start of my learning for the new year, and I’ll need your help to build my knowledge and reinforce that which I’ve already learned. So when that next interesting project comes up, send me an email or drop me a line. I resolve to hear about it and I’m sure our readers would be interested to listen, too.
