Once again...

I am doing it again.

Trying to rectify a neglected water and wastewater supplier. I had to explain to two very bright young people how to go about it and thought others could join in the conversation.

I have explained before that it all boils down to a strong foundation, always…

1)     Begin with Compliance

2)     Follow up with Health and Safety

3)     Move to Congruence with the Contracted Deliverables.

4)     Finally, to People, the most important part of any foundation.

I find these elements the 4 corner-stones to building a solid foundation on which to build a viable working utility business.

We provide Water and then take it back used. It’s universal. And there are universal rules about it all. We took on the obligation to provide people with clean, safe-to-drink water. Some of us chose to accept the used water back and clean it before returning it to our environment.

So start with the compliance first.

First, do they have clear simple diagrams (or schedule) of taking samples? 

I like clear diagrams.

(Digressing into a side bar here)

Take or List the samples needed for the year (just the annual ones needed to begin.) Draw a long rectangle.

 In excel  I go 12 cells long.

Make three of these 12 sections;

Top block  for the word “Annual”

Second, for the words like “Chlorides, Iron & Manganese.

Third, make a third 12 cell block underneath with subdivisions right under each sample name.

(Put dates the samples were taken.)

That’s it.

When you have just taken over, find out the dates these were taken and fill in the date cells.

Next collection of three rows, three blocks are the Semi- annual samples. ( like lead & copper, radiological, etc.

Do the same format.

Let’s move on very quickly here;

Do the same for the Quarterly samples, (like THMs and HAA5s) then the Monthly samples (like Coliforms).

First row tile “1st Qtr., 2nd Qtr., etc., you’ll figure it out…

Because you made the first group 12 cells long, now you have a very neat aligned picture.

In the top group of three boxes I always title the group by the rate of sampling, i.e. January, February, March, etc.

Get it?

Look for and then make copies of the found sample results (or shortcut it and call the lab itself, they always have a better filing system than you.)

Fill in the dates the samples were taken. Make a new drawing of these pertinent samples and when you are done, you are very organized, with a clear diagram of taken ( or missed samples).

For the missed ones, you might be able to make them up or rationalize why they were missed.

Within that first day, you have a clean clear picture (with evidence in those new files you set up ) of the current status. You know where you stand, right now.

Clear enough?

End of side bar.

2) The second brick for your foundation is Health and Safety.

 Why? Those H & S people are tough in every company!

They want all your staff to go home with the same number of fingers and toes and the same number of people that came in this morning, sincerely.

But the great thing to correction is, there are so many templates out there on the web now. Pick one down load it, use “word replace” if you use word and you are done. No effort at all. Of course you do need the whole deal. But look that up, ( Google it or “use Bing”) you get a table of needed topics and then you can search again, line by line until you have filled it all in.

Done. 

Second Brick of this solid foundation you are building.

Day 3.

Yes. It can be that quick…

Day 3, you move on to “Congruence.”

What are the “Contract Deliverables” you are responsible for now?

Perhaps, it is a twice a year Hydrant flushing program. Perhaps it’s Quarterly Lift Station Cleaning. Perhaps even cleaning a portion of the Sewer Collection system.

In any of these projects, you also need to be organized. Your location may use software to extract the data into reports. But you may not have this in that spot yet. So what to do?

This is not an article that goes into the great detail how to go about it, just believe your life will be composed of “lists” for awhile.

The scary thing is, you can again Google for “Fire in Town, Hydrants didn’t work” and too often too many articles will pop up.

So ask the staff ( for starters) “How many Hydrants do we have here?”

You might not get a straight answer… ( Be forewarned)

Here I got the answer:

280 hydrants, “it says so on our website” and it did.

But when I looked at the last Hydrant flushing excel sheet it said 265 Hydrants.

When I asked the very bright young man who did the IT for the group: “oh really, it’s around 407”

Oh no. 

Percentage- wise the number has varied. 265, 280, 407. I wish my pay varied( to the positive like that…) 

The X-Files said that, “The truth is out there…”

They had even geo-tagged each hydrant that year of 2015. They had stood over each hydrant and using some device had geo-located each Hydrant.

And here this incredibly smart guy was telling “sort of” numbers.

Oops.

Lets try again.

Remember I am not saying anything against this bright man. He is indeed very superior to any intelect I have found ( just don't tell him I said so...) But he even acknowledges his very bad data that he has been forced to work with.

Now, today we have tablets that can GPS pretty accurately each hydrant in seconds. The software is programmed to change the red symbols ( of the Hydrants) to blue once this is done.

Amazing. Each day you can see the progress being made. See the hydrants being done. See which haven’t been done yet. Amazing.

The very first night, one crew found three hydrants that wasn’t on the electronic map.

How did that happen?

 Like weeds?

Amazing.

( Side Bar # 2)

I have said it before, take a clip board with a regular blank writing pad, with a pen. Show up early one morning write down each truck present. What it is, what age is it, what condition it seems to be.

You have a count of your vehicles..

You have a list, in order from oldest to newest.

You have the models, the brand, like

“2003 Ford 250 Utility Truck,

or 2008 Toyota Pick-up. 

That sort of “List”

Those hydrants?

Model, year, location. "1943- RD Wood- at 432 West Park Ave- flushed F2016".

Now you have something better. You have two lists , two sets of assets counted. Your Hydrant Record can have “Spring 2000, Fall 2000, Spring 2001, Fall 2001 ( That twice a year thing…) with the title “ Flushing record”

What happens if you don’t find anything for this list?

Ask the staff?

Ask them the months the last time they flushed.

And the time before that, you get it.

Start a conversation with the people who are there.

Now you have some records to begin with. And they may now be fleshed out enough to move on.

The next part of your foundation can be your people.

Start with name, time there, licensed earned and where in the license renewal they are with their specific Total Contact hours or whatever form of measurement is being used.

You now have 4 corner-stones to build upon.

Begin now.

Post script, it may get bumpy, ride it out. I have been guilty of doing this a little too aggressively at times. I have to keep remembering, I know the dance moves but it’s the first time for this new staff.

I have to learn to work very slowly (at least it seems that way to me by now.) I could tell you some stories…

On CBS Sunday morning, a professional grave digger said, “ you have to start right to end right.”

I like that.

If you liked it Hit “like” please or if you want to “share it” please do so, the more the merrier, I would appreciate it.

Join in the conversation!

I hope this has served you,

Larry Coslow

[email protected]