President's Message
Fall 2004

The year was 1981 and the Herkimer County Sewer District had been busy with the construction of an activated sludge treatment plant. It was anticipated that plant start-up would occur in October of that year. It was time to fill the remaining five positions of mechanic, shift operator, laboratory technician, and two assistant shift operators. After the positions were advertised and résumés received, it was a surprise to have résumés of two young women in the file applying for the laboratory technician position. They were also the only applicants for the laboratory position.

After interviews were completed, it was clear that one of the female candidates was the much better choice. Carolyn was hired and proved to be an excellent asset to the district for the three years that she was here. She had a bachelor of science degree in biology, if I remember correctly. Ultimately, much to our dismay, she resigned, attended medical school in Minnesota and is now a chiropractor in business with her husband in Plattsburg. (I'd like to think that somehow her employment with the sewer district helped inspire her to enter her current profession. Or, perhaps, maybe we helped her to discover her real passion!)

She made many contributions in getting our laboratory up and running, helped train staff members for necessary weekend tests, and did her job efficiently and accurately. When I dreamed up projects that required a lot of testing be done in an effort to enhance our facility, she was ready and willing to go above and beyond the daily workload.

And so it goes that Carolyn is the only female employee that the Herkimer County Sewer District plant has had in its 23-year operating history. In 1981 it was a rare event, in my opinion, for women to seek such jobs. Times have changed-and for the better, I might add. Today our water environment field is filled with competent, capable women in all areas of plant operation and administration. Women work for engineering firms, regulatory agencies, and manufacturing companies.

This issue of Clear Waters pays tribute to the women who not only helped to forward the rights of working women-particularly those women working in the environmental field-but who also proved to be leaders and pioneers in our field. This includes women such as those depicted on our cover: Emmeline Moore, the first woman investigator for the Conservation Depart- ment; Ellen Swallow Richards, the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Nesreen Mustafa Sidiq Berwari, the minister of public works for the Iraqi Interim Government. These are examples of people-women-with purpose, passion, and principle.

To commemorate these dedicated individuals, NYWEA's Awards Committee is presently considering the creation of an Emmeline Moore Award. This award will be another way for NYWEA to acknowledge people with purpose, passion, and principle in the environmental field. Just as Carolyn made her mark here on the Herkimer County Sewer District plant a couple of years back, so do many women who are members of NYWEA. They are making a difference and improving our water environment. These improvements are necessary and, as NYWEA's past president Ron Delo reminded us, "we all live downstream."

—Keneck E. Skibinski

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