Industrial Water, Waste & Sewage Group

Since 1948…….

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Greetings IWWSG Members & Friends and Happy 75th Anniversary!!

REGISTRATION IS OPEN FOR OUR WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, EVENT with

THE INVERT CHICAGO 

To kick off IWWSG’s 75th Anniversary Year’s in-person dinner meeting season, The Invert Chicago will present on a unique futuristic topic with multiple environmental, industrial and sustainability impacts planned!  We will enjoy a fabulous dinner at the Clipper Room located in Hammond Indiana right on the Lake Michigan waterfront.

You will learn about:

• A subsurface real estate complex: two levels, 3M square feet, ~300 feet below ground
• Location suitable for multiple modes of transportation
• Transformation of a brownfield site
• Onsite solar & geothermal
• Access to healthy and stable jobs
• Ecological restoration
• Naturally energy efficient spaces: constant temperature & humidity year-round
• Sustainable development

Your Steering Committee is excited about this upcoming meeting, and we believe you will be too! 

Please see “save the date” at the end of this newsletter for additional upcoming meetings.

Regards,

Barb Scapardine

IWWSG 22-23 Chair

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS SENT OUT!

Thank you for your continued support!! If you have not received your invoice with at link to renew your membership, please contact us at membership@iwwsg.org.

IF you are not a current member but would like to join, we are ALWAYS thrilled to welcome new Members!!  To join, simply go to https://www.iwwsg.org/membership.php and follow the instructions.

We look forward to continuing to serve you as a Member, as we continuously work to improve our organization!

In case you missed it....On August 20, meeting #1 of IWWSG’s 75th Anniversary Year was a big success (Thank you to all the attendees!)!!  The unusual Saturday meeting at the new Ford Calumet Environmental Center at Big Marsh Park was well-attended, informative, enjoyable, and, well, FUN!!  The meeting was cosponsored by the Air & Waste Management Association – Lake Michigan States Section and the Chicago Chapter of the Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals and attended by Calumet Heritage Partnership members.  Yes, a little precipitation came down at times, and, for some reason, the Blue Angels were unable to grant our request for a flyover (Ha!!), but ….. exploring the marsh and bike park, enjoying a great box lunch, hearing an interesting presentation by Steve Bell, FCEC Director, checking out the Center’s exhibits, and actively networking with our fellow professionals made the meeting very worthwhile.

Meet One of Your IWWSG Steering Committee Members

Judy Freeman, Recording Secretary

For the past 24 years, I have been honored to serve as Special Projects Manager for Gabriel Environmental.  In this position I work with the breadth of Gabriel’s clients and service offerings to assess client’s needs and to guide them to their best solutions; drawing on Gabriel’s technical resources such as its NELAC-certified lab and the extraordinary professional experience of its management and staff to achieve successful and cost-effective outcomes.

How I got here is a path with many twists and turns.  I worked my way through school and took lots of jobs completely unrelated to environmental management.  I changed majors as I developed new interests:  biology, psychology, photography, journalism, all of which have supported my environmental management focus.  Motherhood and career demands delayed my education, but I finally got a bachelor’s degree and went on to study Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Chicago’s School of Public Health.

Much of my education in the field has been experiential, and I have always challenged my knowledge by writing and publishing in organizational newsletters such as the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) Environmental Practice Specialty newsletter the “Environmentor”, and others.  I authored two peer-reviewed chapters on Water & Wastewater and RCRA for the Safety Professionals Handbook published by ASSP, and co-authored Guidelines for Safe Warehousing of Chemicals for the Center for Chemical Process Safety of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.  I also garnered two Peter Lisagor Journalism Award nominations for investigating and reporting on Maryland Manor, a community along the Calumet River in southeast Chicago which drew its drinking water from contaminated wells.

In my first professional position in the field, I inspected health and safety risks in thousands of Chicago-area businesses, a great opportunity for me to get an inside view of how industries of all types operate.

My professional interests led me to focus on sustainable economic development: working with industry to help them come into compliance with environmental regulations; addressing legacy site contamination in preparation for development; and developing sustainable enterprises such as recycling, composting, waste to energy and anaerobic digestion (particularly as it relates to Renewable Natural Gas).  This later influenced the start-up of Green SEED Energy, a catalyst for sustainable economic development.

I am grateful for the opportunity to work in a field that seeks to improve Environmental Health and Safety conditions for my community and my fellow citizens, both those living and those yet to be born.  I am honored to be part of the steering committee of IWWSG, an organization that recognizes the importance of continuing education in serving as an effective participant in this professional community.

22-’23 IWWSG Meeting Dates, more information to come....

Wednesday, October 19, 2022 [USEPA - Greektown]

Wednesday, November 18, 2022 [MWRD Update - Downtown]

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Wednesday, February 15, 2023 [Joint IWWSG/IWEA Meeting]

Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Wednesday, May 17, 2023