Environmental Finance Center Network

This podcast describes the use of water storage facilities and associated components to ensure a continuous, dependable, and clean supply of drinking water.

This episode describes the headworks and primary treatment process of a typical wastewater treatment plant. The discussion of the headworks focuses on the purpose, process, and components of coarse screenings, grit removal, and influent sampling processes. For primary treatment, the purpose, components, and operator duties are described for primary clarification.

This podcast describes the measures taken to address iron, manganese, and water hardness concerns in drinking water treatment.

This podcast describes the use of chlorine disinfection for drinking water treatment at Small Water Systems.

In this podcast, hear from the Syracuse University Environmental Finance Center's Director of Water Resiliency Initiatives, Khris Dodson, as he interviews Walt Walker, Water Equity Practice Leader and Associate at Greeley and Hansen. The two discuss the challenges of incorporating Diversity, Equity and Inclusion across all aspects of wastewater operations and drinking water operations, highlightin...

This podcast describes the common treatment issues and challenges faced when using surface water as a drinking water source.

Tune in for a discussion of how wildfires impact wastewater and drinking water systems. As climate change further exacerbates natural disasters, water and wastewater systems will be put at greater risk for service and infrastructure failure or malfunction. In this podcast, we will begin to understand why more frequent wildfires are occurring, and will then explore how they may impact your wastewat...

In this podcast Sarah Diefendorf, Director of EFC West, discusses water resources and drought in Imperial County, California with Alex Cardenas, Vice President of the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors representing Division 1 in Imperial County California.

This podcast describes what a sanitary survey is, its elements, and how conducting these surveys help protect the water supply from pollution sources.

Join us for the second podcast in a series exploring green infrastructure for small water, wastewater, and stormwater systems and utilities. Shannon Pepper, from the Southwest Environmental Finance Center, interviews Cameron Weber from Rio Grande Return, a nonprofit organization in New Mexico focused on ecological restoration of wetlands and watershed health. In this podcast we discuss and explore...

This podcast provides an overview of the Clean water act, the main provisions, history, and environmental benefits.

This podcast discusses the Effective Utility Management framework as a tool to improve management capacity from the perspective of an operator moving into management.

This podcast describes the function of groundwater wells and the importance of proper operation to protect the groundwater aquifer, an important source of drinking water.

In this podcast, we will be looking at energy efficiency for wastewater treatment. Energy used at treatment facilities is a large share of a plant’s operating costs. Assessing those costs and where to make improvements can provide long-term savings for utilities. Operators in New Hampshire are finding ways to drive energy costs down, with the help from the state government and incentive programs.

This podcast describes the various sources of water (i.e., groundwater, surface water, precipitation) that contribute to our drinking water.

This podcast describes the many roles and responsibilities of a Small Water System Operator.

Water from snow is a crucial resource for many communities. Unfortunately, climate change is causing snow resources to rapidly change. In this podcast, we discuss why water from snow is so important, how it's changing, and what this means for small systems. We touch on existing resources and new research aimed at helping communities monitor and plan their snow resources.

Today we will be discussing why emergency response planning is necessary and the three areas of emergency response that your utility can being to brainstorm to jump start your emergency response planning efforts.

This episode discusses the benefits of develop a green infrastructure initiative and key components in developing a program.

En este podcast en español, escuche una conversación entre Isabel McCullough Valentin, estudiante de la SUNY Colegio de Ciencias Ambientales y Forestales y la Dra. Kaira Fuentes, Gerente del Programa del Caribe en el Centro de Financiamiento Ambientales de la Universidad de Syracuse. La Dra. Fuentes comparte su experiencia trabajando con líderes comunitarios en Puerto Rico mientras construyen y ma...

In this podcast Sarah Diefendorf, Director of EFC West, and Jill Sherman Warne discuss the history of the Hoopa Tribe in California and their relationship with water.

GIS Tools for Small Water Systems

This episode provides examples in operations optimization including sewer cleaning and televising and data integrity and visualization.

This podcast discusses the new online Integrated Asset Management Framework which blends green assets into the existing gray asset management framework. The framework is for water, wastewater, and stormwater systems of any size that are interested in implementing asset management practices.  https://swefc.unm.edu/iamf/ https://swefcapps.unm.edu/gardb

Part 2 of this podcast on small water system governance and the ability to secure funding discusses environmental justice, BIL money, and strategies and recommendations for government officials and water managers to improve and navigate bureaucratic systems and access funding.