The Water Quality Association (WQA) has responded to a new study on toxic chemicals, providing fact sheets and resources regarding contaminants and regulation. For full details, click here.
The 2017 WQA Mid-Year Leadership Conference is fast approaching. To register, please visit the conference website or download the registration form. To book your hotel room, call (800) 542-6096 and tell the reservation agent your part of the Water Quality Association room block. Questions? Contact Events Director Nancy Henkel at [email protected] or (630) 929-2511. We look forward to welcoming you to San Diego!
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton recently signed bill SF 1937 into law, which allows commercial installations by water conditioning contractors, beginning August 1 of this year. The language of the Water Conditioning Bill was rolled into SF 1937–The Omnibus Jobs, Commerce, Energy, Labor and Industry, and Employment and Economic Development Appropriations Bill. The terms have been in negotiation for years with the Department of Labor and Industry, the Pipe Trades Association and the Minnesota Mechanical Contractors Association. The full language of the bill clarifies and improves a number of issues in statutes regarding water conditioning contractors:
- Installations can be performed in commercial settings when a by-pass has been installed by a plumber and piping is two inches or less.
- New employees can work on installations after signing with DLI as “registered unlicensed individuals.” This allows them to get experience and puts them on the way to a Journeymen’s License.
- Clarifies the supervision needed for these new employees
The bill will also be presented and discussed at the Minnesota Water Quality Association (MWQA) Annual Meeting & Conference in October. Dealers are encouraged to know the limitations and the allowances of the new statutes, so that they may operate within the law and educate employees, customers and building officials.
WQA has joined the Water Equipment & Policy Research Center (WEP) in order to promote advancement of the POU/POE drinking water treatment industry. The WEP research center, located in Milwaukee, WI, operates under the auspices of the National Science Foundation Industry/University Collaborative Research Centers (I/UCRC) program. Two university laboratories involved in WEP (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University) are located next to each other in the Global Water Center building, which allows them to share equipment and extend their capital investment budget. Also co-located within the Global Water Center building is The Water Council, which operates several programs that benefit start-ups that come out of the WEP program.
All of WEP’s research is aimed to benefit the water treatment industry, with a strategic focus on POU/POE technologies. Research projects are selected by industry members. While WQA will not participate in projects once they reach the prototype stage, industry members can join the research center and participate in projects all the way through the patent stage, and will then be able to benefit with royalty-free access to the intellectual property.
As part of the partnership, WQA will be granted a seat on the WEP Industry Advisory Board to help guide research dollars toward projects that address the needs of our industry. WEP will provide periodic updates to keep WQA members aware of new technology advancements and will have a presence at WQA Conventions.