CSM MCET Assistant Director Tara Jones Takes the Helm as Region’s Water and Waste Operators Association President
The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) announces that CSM’s Maryland Center for Environmental Training (MCET) Assistant Director Tara Jones was sworn in as president of the Water and Waste Operators Association (WWOA) of Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia. She served as the organization’s president-elect for the past 12 months until the ‘gavel’ was passed to her Sept. 9, 2020.
WWOA represents water, wastewater and biosolids professionals in the Chesapeake Bay region.
“WWOA’s primary mission is providing training opportunities for water and wastewater operators in Maryland, Delaware, and Washington D.C. and it is a privilege to be able to help contribute to something so important,” said Jones, of Avenue. “The water and wastewater operators in this area are some of the most dedicated and fantastic people I have ever met, and I look forward to serving them as WWOA president.”
MCET was established on the CSM’s La Plata Campus in 1982 to provide free technical assistance to small rural communities with their waste water treatment facilities, and train waste water treatment facility inspectors. Originally funded by the Environment Protection Agency, today the MCET is located at CSM’s Regional Hughesville Campus and is funded by a combination of state grants and statewide open enrollment.
MCET strives for excellence in environmental, safety and health training and compliance assistance through practical applications. Employers and employees who partner with MCET integrate regulatory compliance into their site-specific training and day-to-day activities. Combined with applications of best management practices geared to the actual performance of their duties, the participant’s learning experiences will focus on and relate to their working environment. MCET technical assistance program, funded by MDE, is available to qualified wastewater treatment plants. Learn more about MCET by visiting http://www.mcet.org/index.html.
About WWOA: WWOA is a non-profit organization whose objectives are: To further the knowledge of the planning, design, construction, operation, maintenance, and management of systems for water supply and distribution, collection and treatment of domestic and industrial wastewaters, and solid waste collection, disposal, recycling and utilization; to inform the public about those systems and the necessity for highly skilled operating personnel; and to promote the certification of operators in these facilities.