Dear Educators;

It was becoming evident in the 1990's, what with attrition and natural evolution, that the water and wastewater industries were fast becoming depleted of qualified operators, engineers, on-site personnel, regulators, and academic professionals.

An Ad-Hoc committee within the Iowa Water Pollution Control Association (IWPCA) was formed to pursue concepts and identify potential educational programs to encourage the youth of Iowa to pursue education and careers in environmental fields.

The IWPCA supports all of the efforts of the committee and the educational materials that the Water Environment Federation (WEF) has titled the Water Sourcebook, (a K-12 supplemental environmental/ecological curriculum.)

The Ad-Hoc Committee has met with the Iowa Department of Education and received encouragement and help to present this curriculum to Iowa science teachers for potential adoption to supplement on-going science curriculum in Iowa schools.

To that end, the IWPCA has developed a fund to make available copies of this curriculum for all interested school systems. The IWPCA has also agreed to fund teacher out of pocket consumable items used each year for teaching this curriculum. The IWPCA has also agreed to submit a list, to the participating school, of local water and wastewater professionals who would agree to help the teachers with this curriculum.  

The IWPCA has established a $1,000 revolving fund for this endeavor.   Please go to the web site (www.iawpca.org), click on the Water Sourcebook link under the Public Education Section on the left to request a CD copy of the Water Sourcebook and to find out more about this program.

Sincerely,

Iowa Water Pollution Control Association