Lorenzo Chatelain has been at his job in Woodbridge for nearly 10 years. It’s low-stress work, he said Thursday, but there is one drawback.
It’s the odor.
“Once you get over the smell, you’ll be okay,” Chatelain said.
Chatelain works for the Prince William County Service Authority at the H.L. Mooney Advanced Water Reclamation Facility in Woodbridge, and he was joking with a group of 32 Gar-Field High School students about the reality of toiling around wastewater.
Joking aside, the Service Authority, which provides drinking water and wastewater treatment to about 250,000 Prince William customers, is serious about its community relations. The authority is an independent public body — which means it’s funded by its customers, not by county tax revenue — and it tries to be an outlet for environmental and community education instead of just another utility sending out bills.
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For example, the visit Thursday by special-education students from Gar-Field included a tour of a water treatment plant, along with information about careers in the industry and what kinds of education those jobs require.
The students heard about positions including the hands-on work of Chatelain and jobs in laboratory science, human resources and customer service.
Anita Ervin, the Gar-Field vocational teacher who led the field trip, said she was particularly pleased to learn that the Service Authority offers internships to high school graduates.
The guide for Thursday’s events was Marlo Thomas Watson. She leads the Service Authority’s community relations efforts, trying to educate everyone from elementary students to adults on how their habits at home can affect the environment, and how they can save money on their utility bills.
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For adults, for instance, there are notes on the Service Authority’s website that warn of the dangers of frozen pipes and of pouring the fats, oils and grease from Thanksgiving dinner down the kitchen drain. (“Stuff the turkey, not your drain!”)
Elementary students can learn about the life cycle of water with a portable water/wastewater model the agency uses. This year, the Service Authority began using a two-day program called Sewer Science to reach high school classes.
Sewer Science, originally created for a water plant in Palo Alto, Calif., is designed to be conducted in classrooms, but students from Potomac High School participated in an abbreviated version at the Service Authority’s Environmental Center, which opened recently.
The students prepared simulated wastewater and used models of treatment processes in experiments to collect data that was then analyzed and evaluated.
Erica Smith Edwards, a teacher at Potomac, said her use of environmental science PowerPoint presentations “does not compare” to the hands-on experience her students had with the Service Authority.
Hunley is a freelance writer.
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