It’s been a busy few months, so I imagine we’re all glad that spring has sprung.
I had a chance to attend a number of interesting events over the winter, DistribuTECH in San Diego; WEF’s Disinfection 2005 Conference and AWWA’s Membrane Technology Conference, both in Phoenix; and the Hydraulic Institute (HI) Annual Conference in Tucson, Ariz. You’ll read how HI’s Pump Systems Matter™ program is gaining momentum in this issue. Others on our staff attended PittCon in Orlando and the EnviroTech Expo & Conference (part of National Manufacturing Week 2005 at Chicago’s McCormick Place). We’re definitely taking you places.
Some sub-themes at a couple of these events were steel prices, the dollar’s value, pace of regulation, low-bid contracts, and worry over an aging workforce and how to retain the knowledge base that will begin to slip away as Baby Boomers begin retiring in earnest in a few years. The last topic, as it relates to the electric power industry, was the subject of a recent NPR report. The radio program noted, for example, that half the nation’s electrical line workers are scheduled to retire over the next five years. About 200,000 people will need to be replaced overall. That’s a big brain drain.
Another hot topic was security, particularly as it relates to a January report from the EPA inspector general regarding vulnerabilities of SCADA control systems to cyber attack. Security was the theme of one of two new quarterly e-newsletters the PennWell Water Group launched in the New Year. In addition to being editor of Industrial WaterWorld, I’m also the web content editor for the group, which includes WaterWorld and Water & Wastewater International magazines.
The first, emailed Jan. 25, is called Pump Systems & Innovations (PSI) and covers pumps, motors and drive systems. The other Water Security & Instrumentation (WS&I), which covers monitors, meters, controls and analytical systems, launched March 29.
Pump industry veteran and HI technical consultant Jack Doolin is the Pump Talk columnist for PSI. He retired from the Dresser Pump Division, formerly Worthington Pumps, after 42 years. He also was active with the ANSI B73 Committee on Centrifugal Pumps for Chemical Process, helping make that standard compatible with ISO pump standards.
The WS&I column, Security Talk, hosts rotating authors. The first is Irv Pikus, a career civil servant who worked in executive positions with the U.S. State Department, National Science Foundation and Commerce Department. He was a member of the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, served on a post-9/11 Water Security Monitoring Panel at the AWWA Water Quality Technical Conference in November 2001, and is currently a University of Virginia visiting professor of systems engineering.
The next pump e-newsletter will be out at the end of April. The next security one comes out at the end of June. These are in addition to our semi-monthly general water and wastewater industry newsletters. You can subscribe to any of the PennWell Water Group newsletters or publications by clicking on “Subscribe” at the top of our homepage: www.industrialww.com.
Lastly, I’d like you to know Industrial WaterWorld recently received its very first BPA audit statement giving it a total qualified circulation of 30,005. Our market strengths: Utilities, Chemicals, Paper, Engineering Consultants, Manufacturers, Beverages, Food Processing, Petroleum, Metal Processing and Wastewater. We intend to deepen and broaden the focus of the magazine in these areas and others in the coming year. We look forward to building on a good thing with you.
Carolos David Mogollón, Managing Editor
