2014 Keynote Speaker Announced – Thomas W. Sigmund, Executive Director of NEW Water, on A Vision for the Water Resources Utility of the Future

The symposium committee is pleased to announce that Thomas W. Sigmund, P.E., Executive Director of NEW Water, will be our keynote speaker for the 2014 ISA water/wastewater symposium. He will be presenting his keynote address on Wednesday, August 6, 2014 at 8:15am.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

SigmundTA Vision for the Water Resources Utility of the Future

Thomas W. Sigmund, P.E.
Chair, NACWA Utility and Resource Management Committee
Executive Director, NEW Water
Green Bay, WI

 

The keynote introduces the Water Resources Utility of the Future (UOTF) and the role automation will play. The Water Resources Utility of the Future (UOTF) Task Force was created by NACWA, WEF and WERF in 2012 to bring together industry experts to identify opportunities and challenges faced by clean water agencies and to identify forward looking solutions, some of which are being implemented today. The UOTF will transform both the way traditional wastewater utilities view themselves and how they will manage their operations and relationships with their communities and contributions to local economies. The Blueprint presents a vision for the future of clean water agencies as well as a series of actions to deliver the vision.

Originally technical engineering entities, today’s utilities now embrace sophisticated management approaches and are transforming themselves into managers of valuable resources, partners in local economic development and a member of the watershed community seeking to deliver maximum environmental benefits at the least cost to society. This presentation will present a vision for these new utilities and explore how instrumentation and automation are key to delivering on that vision.

About the Speaker

Tom Sigmund is the Executive Director of NEW Water, the brand of the Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage District in Green Bay, WI, where he has been since 2007. NEW Water is a regional wastewater conveyance and treatment utility serving Northeast Wisconsin with 92 employees and an annual budget of $34 million. NEW Water expresses its attitude of viewing what is sent to its facilities as a resource to be recovered and a commitment to continued improvement of the watershed. Before coming to Green Bay, Mr. Sigmund was a Vice President with CH2M HILL where he was responsible for projects and clients in the upper Midwest.

Mr. Sigmund is a Professional Engineer in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio. He was the Chair of the Water Resources Utility of the Future Task Force and serves as one of the National Association of Clean Water Agency’s (NACWA) representatives to the Steering Committee. He was the lead of Volume III (Solids) of the 5th Edition of WEF Manual of Practice 8, Design of Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants. He was a member of the Utility Advisory Group for the development of Effective Utility Management, a Primer for Water and Wastewater Utilities developed by NACWA, Water Environment Federation (WEF), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), et. al. Additionally, he was a principal author of the WEF Guide to Managing Peak Wet Weather Flows in Municipal Wastewater Collection and Treatment Systems.  In 2013 he was the recipient of NACWA’s President’s Award. In 2007, he was the recipient of the WEF Schroepfer Innovative Facility Design Medal.

Mr. Sigmund has a MS and BS in Civil & Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.