input from other parts of the City and Borough organizations.
Among the topics that Jay and his team of trainers cover are:
the importance of clean water
water quality and construction sites
key local policies and ordinances
state regulations
the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System: under the Clean Water Act, the NPDES Permit Program controls water pollution by regulating point sources that discharge pollutants into US waters
the erosion process
vegetation
site design considerations
installation and maintenance of BMPs (best management practices, or structural erosion and sediment controls)
creek crossings
converting temporary basins to permanent ponds
self-inspection and record-keeping
the Good, the Bad and the Ugly – a photo gallery of the whole gamut of environmental performance.
The class begins with Mecklenburg County’s Director of Water Quality introducing the first topic, the importance of clean water. He has a long family association with the area and emphasises the historical and contemporary importance of water to the County as a whole. Jay says this is a high-impact presentation that really awakens the attendees’ environmental conscience.
This step includes not only running the actual class, but doing all the necessary organization that enables it to occur. Major organizational tasks are:
finding and booking a space at the University, College or a local hotel that is big enough for the attendees and the vendors’ displays and that has access to the outdoors
organizing a caterer – a very important task, as we have also discovered in Auckland – people always comment on the food in our workshop evaluations – good food = good feedback!
preparing class booklets and handouts (usually detailed design specifications of BMPs), plus a bag of gifts including useful items such as a rain gauge, which is required on site (a simple transparency tube as recommended by Rebecca Kauten41 could also be useful)
advertising to fill the class, with marketing to trainees being done at pre-construction meetings, through vendors, via flyers handed out on sites by field staff and through existing outreach programs such as mail inserts in utility bills, a ‘fast fax’ to a database of land developers reminding them of the ordinance requirement to have someone attend the training, regular newsletter and the City’s website
advertising to fill the vendor spaces, usually by email.
City and County staff deliver the training, and while they all strongly support it, they are all busy people and Jay finds he has to spend some time making sure he has other trainers to help him deliver the training on the day.
This step includes all the administration that keeps the training program going.
The value of keeping good records really only became apparent over time, and Jay found that having some administrative assistance was essential, as the work is quite time-consuming.
An important administrative task is updating the registration database, including contact details of who registered for the class, who attended (if there was a last-minute substitute), who took the test, who passed it, who had to re-sit, and who received the certification of attendance, plus dates for the above.
This is important in that people who attend the classes must pass a test to gain a 2-year certification (more in this in Chapter 5). To pass, they must get at least 75% of the test answers right. Between 85% and 90% of people do this first time, and the others can re-sit the test later.
More and more needs and opportunities emerged over time for working with other parts of Jay’s organization and with related organizations and adjacent jurisdictions.
Examples include:
ensuring that contractors engaged by other municipal agencies to do works for which erosion and sediment controls will be needed, are sent to the training
liaising and coordinating with other agencies delivering similar training, such as the Department of Transport
ensuring permits issued by different agencies for the same project are consistent with each other.
Jay now believes these and other potential synergies are not only beneficial but essential for the survival of the training over the long haul.
Alongside these six steps, Jay has documented a number of challenges, rewards and issues.
Challenges include:
gaining and maintaining leadership support – this is essential for justifying investing the time and money needed to set up a training program. The active support of senior managers and elected representatives is vital to ensure adequate funding and staffing are available in the long term – training programs are long-term commitments
