Lessons learned from a pilot program that placed a new operator at several water/wastewater systems over the summer to assist with developing managerial capacity through asset management and emergency response planning.

1. Steve Wilson Illinois State Water Survey – University of Illinois Jennifer Wilson Illinois Water Resources Center – University of Illinois Funding through The Midwest Technology Assistance Center / USEPA An Internship Program to Develop Small System Sustainability

6. So We Had An Idea……. What if we develop an intern program to expose young operators to business/planning practices that seem to be missing for small systems? We talk about asset management and emergency response planning as being key responsibilities that systems need to practice, so why not focus on that?

8. And We Came Up With A Plan to Pilot Our Idea (cont)…. 4. Have the intern work with the communities to develop those tools, providing free labor to develop inventories, find costs, organize their information. 5. Evaluate the program and determine if it has potential as a future effort on a larger scale – benefits, drawbacks, changes needed, costs, community opinion, interns observations, what intern learned, etc .

44. Questions? Check out www.smallwatersupply.org later this fall for more information on this intern program under the Careers tab