Sherry Scaggiari is the Deputy Director of Utilities for the City of Brighton. Her chemistry degree afforded her a start in environmental laboratories first as an analyst, then as a supervisor. She then moved on to water and wastewater utility work and has over 19 years in that area. She gets to teach regularly through the RMWEA Operator Schools, CECTI Distribution and Collections School, internal programs and Action Now. Sherry is the current Chair for SPCURE, and participates in CWUC, LPC, and of course, RMWQAA.

Hello RMWQAA!

If you weren’t at this year’s Symposium you missed a great day of learning and fun! Once we all got checked in and ate our breakfast, we settled in for a couple of presentations. First up was a lab safety talk. It was a good reminder that we all get complacent with respect to safety and sometimes, we need to step back and reevaluate what we are doing and if it’s the best way to do it.

Microplastics have been in the news recently. Testing for them is not easy. Turns out, microplastics are everywhere! We learned 6PPD-Q (6PPD-quinone) is a highly toxic chemical formed when 6PPD—an antioxidant and preservative used in car tires—reacts with ozone in the air. As tires wear down, the residue washes off roads into streams during rainstorms. This is fatal to coho salmon and other aquatic wildlife in extremely small amounts. California has already taken measures to eliminate it from tires.

During the morning break, we went shopping. Or should I say gathering? We got lots of goodies from the various vendors and as an added benefit, learned about products available in our industry.  The vendors generously help us provide this Symposium at a reasonable cost and we appreciate their support. In fact, they also help support the gift card raffle that got us all back to our tables.

The next talk on HABs (harmful algal blooms) was structured in a unique way. First, we had some intro information via the normal PowerPoint but then we visited two different vendors who did live demonstrations on how to test for various algal concerns. Doing things hands on always helps us learn more.

We rounded out the morning with the annual business meeting. There are so many things happening with RMWQAA! If you want to know more, please visit the updated website. Speaking of new – we have a new logo. This logo is much easier to print. Speaking of printing, we all got hoodies with the new log on them! They are very nice and a great way to show off that we belong. I’m sure there will be more swag with this new logo. Do you know how many logos RMWQAA has had? If you do, you would have been good at the trivia contest where not only were gift cards awarded, but major bragging rights goes to Augustin Yu of Weld County, who won! And speaking of winning, The Analyst of the year goes to…Sydney Duval, Water Quality Scientist with the City of Loveland Utilities, who was nominated for her excellent contributions made during her short time working there.

We had lunch, had great conversations and generally caught up with each other. This is a favorite part of this Symposium for many people. This networking is extremely valuable. If you have a challenge in your lab, knowing there are others out there who can help is amazing.

Did you know your poop can talk? Well, lab speak anyway. The wastewater surveillance program that was started during Covid, is still going on. I remember during covid, we could see the trend lines going up and then sure enough, a few days later, the news would report cases were up. Now, things like measles are being tracked and the same holds true. Data doesn’t lie! Isn’t that just the coolest? The job you all are doing as analysts results in hard facts, no mushiness (not sure that’s a word, but you get it!).

Finally, even though our work results in hard facts that doesn’t mean it’s always easy getting there. We are after all, human. We had several people submit their stories for “my favorite lab mistake” and of course, we made a contest out of it. Our winner didn’t have egg on his face; it was much worse. But he keeps his mouth closed now! Thanks to everyone who submitted stories that may still haunt you and everyone else – I hope there was a lesson in those stories. One lesson everyone should have gotten, don’t be afraid to laugh at yourself, learn from your mistakes and move on!

What a day in beautiful Estes Park! Thanks to Adele and the speakers who made it a great day. I can’t wait until next year!