Newsletter - Spring
2001
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Chairman's
Report - Spring 2001
Our Executive Meeting was
held on February 14, 2001, at the Toronto Boulevard Club on Lakeshore Blvd., compliments
of Erv McIntyre. Attending were Chairman - Jim Brooker, Secretary/Treasurer - Erv
McIntyre, George Crawford, and Tom Davey. Absent were Earl Baldock who was unable to
attend, and Terry Matthews who was out of the country on business.
One item of discussion was
the nominees for induction into the 5S for 2001; it was decided to notify all the 5S
members of the names of those nominated via our newsletter. These names seldom seem to be
kept a tight secret so we felt it best to at least notify our present members at this
time.
For induction at the 2001
5S Society annual meeting:
Bill DeAngelis
Dan Ionescu
Eldon Wallis
As decided last year, these
names will be announced at the annual WEAO business luncheon in April.
Our annual June meeting
will, again, be held at the Boulevard Club on Lakeshore Blvd. The date will be in early
June and every effort will be made to ensure that it does not conflict with the OPCEA golf
tournament date of June 6, 2001. We are trying for the 5th or the 7th of June. My covering
letter will advise you of the complete details.
In the interest of our
financial situation we have agreed to change over to a cash bar prior to the annual
luncheon. Wine will be served during the lunch and we will look for a sponsor for excess
costs prior to each annual meeting. This should reduce our overage considerably and we
expect only one sponsor will be necessary.
We do have one other major
change, as you will note within this newsletter. During the past our group has been
extremely fortunate to have either Sid Dutton, or Peter Laughton as our chairman, and the
newsletters came out with colour photos and letterhead. I believe this was provided with
the compliments of Peter and R.V. Anderson & Associates. We all owe them a vote of
thanks as this type of printing is quite expensive and outside of our budget as........we
have no budget. With the help of Steve and Tom Davey, we have managed to get the
newsletter printed, but in black and white. This service is being provided, for the time
being, by Environmental Science and Engineering. Our heartfelt thanks to you for
this service.
At last year's luncheon,
Peter introduced the 5S Web Site. Now we need someone to volunteer to get this set up and
to make it useful to our membership. If there is someone out there interested in doing
this, please let us know. Tom Davey pointed out at our executive meeting that our Web Site
could become our future means of communication, and the source of future newsletters,
colour and all.
WELL!!!!! We have a new
Chairman for the 5S Executive Committee - and he requires your help.
So far I have been
fortunate enough to obtain a few articles for this year's newsletter, including members'
travels and a personal history. I will need additional articles for the future
newsletters. Please give this some thought.
On behalf of myself, our
executive, and all the 5S members, I wish to express our sincere thanks and appreciation
to Peter Laughton for his many years acting as our chairman and editor. He has always made
sure that the newsletters reflected the members' activities. With everyone's help and
co-operation I hope that we can continue with the high standard of reporting set by both
Peter and his predecessor, the late Sid Dutton.
We all look forward to our
Annual Meeting in June.
Jim Brooker
Peter
passes gavel
In June of last year, after
over seven years as your Chairman, I passed the gavel, so to speak, to Jim Brooker. These
years have been very rewarding and I would just like to pass on a few "thanks".
Special thanks to all
members of the Executive Committee that have given freely of their time and thoughts and
to all members for their support and contributions. I especially enjoyed working as editor
of the annual newsletter and including the member profiles. The success of the newsletter
is due, in large part, to the many efforts of Tom Davey.
Jim Brooker has
enthusiastically embarked on his new role and we all look forward to his tenure as our
Chairman.
Once again, many thanks for
your past support.
Peter Laughton
The Life
and Times of Doug McTavish
I was born at the First Aid
Post in Apsley, Ontario, on April 26, 1937. That year, my parents moved to the Mount
Forest area where they purchased a farm. My father and grandfather had a sawmill and
lumbering business near Apsley which they sold in 1937 and brought lumber to Mount Forest
to build a barn.
I attended a one-room rural
public school with all eight grades in one room with one teacher. The school had no
electricity, no indoor toilets and was heated with a woodburning stove. The older students
would help with some of the teaching for the younger students and this helped in learning
to work with others. I never felt the public school education was in any way inferior to
that provided in larger schools. In fact, it is interesting to find the current private
schools that are becoming very popular, in many ways are similar to the old one-room
school - except you, the parent, pay for the education provided.
While in public school, my
younger brother and I had the contract as school custodians ($20 per month for the two of
us). In winter, we had to go early to get the woodstove started and the school heated. At
evening, we swept the floor and cleaned the blackboard. In the winter, with snow on the
ground, we were able to ride a work horse to school and send it home. It would not get fed
until it got home. Unfortunately it would not come for us at night.
In 1950, when I started
high school in Mount Forest (about 10 miles away), a school bus service was also provided.
Prior to that, the students from out of town would have to board in town and this was
often too costly for some.
I took Civil Engineering at
the University of Toronto, graduating in 1959. The Ontario Water Resources Commission had
been formed only a few years earlier and was expanding rapidly. Dr. Berry, General
Manager, insisted that engineering graduates take a Masters Degree in Sanitary Engineering
to work for the OWRC and the course was subsidized. I was in that area of the OWRC that
financed, built and operated water and sewage works for municipalities; I became Director
of the Operations Branch in 1967.
There was a need for the
province to provide these facilities. Construction during the war period had been at a
virtual standstill, a population boom was occurring and municipalities lacked experience
in this field. This was a great time! The OWRC attracted many young, ambitious engineers
and this, coupled with similar growth in the consulting and equipment supply field, led to
unprecedented advances and made Ontario the envy of many other jurisdictions which had not
taken the same approach to meet the shortfall in water and sewage facilities.
In 1972, the OWRC became
part of the new Ministry of the Environment. I became Regional Director for the
Southwestern Region and was relocated to London in 1974. This, too, was an active period
with priorities quickly changing to toxic waste concerns and garbage. Like other Regions,
we had to deal with clean-ups such as the St. Clair River "Blob", controversial
landfill sites, and proposals for deep well disposal of industrial wastes. All of these
activities were subjected to public scrutiny and the involvement of environmental groups,
accompanied by considerable media attention. In contrast, water and sewage facilities
faded almost into oblivion in the media and in the public domain.
I left the Ministry of the
Environment in 1993 to join the International Joint Commission. The IJC was formed in 1909
under the Boundaries Water Treaty between Canada and the US. It dealt with disputes over
dams and diversions of water along the border, many of which were quite controversial.
In 1972, Canada and the US
signed the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement and requested the IJC to monitor the
progress of clean-up and provide advice on how it could be improved. The Agreement also
established the Great Lakes Regional Office, with a staff made up of US and Canadian
employees. The Director of the office was to serve a four year term and be replaced by
someone from the other country. I was Director from 1993 until December 1998.
The IJC initiated the
phosphorus reduction program to protect and restore Lake Erie. It is active in promoting
programs to lessen or eliminate the discharge of persistent toxics into the Great Lakes
and has been a world leader in this endeavour. International visitors came to our offices
with the desire of seeing something like the IJC established to deal with lakes they
shared with other countries. The IJC developed many of its programs through Boards made up
of some of the top scientists in North America and it was a real education to meet with
them and participate in their discussions.
One other aspect of my
working life was professional associations. I encourage all to become involved. The WEF,
AWWA, CWWA and the Pollution Control Association of Ontario (now the Water Environment
Association of Ontario) were organizations where you made valuable contacts, learned from
the experiences of others and were able to keep technically abreast in your field. You
also had a good time! All of the employers I worked for supported involvement in
professional associations and I greatly appreciated that interest.
This is a great field to
work in and I cannot think of many areas that offer a better career than it does. I think
it will continue to be a needed service to our community, country and the world.
Doug McTavish
Vacation
memoirs of Juquehy Beach, Brazil
If I have a spare weekend
during business travel, I prefer to search for places that offer peace, quiet and
solitude. A place that gives me a chance to re-energize or unwind, plus explore the
culture of a foreign country, is a bonus to my business travel plan.
This can be a difficult
venture when visiting a city as large as SÄo Paulo, Brazil, simply because most of the 20
million residents have the same goal: to escape the confines of a large city during
weekends. SÄo Paulo's summer sweltering heat and humidity produces a mass exodus of
people searching for relief from the elements.
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| Juquehy Beach at Sunrise. |
Juquehy Beach view from the deck. |
The
Brazilian Atlantic coast has some of the world's finest beaches. It is about a three or
four hour drive southeast from SÄo Paulo's city core, making the dream of a weekend
summer getaway a physical reality.
While doing business in
SÄo Paulo, I have had the pleasure to meet several SÄo Paulo residents who have shown
Brazilian hospitality that is second to none. One of the areas they took me to during one
of my extended weekend stays was the small beach village of Juquehy. It is located a few
hundred kilometres from Rio and is about halfway between Guaruja and Ilha Bela on the
Brazilian Atlantic coast.
It is easily accessible
from SÄo Paulo by driving the scenic Rio-Santos highway.
Juquehy is a small village
of small condominium complexes that is blessed with one of the most scenic beaches in the
region and provides much solitude. With the only sound being the rhythmic roaring of the
surf crashing on the shore, rest and relaxation is guaranteed.
Occasionally, local surfers
will appear and disappear in the wake of a wave - a scene that represents the true coastal
Brazilian culture. The place is perfect for businessmen from SÄo Paulo who need to
re-energize.
While in Juquehy, you may
also see sport fishermen wading knee-deep, casting into the surf to catch a prized Dorado
or other saltwater fish the region is noted for. Because of my passion for fishing, I plan
to bring my fly rod on my next trip here to explore this world of saltwater fly fishing.
A place to stay that is
popular with international visitors is the Juquehy Praia Hotel, which is on the beach in
the centre of the bay. It is a beach establishment with all of the amenities one would
expect from a top-of-the-line hotel resort.
 |
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| Enjoying Caipirinha and the surf. |
View from the deck. Photos -
L.J. Yust |
Whether you
are relaxing on the beach, having a swim in the newly constructed olympic-size freshwater
pool, or viewing the ocean surf from the hotel deck under palm trees, the efficient hotel
staff is quick to serve you a Caipirinha. It is Brazil's national drink and is made with
mulled lime, sugar, ice, and "cachaÀa", a distilled alcohol made from sugar
cane.
Juquehy beach provides the
ideal quiet getaway from the world's second-largest city. It's an attractive destination
for so many Canadians doing business in this part of Brazil.
Hotel rates are
surprisingly reasonable during the March break. This is considered the off-season vacation
period after February Carnival celebrations.
Leonard Yust
The 2000
5-S Club Meeting at the Boulevard Club, June 6, 2000
What a
2000! - This Shoveller really digs the south
At the risk of sounding
like a cliché, the new millennium has brought a lot of changes to our lives since the
'end of year' message last year.
Peter and Kari gave us our
first granddaughter, Katie, last April. Wayne and Chantale decided to tie the knot on
22/11/00. I believe they just couldn't let such a date go by unused. Now we have sold off
everything and moved permanently to a little village in the mountains in Mexico. Many of
you have already asked: "How did this happen and why?"
But first we are ecstatic
about our new life. The village is in an unbelievable micro-climate at an altitude of
about 6.000 ft. It doesn't get hot enough for a/c and never gets cold enough for a heater.
It rains at night between June and late November. The sun shines every day and there is no
humidity.
It all started when we saw
an ad in the Globe and Mail in June '99. It was under the "Ws" for "World's
best climate". We were interested in our usual trek southward, searching for the sun,
so we rented this villa in the ad for January, February and March 2000. We approached this
venture with a little trepidation after hearing various horror stories of banditos, bad
water and food and no health care in Mexico. We figured if we didn't like it we could
always go somewhere else, so we had a couple of backup plans. Needless to say, all our
fears were dispelled in a few days and in the next three months we took out immigration
papers, bought a house and a car, thus the start of yet another Norman adventure.
We returned to Canada and
set about selling off everything. We left Burlington in mid-August and started renovations
on our Mexico house by September 1st, replacing plumbing and electrical equipment,
installed new water purification and pressure, and added a room for more sleeping
accommodation.
Our dog, Scamper has fit in
well and has several neighbourhood buddies, apparently with no language problems. Our
neighbours are all Mexican. A few of the men speak some English, but the women and
children speak only Spanish. They are all very patient to help correct our stumbling
Spanish.
We have enjoyed several
invitations into our neighbours' homes to participate in traditional festivities, food,
drink, and customs. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve were especially moving and memorable.
There is also an
international community in the area of about 8,000 or 10,000, maybe about 4,000 of them
from Canada, so lots to do and many friends, old and new.
Sister Bev was our first
house guest,for a week in early December. We picked her up at the airport in Manzanillo,
on the Pacific coast, which is a bit more than a three hour drive from here. It was the
first time we got away to start exploring the countryside, but we're hoping to do a lot
more in the future.
Keith and Sue Taylor spent
a few wonderful days with us last week then continued to Puerta Vallarta to meet relatives
and friends. We hope more of you will work us into your vacation plans. We are a half hour
from Guadalahara International Airport and three to five hours drive from Pacific beach
resorts.
Our mailing address is:
APDO Pos. 747, Chapala, Jalisco, C.P.45900 MEXICO. Our phone from Canada or the US is:
011-523-766-0833.
Courier comes to the door:
Ramon Corona 146B, San Antonio Tlayacapan, Jalisco 45915, MEXICO. Our E-mail is:
jacknval@laguna.com.mx.
Love Jack, Val, and
Scamper, of course.
Jack Norman
WEAO is set
to host its 30th Annual Conference
Note: The 31st Annual
Conference (2002)- will be held in Hamilton, April 21-23 2002
Follow this link for details
The 30th Annual WEAO
Conference is just around the corner. There is no significance that the first day of the
conference is on April Fool's Day, only if you miss out and don't attend a great
conference.
With everyone's busy
schedule this year, planning of this year's event has been somewhat hectic. I am writing
this article as acting chair of the conference committee. Heinz Held, your 2001 Conference
Chair, had to take a little R&R just before Christmas and he is just getting back into
the swing of things. For now, I am following up on all the great initiatives that Heinz
has put into place to make this year's conference one that you don't want to miss.
This year's Awards Luncheon
will feature the WEF past president, Al Goodman, who will provide us with some insight
into his perspective of the wastewater industry. Just before the Ontario Cabinet shuffle,
the Minister of the Environment had agreed to attend the conference. We hope that the new
Minister, the Honourable Elizabeth Witmer, will be able to attend the Awards Luncheon.
Justyna Kempa-Teper, this
year's technical program chair, along with the seminar committee, has put together a great
technical symposium. It has been difficult with the busy schedule of all the speakers but
the hard work of all the session chairs has resulted in a great program.
At last check of the OPCEA
trade show, booth space was being sold at a faster pace than last year.
One of the events that was
tried last year to test the skills and knowledge of contestants was the Totally Wasted
Game Show. By popular demand, the game show is back and it is making its Toronto
debut.
If you are traveling with a
companion, make sure you sign them up for the Guest Program. Some very knowledgeable and
highly skilled organizers put this year's program together. They have also scheduled
events at the special request of some of last year's participants. I have it on good
authority that the program will delight your guest and have something for everyone.
Mark your calendars now
that you will be attending the WEAO Conference from April 1 to 3. Complete and send in the
conference registration form so that you won't miss out on all the activities.
If you still need forms,
download from our web site at: www.weao.org, or contact Francesca Davino, Tel: (905)
726-1300, Fax: (905) 726-2300.
David Hein, UMA Group,
Acting 2001 Conference Chair
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