MWEA Lab Practice Committee
Meeting Minutes
November 21, 2014
MWEA Office @ 10:00 a.m. (5815 E. Clark Rd. Suite G Bath, MI 48808)
Attending Members: Amy Vail, Angella Breitenbeck, Carol Injasoulian, Anita Friend, Tom Robinson,
Mary Lenardson (phone)
MWEA Leadership Retreat Recap
 Thoughts/Ideas from attendants
1. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) brainstorming activity
2. WEF update – changing the slogan
3. Goals for the LPC committee: member recruitment (John Chellman, Jackie Clayton, and
Tom Robinson all requested to be added to the distribution list)
4. Do we have any association with the WEF LPC? WEF has linked in profile, some
members have joined
 Strategic Plan Info
1. Ranked 4 directives in order of importance
2. Lots of variation in how the directives are ranked during brainstorming session
3. How does the LPC fit into the strategic plan? What can we improve and what do we do
well?
Committee Recruitment Update
 DJ created a spreadsheet with many facilities (location, population size, drive time to Cadillac,
drive time to Bath, drive time to Muskegon, contact info, notes, etc.)
 Amy will attach the spreadsheet to the minutes
 DJ will contact Trace to see if they are able to participate in the committee
 Amy contacted Kar to see if there is interest (extremely busy at the moment)
 We can push conference calling as on option for meetings when drives times are long
 Email blast from MWEA office for recruitment
 Can reach out to industrial participants (GM, petroleum companies, etc.)
Seminar Planning
 Seminar Date: April 29, 2014
 Agenda Topics/Speakers
1. Preferred Seminar Topics
1. Safety: GHS is your lab ready? - Heather Kubiak [Wyoming Safety Officer] agreed to be a
speaker)
2. Basic Lab Techniques (thermometry, balances, pipets, etc.) – Carol Injasoulian agreed to
give this presentation
3. Algal/Cyano Toxins - Wendy knows a woman that may be able to give this presentation
4. Jar Testing Procedures – Carol will see if she can find a speaker
5. Microscope Methods for Determining the Health of Biological Process – Amy will
contact Doug Hill (does a course on this) to see if he is willing to give a presentation (he
may also want to have a vendor booth to pass out information about his training course)
6. Asset Management – Amy to contact Sally, the chair of the Asset Management
Committee, for a possible speaker
7. Sampling Equipment and Procedures – Amy to talk to Kip about find a speaker at
HESCO
2. Alternate Seminar Topics
1. SOP writing: Angella can give a presentation if selected as a topic
2. Responding to Audit Deficiencies Effectively – Gregg Lundy possible speaker
3. Reduced volume methods – Possible speaker Hach
4. WWTPs are being forced to use a method that will get you down to the DEQ proposed
minimum reporting limit – DJ to help find a speaker
5. Infrastructure (DW, WW, SW) – Chris Kosmowski as speaker
6. IC Instrumentation
7. Changes to MDL Determinations
8. NELAC Certification
9. UCMR3
10. Managing a Laboratory
11. Emerging DW contaminants
 Review Checklist
1. Speaker gifts removed
2. Remove speaker time slots from flyer; keep seminar start and stop time
3. Check with Jerry about offering the educator/student rate when the seminar is closer
4. Check to see if we can still provide alternate gift options
5. Amy to Ask Karlyn to upload our seminar checklist to the website
 For future seminars we can put out a call for abstracts, may get topics we wouldn’t have
thought of
Future Meeting Topic Updates
 Storm Water (Angella to ask Chris if she can give us a small talk on storm water management)
 WEF Update (Amy will contact our WEF delegate)
 Pharmaceutical/PCP Update (Mary to contact someone at NSF to see if can give a small
presentation)
General Discussion
 Congratulations Anita Friend!
 Muskegon County Wastewater Management/Facility wins the Wildlife Habitat Council
Rookie of the Year Award. These programs, made possible by dedicated members,
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volunteers and partners, demonstrate excellence in the areas of wildlife habitat
enhancement and restoration, and conservation education. Award finalists show that
employing exemplary practices and approaches to protecting natural resources and
environment also promotes significant economic benefits.
Nest boxes for song birds project
Prairie restauration
DJ is promoted to Director of Muskegon WWTP, he isn’t able to attend meetings anymore (Tom
Robinson is going to replace him on the committee)
In Bay City the regulator was confused as to how the fecal coliform counts, DEQ method is not
the same as what is listed in SM.
Upcoming Meetings
 December 12 - Bath
 January 16 - Bath
 Feb 20 - Bath
 March 20 - Wyoming
 April 29 – East Lansing (Seminar)
 May 15 – GR or Muskegon