Progress, Tradition, and Change

Andy Bowman, MRWA Marketing Coordinator

Birthdays, and the way we look at them, are a terrific analogy of the way we all look at progress. For instance, in 2021, I turned the Big “50”! A milestone for sure, but other than a half century behind me, it was just another day. Go back 40 years, and the 10-year-old me would have a lot to say about turning 10. I was now 2-digits old and…it was a milestone! Truth is, I don’t remember what happened when I turned 10, and it doesn’t really matter. We’ll say that I’ve experienced 40 years of progress, during which time, tradition would have me celebrating yearly with festivities big and small, up through my 40th year, where that tradition no longer appealed to me. I progressed to a position of change. I didn’t stop getting older, but I no longer held on to the tradition of “celebrating” the day I was born.

Like our birthdays, our work experiences, and all tasks that fill our days, experience progress. The word progress can be used as a noun, a forward or onward movement toward a destination. It can also be used as a verb; to move forward or onward in space or time. So, in our careers, we all progress (v) to make progress (n) toward retirement.

Now, for the sake of this article, the references I’m going to use will vary in history. Let’s go…

Water and wastewater specialists experience progress through a variety of ways and so many of those progressions intermingle. Let’s jump back to my old system’s distribution mains as an example for water.

The small system I once worked used mostly 4” cast iron bell-joint mains, courtesy of the out-of-service copper mines which they served in the early 20th century. When first installed in the 1960’s as distribution mains, if a leak would occur at a joint, the maintenance was easy; dig it up, grab some lead oakum, and poke away until the leak was no more. Progress, in the form of regulations which protect us from poisoning ourselves occurred and you can no longer (by law) fix that in the same manner. That progress in regulation sparked progress in innovation; my old system welcomed the bell-joint repair clamp. The lead oakum method seemed quicker and easier, but with a little practice and the progression of time, the belljoint repair clamp proved to be a better long-term solution. And, as the system grew and progressed toward PVC mains, the practice came in handy when later fixing those same type of leaks on PVC mains. Progress required the tradition of leak repair to change.

For wastewater, let’s use video inspection as the example. Prior to 1963, wastewater CCTV inspection did not exist. So, unless the pipe was large enough to walk through, or crawl through (YUCK), repairs were done in a rip-and-replace fashion. You know, where you have an issue on a line, so you dig the thing up and install new? Granted, in its beginning, CCTV was only capable of being pulled through 8” or greater lines and offered up a whopping 325 lines of black-and-white resolution (a far cry from the 2160 lines of 4K UHD of our home tv’s.) We should also mention that this technology wasn’t introduced to rural America until much later.

Lots of progress had to occur for that technology to be cost-effective for us rural folks. Additionally, the trenchless repair and rehab innovations that have flourished from the progress of CCTV have saved a King’s Ransom in rip-and-replace repairs. The high cost of tradition welcomed progress to change.

(continued from page 35) In summary, Missouri Rural Water Association is proud of the heritage and tradition “Rural Water” holds. As the MRWA mission statement reads –

“Our mission is to be the leading source of professional services, support, and representation for Missouri water and wastewater utilities.”

Change for the sake of change alone is not progress. Progress is something all of us should accept and embrace. Remember, progress is forward or onward movement toward a destination, or moving forward or onward in space or time. Without progress, we might be dead.

This year, MRWA will be launching a new website. Our hope is that the new site will be more user-friendly and allow visitors to use their smartphone more easily to find class and conference information, along with all that MRWA has to offer. We wish everyone a Happy 2022!

Included as an addendum to this article are a couple reprints from archived issues of Missouri WaterLines. The first is from Fall 1982 written by past MRWA Board President Dell Cornell. Though its message is nearly 40 years old, it still falls true for today. The second is the back cover of the Summer 1986 issue. Although the content may be relevant, today offers so many available sources for that information. One could cut and laminate it as a card, but most would get that information from a computer, smartphone, or simply by saying Hey, Siri , Alexa, or Hey, Google!