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On The Job with Water Programs

The Bulletin spoke with Ramzi J. Mahmood, director of the Office of Water Programs.

What do people think you do?
“People who don’t know us, their first impression is that we’re part of the Department of Water Resources. However, the operators around the nation know us very well, and they recognize the value of our training materials.”

What do you really do?
“We provide training to operators of water and wastewater treatment facilities in all 50 states and most provinces of Canada. We sell about 50,000 manuals a year. Our classes are correspondence courses and we enroll about 14,000 students. We have 10 online courses and are developing more. But we have traditional correspondence courses, meaning we send the test sheets to the students. We’re basically the leader in the nation for providing training to operators of water and wastewater treatment plants. Our biggest research project is with Caltrans for whom we investigate the best management practices for stormwater runoff.”

Describe your office.
“We have about 40 people who work in this office. We’re located in Room 1001 of Modoc Hall. When we started, we had two groups scattered in different places. We moved here in 2003. This office allows collaboration among the employees because all of us are in the same location.”

What surprises people?
“Our size. The first time people come in they can’t imagine we have this operation here. The training side is fully funded by selling manuals.”

What is your biggest challenge?
“On the training side, it’s to maintain our market leadership. On the research side, it’s the ability to continue to respond to the demand that is out there and to maintain our niche and our expertise. Caltrans likes research that provides things they can use quickly.”

What do you get asked the most?
“A lot of times the questions are centered towards the technical issues such as the training manuals.”