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30 The Authority | February 2025 Michele Aukerman, Municipal Team Lead RETTEW Associates, Inc. I am one of the Municipal Team Leads for RETTEW Associates, Inc. I lead a team of about 15 engineers, project techs, and designers focused on supporting townships, boroughs, and municipal authorities. Over my 20+ years as a consulting engineer, I have personally specialized in drinking water, wastewater, and biosolids engineering. What emerging technology in water/wastewater treatment excites you the most? Addressing PFAS in biosolids is looming; we all see it. Landfills across the country are already closing their doors to biosolids. There is some interesting research coming out now on how we may be able to actually destroy the compounds (not just move them from one area to another). I am excited to be a part of those types of projects to solve this problem. While not specifically water/wastewater treatment related, I see a huge potential for water and wastewater facilities to also promote renewable energy, which can lead to significant cost savings in electricity and potential revenue generation. Whether it’s leveraging existing municipal-owned property for solar energy or generating renewable natural gas through anaerobic digestion of biosolids or the upgrading of landfill gas. I have witnessed first-hand how these decisions can have a positive financial impact on our clients. This water-energy nexus is a huge opportunity for Pennsylvania. How has the field changed since you started your career? There seem to be less of us! As a Team Leader, I deal daily with recruiting and retaining engineers. I haven’t dug into the statistics, but it feels like the field hasn’t replaced the engineers that have retired over the past 10 years or so. We need to encourage engineers entering the workforce to consider water/wastewater engineering. What skills do you think will be most important for future water/wastewater engineers? Self-growth and the ability and desire to learn new technologies. With coming regulations around PFAS, diversion of biosolids away from landfills, etc. and further developments in cyber security and artificial intelligence, there will be new treatment technologies and practices that will be required within our industry. Future water/wastewater engineers will be learning and developing those techniques at the beginning of their careers. There may be an element of self-teaching that will be necessary. It won’t be “this is how we have always done it”. They will be learning and designing these newer facilities and will probably need to teach the rest of us! Communication skills are a must for future water/wastewater engineers. In the last 4 – 5 years, we have seen an explosion in the remote work environment, which has its own challenges with communication. Smart phones, texting, etc. has also impacted the younger generation’s communication skills. What’s the most rewarding aspect of your job in terms of community impact? Many years ago, one of my physicians asked me about my career and when I explained that I am a water/wastewater engineer, she expressed that doctors often get the credit for improving Americans’ quality of life and life expectancy over the past 100 or so years. However, her opinion was it has been those in the water/wastewater profession who have made the biggest impact in people’s health, by providing safe, clean drinking water and wastewater management. That sentiment has stuck with me ever since. The work we do as water/wastewater engineers, Authority members, operators, etc. is critical to our community’s health. We too easily take for granted that when we turn on the tap in this country, the water is safe to drink. Erin Threet, Vice President of Services Herbert, Rowland & Grubic, Inc. In my new role, I’m responsible for ensuring HRG provides quality service to our clients in a consistent and timely manner. She does this by aligning technical standards across the organization and ensuring staff members have the tools, training, and support they need to excel in their roles. Prior to taking on this role, I was involved in both the project delivery and operations side of the business, having served as a designer, project manager, and office manager. I have experience Continued on page 48.