Early morning at Diamond Valley Lake - photo by Carolyn Schaffer
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ABOUT MET THIS WEEK
A weekly newsletter by and for Metropolitan employees
November 13, 2018
To those Metropolitan employees and board members who have lost their homes and pets, or have otherwise been affected by the wildfires, our hearts go out to you and your families.

Thanks also to the many Metropolitan employees and our colleagues at member agencies for their efforts to ensure vital water services during this crisis, including making operational changes so that impacted agencies could get more water at their service connections. Dave Pedersen, general manager of Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, shared  this video  taken in Calabasas last Friday as fire surrounded their facilities.
HQ Sesimic Work Update
Metropolitan is embarking on a major construction project at the Headquarters Building at Union Station.

Work begins this week as conference room US2-413 comes offline to be converted into a multi-use room. The contractor will be mobilizing onsite in December.

Over the next three years, voluntary seismic upgrades will be completed to improve the HQ building’s level of seismic performance and reduce the risk of significant damage and resulting business disruption due to a major earthquake.

The construction will also include other building improvements, such as security enhancements, upgrades to the kitchen, upgraded IT systems in the five-story wing, and restroom improvements on the 3rd and 4th floors in the tower.

The seismic upgrades are extensive and will impact the interior and exterior of every floor of the building as well as the parking garage.

The majority of construction work will be performed outside of business hours to minimize impact to staff. Sound and dust mitigation measures will be used.

A page on the IntraMet ("Services/HQ Facility/HQ Improvements") has current info and FAQs. Group m eetings are being scheduled for early December to provide the lastest overview of the project. For more info, email: HQImprovements@mwdh2o.
com .
Education Water Model
It’s hard to imagine that a 240+ mile system of pipelines, tunnels, pumps and treatment plants could be condensed into a three-table model small enough to be transported in a single truck. And that it would have a mountain, removable filtration samples and even a light that turns on to simulate hydropower. 

But Metropolitan’s Education Unit has just the model. It’s been around for nearly 20 years but recently underwent a refurbishment thanks to IT’s Ron Dominguez who has a specialty for 3-D modeling and Met’s shops at Weymouth in La Verne that did the upgrade work.

The small scale model travels the Southland, visiting students who want to learn more about Met’s vast infrastructure. 

Last week, Education Unit’s Brian Martz unveiled the model to a group of Met employees including Margie Wheeler , who had the original concept idea to emulate a model she had seen for Castaic Lake.

The model is divided into three tables that represent supply, treatment and distribution. Its parts are magnetized, allowing for its disassembly and reassembly according to a blueprint followed by the students. “My job is to put my hands behind my back and let them build it,” Brian said. 

There are two complete models – one at the DVL Visitor’s Center and one at Union Station HQ.
He's a Globe Trekker
By day, Tom Ryan is a low-key resource specialist, helping to manage Metropolitan’s Colorado River water supply. As the Lower Basin weather modification coordinator, he’s also in charge of cloud seeding which can add additional snowpack.
 
Outside of work, Tom flies through those clouds as a savvy international traveler. Since his 1990 visit to Nepal’s Annapurna base camp, Tom now has 67 countries under his belt. Whether it’s checking out Greenland snowmelt, the Patagonian pampas, or playing cards with the Tuktoyaktuk locals in Canada’s Northwest Territories, Tom notes the joy of traveling, “I enjoy the rhythm of life in a foreign land.”
 
He also enjoys the water resources of the places he visits. His interest, however, caused a stir when visiting Uzbekistan on a Russian flight. Hoping to see the Aral Sea in Central Asia, he was puzzled when his window seat was moved to an aisle. As he approached the water, the flight attendants came at him with dozens of muffins. And soon he was pinned under the seat tray by a pyramid of pastries. No official reason given, but apparently the Russians, who performed a background check in order to grant his visa, did not want Tom , an American water resource specialist, to photograph the Aral Sea, the shrinking of which has created one of the world’s largest sources of fine dust and is cited as an example of poor water resources managment.  
New hires, transfers, promotions & retirements are posted here each month.   
NEXT LIST: DECEMBER 3
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