Innovation Success Story: The Water Quality Portal
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As a team manager over quality assurance and data management in the Water Quality Section, and with work experience in IT and the lab, Win Gunadi had an idea to improve the lab’s information management system.
Utilizing staff expertise and in-house resources, she took the initiative to integrate water quality documents, reports, applications, and dashboards into a centralized online web portal. The water quality portal is an informational hub for Metropolitan’s water quality laboratory resources. Win hopes to use the portal and other technologies to pursue a paperless lab. Watch video
Win worked with Jermaine Prince in IT and data management staff, Serenity Madison-Waits, to design and implement the portal. She also worked with other colleagues to optimize its use including Miriam Ghabour, Chemistry Compliance Team Manager, who became a champion user of the portal.
“I came to Metropolitan five years ago and was immediately impressed with the new ideas that were created and implemented in the water quality lab. We’re always looking to use new resources to find better ways to complete our work,” explained Miriam.
So when Miriam joined last month’s Innovation Hour webinar and heard about the new communications campaign to highlight success stories, the water quality portal came to mind. She immediately submitted the story, which led to this article, video, and recognition for a job well done.
If you have a story about innovation, let us know by using the form on the Intramet Innovation page or emailing [email protected]. Your story may be featured here and inspire fellow employees. Just like Win’s.
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Work Kicks Off on Annual Achievement Report |
There’s a saying that August is the Sunday of summer - the last month before the seriousness of fall. But for a group of people in Water Resources Management and External Affairs, August marks a reunion of sorts.
It’s when a small team kicks off the start of their annual six-month trek towards the Annual Achievement Report in Water Conservation, Recycling and Groundwater Management, that must be filed with the state Legislature by February 1.
The report, first mandated by Senate Bill 60 (thus its long-standing abbreviation as the “SB60 Report”) has been submitted every year since 2001. It highlights accomplishments that have earned Metropolitan the distinction of being a leader in conservation and local resource development – and serves as a quick guide to statistics on water savings and investments in supply reliability.
“Metropolitan is used to imagining things we can’t imagine,” says Brad Coffey, WRM Group Manager. “Our Integrated Resources Plan process, now underway, evaluates drivers and challenges to make plans for the unexpected, like climate change and drought,” he said. “But this year brought even more remote unlikelihoods into being.”
A pivot from heavily promoting conservation to reassuring supply safety and granting consumers the okay to use more water for hand-washing and other sanitary procedures in light of the COVID-19 situation is just one of the discussion points in this report.
The content of the report will be guided this year by Demetri Polyzos and Carlos Carrillo with Carolyn Schaffer, Steve Hines, David Sumi and Debra Sass all taking on aspects of preparation which includes a public comment period to the board in December to get important input.
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It Was an Epic Journey Back to California |
In March, we brought you the story of Engineering Services’ Manju Nair and Human Resources’ Suresh Radhakrishnan who were in India, unable to return to California due to a strict COVID-19 lockdown.
Fast forward 145 days and they are finally home after a grueling 44-hour journey from Kerala, India to Southern California.
In the days leading up to their return, Suresh and Manju left Trivandrum, where they had spent the last five months with family, and traveled through torrential rains to get to his mother’s house in Vaikom.
On India’s Independence Day (Aug 15), they flew to New Delhi, with 4-hour advance check-in required for their next flight to allow time for COVID questionnaires, temperature checks and screenings.
But at the Delhi Immigration clearance center, authorities informed Suresh he had over-stayed his visa by 10 days and he must leave the airport, quarantine for 14 more days and pay a fine. Fortunately, Suresh was able to show proof of multiple prior flight cancellations and get his Exit Permit in time to board the plane.
The long Air India flight was bare bones - bags of prepped food, self-serve water and limited PPE gear – but there was great relief as the couple finally landed in San Francisco.
Of course, nothing about this adventure had been easy -- and that trend continued at the SFO rental car counter when the agent noticed Suresh’s driver’s license had expired a few days earlier on his birthday. But online renewal and an instant confirmation email from the DMV saved the day for the 7-hour drive from SFO to Agoura Hills.
The family is now quarantining for 14 days – but glad to be working from a home that’s only 36 miles from HQ, rather than 10,000 miles away and at normal work hours instead of staying awake until 3am IST.
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