Sharing Facts about MWD Water Safety, Reliability
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The pictures of empty shelves in markets and lines of concerned Californians buying toilet paper, wipes and bottled water tell the story. And while a backup supply of water is recommended for some emergencies, water supplies are not a concern in the COVID-19 crisis.
“One thing I can assure the public is your drinking water is extremely healthy, safe and reliable,”
GM Jeffrey Kightlinger
said in a KNX radio interview last week.
The safety and reliability of Metropolitan’s water is a message the district has been sharing widely with the news media, social media, other agencies and the public.
A new series of informational resources was created in record time – including a
FAQs document
and other visual posts and graphics in English,
Spanish
and
Chinese.
Almost immediately, several MWD member agencies and other organizations asked to use this information for their customers. Messages explained that Metropolitan’s filtration and disinfection treatment process uses ozone and chlorine to remove and kill viruses, bacteria and other pathogens.
Metropolitan maintains an extensive system of reservoirs, water treatment plants and pipelines with multiple layers of redundancy to ensure continued deliveries.
Metropolitan is also taking steps to protect the health of employees working at treatment plants, laboratories and other facilities.
Thanks to Metropolitan’s outstanding employees, Southern Californians can be sure they will continue to receive safe, high-quality water during this crisis.
The library of all the new outreach resources can be accessed
here
.
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IT Team's Herculean Effort to Keep Us Connected
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The rapid changes over the past two weeks has presented some big challenges for Metropolitan’s IT group, but ones they have met with a combination of hard work, long hours and ingenuity.
“All systems are up and running,” says IT Group Manager
Charlie Eckstrom
, explaining how his team of 130 employees is working around the clock to allow more employees to work from home, expand options for teleconferencing, provide more network outlets to allow staff to social distance, and keep the IT network humming.
Getting additional laptops is a big challenge because of interruptions of the supply chain in the U.S and around the world. IT is in the process of redeploying about 90 existing laptops to staff. And while that may sound simple, setting up each one takes about four hours to build new profiles and add the necessary software.
IT has also been working on solutions to help make telecommuting more seamless including building new infrastructure, ensuring the system’s capacity for more users, and providing adequate security.
Charlie
expects some of these systems to become available to employees soon.
Other quick work has been done to expand the number of VPN (Virtual Private Network) licenses. This allows users to get to systems like WorkTech and Oracle even when they are away from the office. Work is also underway to set up more accounts with Zoom and GoToWebinar. And, as you can imagine, the Service Desk and I-Hub staff have also been extremely busy troubleshooting lots of issues.
“None of us could have imagined how quickly our IT needs have changed,”
Charlie
said. “But the IT team has really stepped up to find and fill gaps, helping Metropolitan make the transition in many ways."
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Embracing the New Normal for Work, Family
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No matter their work site or job classification, many Metropolitan employees have been quickly learning to do things differently in response to the COVID-19 virus.
After finding out that she would be telecommuting from home in San Pedro,
Jeannette Correa
didn’t know what to expect.
“I had heard about the pros and cons of telecommuting. But wow, I got a feel for it fast,” said
Jeannette
, a senior administrative analyst for the Administrative Services Business Management team.
She also had to figure out how to work while her two kids, 11-year-old Matthew and 6-year-old Ariana, are at home.
“They’re used to having that activity and structure at school,” she said.
She got ideas from teacher friends and a post on Facebook titled, “COVID-19 Daily Schedule,” a social media graphic which has been shared widely.
Jeannette
is following the schedule with some minor adjustments to fit her work schedule, like changing the morning walk to backyard playtime.
While her teammates are miles away, thanks to technology, the team is well connected – communicating through email, phone and Skype.
“We’re going through this whole situation together, not alone. We’re in it together, and that makes it very special,” says
Jeannette
.
More tips for telecommuting:
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