Photo: David Petkiewicz, cleveland.com
A Letter from the President and CEO of Entex Technologies, Wayne Flournoy:
Sometimes out of tragedy good things arise. This week in 1969 the Cuyahoga river caught on fire. No one knows for certain, but many believe the sparks from a rail car crossing the river was enough to ignite the oil and gas that covered the river. It happened periodically in the years prior to the 1969 river fire, but increasing awareness of damage being done to our environment created a sensitivity that helped trigger positive change. Out of this increased awareness came the Clean Water Act of 1972 that has transformed our nation’s waterways.
I started in the water and wastewater industry in the mid-1980’s when I would still occasionally hear the old mantra of “dilution is the solution to pollution”. In other words, if only you put pollution in a large enough body of water no one will notice (hopefully). The record of progress since then has been nothing short of remarkable. Today organic waste discharges have declined by 98 percent from industrial sources, and the population served by municipal wastewater plants almost doubled between 1968 and 1996, resulting in a nearly 45 percent decrease in organic pollution from those sources. Now almost 70 percent of our waterways are open for recreation. Clearly, we have work that still needs to be done, but I’m proud to have been a part in this transformation.
Since our founding here at Entex Technologies, we have contributed with almost 70 wastewater projects across North America for both municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities. Our technologies remove organic pollutants and the nutrients that starve rivers of oxygen, as well as removing detrimental solids. As an example, we have 8 projects in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, where the nutrient discharges from all wastewater plants to the Bay decreased by 31 percent between 1985 and 2010 despite a 5 million increase in population during that period.
We at Entex are part of a larger industry working to improve our environment. The Water Environment Federation (#WEF) today boasts 35,000 individual members and 75 affiliated Member Associations representing water quality professionals around the world. Together we are working to continue and expand on this progress.
When asked about what I do professionally, I often hear a response of how bad things are today. I respond to that comment by saying look at the remarkable progress we’ve made.
What about the Cuyahoga River? A 1985 study found a total of ten fish in the river. Today seventy species of fish enjoy the river along with the residents of Ohio. That progress gives me and our team at Entex the motivation to continue Engineering Clean Water Solutions.
Wayne Flournoy
President and CEO
Entex Technologies Inc.