The Maryland Center for Environmental Training (MCET) Lead Technical Assistance Provider Lenny Gold recently earned the Water and Waste Operators Association’s Stanley Kappe Training Award. The award, presented during the Chesapeake Tri-Association Conference, is given yearly to a person who provides extraordinary and outstanding service that leads to significant advancement of public awareness to the betterment of the environment.
Gold, of Easton, was nominated for the award by College of Southern Maryland (CSM) MCET Executive Director Karen Brandt for his giving of “immeasurable time, energies and resources to provide educational and vocational training to environmental systems professionals.”
“I was very surprised to earn this award,” said Gold, who attended the conference as a presenter. It was the second time Gold received the award named in posthumous honor for his professional colleague, Stanley E. Kappe, who was considered an expert in the water treatment and environment industry.
Brandt called Gold “the backbone of the technical assistance program” at MCET, adding that Gold is well-known around the state and like Kappe, is considered a leader in the field.
Gold has been associated with MCET since 1983 when MCET was established on the CSM’s La Plata Campus to provide free technical assistance to small rural communities with their waste water treatment facilities, and train waste water treatment facility inspectors. Originally funded by the Environment Protection Agency, today the MCET is located at CSM’s Regional Hughesville Campus and is funded by a combination of state grants and statewide open enrollment.
“Lenny has always gone above and beyond in helping municipalities with technical upgrades; even helping them obtain additional funding after an upgrade was completed,” wrote Brandt, in her nomination of Gold for the award. “His approach to technical assistance is what MCET calls ‘over the shoulder’ vocational onsite training, where he works with a municipality to provide technical assistance to resolve a problem while working one-on-one with their operators.
“Working this way, the operator receives facility-specific training to handle similar problems in the future and troubleshoot other issues that may arise,” she continued. “But it is the support and guidance he provides “after-hours” that shows his true dedication to training and his tremendous support for the industry.”
MCET has a reputation for excellence in environmental, safety and health training and compliance assistance through practical applications. Employers and employees who partner with MCET integrate regulatory compliance into their site-specific training and day-to-day activities. Combined with applications of best management practices geared to the actual performance of their duties, the participant’s learning experiences will focus on and relate to their working environment. MCET technical assistance program, funded by MDE, is available to qualified wastewater treatment plants. Learn more about MCET by visiting http://www.mcet.org/index.html