Standing Apart

To the Editor:

What a great article! (“Seal of Approval,” Breaking Ground, Onsite Installer, November 2011). I could not agree more.

I have preached for years that the way to increase participation in continuing education is not to mandate it but rather to promote it as a tool contractors can use to “distance themselves from corner-cutters.”

Dennis McQuillan with the New Mexico Department of Health is in the process of developing a program where elite installers could obtain the level of Installer Specialist. We have been keeping a close eye on his program, and I think he will use the NOWRA education arm to deliver the needed training and continuing education. 

As incoming president of NOWRA I assure you this issue is on a short list of my goals. I see NOWRA as the professional association that should step up to the plate and make the Clean Water Professional program a reality. I have been working closely with the education committee over the past two years and have several of the challenges accomplished. 

Thanks for keeping this important idea in front of the readers.

Tom Fritts

Residential Sewage Treatment Co.

Grandview, Mo.

No fee for software

To the Editor:

I am writing to correct a factual error in the article by Robert Wright, P.E., “Pump to Gravity: Does It Make Sense?” in the December issue of Onsite Installer. Mr. Wright mentions my firm’s patented hydraulic analysis software and states that we charge an annual fee which “most designers would need to weigh…against the number of pressure systems they design in a year.”

In fact, our firm has never charged a fee for this software; it is free and downloadable at www.squirtonsite.com. The only restriction is that users need to contact me through the website or by phone at 406/581-1613 to gain access to the online version of the program.

Thomas J. Kallenbach, P.E.

President, Eliminite, Inc.