Throughout the year, Alliance Water Resources employees enjoy opportunities to work with the public and school-age children.

In the City of Parkville, Mo., System Manager Dennae Caquelin and staff hosted a group of students on “Bring Your Kid to Work” day. Several City employees and their children took a tour of the City\'s wastewater treatment plant. After the plant tour, they conducted an experiment planting seeds in two different types of soil-from both the parks department and soil that had been land-applied with sludge from the treatment facility.

At Alliance\'s Cape Girardeau division, the Cape Rock Treatment Plant held a 75th anniversary open house in conjunction with National Public Works Week. Alliance staff also participated with the City\'s public works department in a display at the West Park Mall.

And in Bowling Green, staff participated in “Big Wheels” night, where grade school children had the chance to see, hear, and climb on large vehicles like fire trucks, dump trucks.

City of Cameron System Manager Phil Webster taught a water quality unit as part of the annual University Extension Water Festival in the spring of 2007. The festival is designed to provide a diverse sample of water related issues to students in the third grade. Class units ranged from water quality to soil erosion. Webster\'s unit took water quality measurements from a variety of water sources, including streams, lakes, tap water and wastewater effluent. After each student collected their data, the data was summarized and discussed.

Webster and other Cameron division staff have been involved in teaching water and wastewater related issues in the classroom for the past 16 years. “It\'s a great way to get out of our box and make our jobs more fun and fulfilling” says Webster. Besides the Water Festival, he teaches an eighth grade class on clean water law and wastewater treatment. He has also developed an illustrated workbook on the wastewater treatment process for the class.

Many other Alliance locations participate in National Water Week, hosting class plant tours and offering information. In the City of O\'Fallon, Mo., eight third-grade classes from Forest Park Elementary School were treated to a tour of the facilities. Tour guide Dan “Professor H2O” Ismay explained how the facilities operated and the importance of water conservation. “Little O\'Fallon” was also on display. This staff-built model includes a small scale water tower that the students could see fill and empty as water is used.

Headquartered in Columbia, Mo., Alliance Water Resources is a leading provider of professional operations and maintenance services for community water and wastewater systems in Middle America. The company prides itself in its unique understanding of the needs of communities in Missouri, Iowa, Illinois and Kansas.