In the Spotlight: Water Quality Customer Care Amplifies Clean Water Message
By Albert Rodriguez
When a customer has concerns about their water quality, it’s important that they seek expert help to be able to navigate through this important health and safety issue. In many cases, customers assume that their tap water isn’t safe and get into the bad habit of wasting valuable financial resources by purchasing bottled water for cooking and drinking. For help and advice on these exact water quality issues, customers need to look no further than LADWP’s very own Water Quality Customer Care (WQCC) unit.
WQCC assists with customer service-related water quality matters for both drinking water and recycled water. Customer inquiries and concerns are investigated via the Water Quality Customer Sampling Program, which actually sends staff to homes and business to test the water. WQCC lab techs also perform sampling surveys at water system incidents, such as water main breaks, that may affect water quality in the surrounding neighborhood.
“Water Quality Customer Care provides an important service to customers by offering transparent information on the quality of the water LADWP provides, as well as the water coming out of their tap. We appreciate the opportunity to help reassure our customers about the high-quality water LADWP serves.”
Kawana Key, Senior Utility Services Specialist
The unit also collaborates with local non-profit organizations through the Community Partnerships Grants Program to help improve public perception and trust and dispel some of the myths about LADWP’s drinking water. Some of these organizations include Council of Mexican Federations in North America, Climate Resolve and WeTap.
Other important duties for WQCC include maintaining and managing the Department’s online Water Quality information and overseeing the Water Quality Division’s emergency preparedness plans and activities. This includes updating the Emergency Response and Public Notification Plans (ERP and PNP) and coordinating exercises to help keep customers informed about their water quality during any major emergencies or incidents.
Another important program that WQCC staff administers is the Hydration Station Initiative Program, which improves public access to tap water throughout Los Angeles. This program provides financial incentives to government agencies, business and organizations who install modern hydration stations with bottle fillers on their property. The new stations offer clean tap water, make neighborhoods more walkable and provide an alternative to sugary drinks and bottled water. To date, 137 units have been incentivized through the program.
WQCC staff get great satisfaction from helping customers with their water quality-related inquiries and from spreading the word about LADWP’s clean, refreshing tap water. To learn more about WQCC, visit their MyDWP page.
Careers
WQCC is comprised of Utility Services Specialists (USS) and Laboratory Technicians. USS’s help administer the various Water Quality programs and also manage and facilitate communications with customers via direct or electronic communication. They research, assemble, analyze and interpret customer data and prepare correspondence, presentations and reports to executive management inside and outside of the Department regarding water quality issues. USS’s may also manage consumer issues related to potable and recycled water supply sources, water quality and safety, including public health issues. To become a USS, applicants must have Bachelor's degree from an accredited four-year college or university. They must also pass the USS test, which emphasizes math, finance, statistics, analytical skills, as well as oral and written communication skills.
Laboratory Technicians perform standard and non-standard tests, including preparing chemical solutions (reagents) concerning the chemical, radiological, biological or microbiological laboratory analysis of water. They make simple calculations and prepare and maintain records and technical reports on analytical results. They may perform chain of custody duties for sample receiving, comply with the Quality Assurance plan of the lab and much more. In order to become a Laboratory Technician at LADWP, applicants must complete 12 semester or 18 quarter units in the areas of chemistry, biochemistry, biology, microbiology, botany, zoology, oceanography or marine biology. At least two of the aforementioned courses must have had a laboratory module either as part of or separate from the general lecture, along with completion of 3 semester or 4 quarter units of mathematics at an accredited college or university.
Employees can check for current, upcoming and all job opportunities at www.JoinLADWP.com.
Team Members
WQCC is supervised by Senior Utility Services Specialist Kawana Key.
- Stakeholder Engagement Group: Utility Services Specialists Steven Schuricht, Krystie Serrano and Patrick Horton (not pictured)
- Customer Service Group: Supervising Laboratory Technician Win Udompruge; Laboratory Technicians Maria Concepcion Vizcarra, Joyce Cheng (not pictured), Astrid Cobar and Kevin Duran
Photo by Chris Corsmeier, screenshots by Oshin Manoukian
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This publication is written and published by the Communications and Corporate Strategy Division. For other 2022-23 issues, click the three horizontal lines icon next to the Contact logo at the top left of the document. Then click the “Editions” tab. For issues from 2000-2021, see Intranet page MyDWP/.
