Meet our Industry Person of the Week, Lindie Aragon, a Chemist at the City of Westminster.
Q: How did you get started working in your field?
Lindie: My career started as a “bug picker”. I was about a year out of college and did not want to find myself working in a field where I did not use my degree. The benthic macroinvertebrate samples were intriguing and the analysis of the data to determine stream health was very interesting! I spent over eight years with that company and learned so much – flow injection analysis, WET testing, field sampling, chemistry, etc. It prepared me well for the chemist position that I am currently in now.
Q: What do you love the most about your job? What are you most proud of?
Lindie: The best part of my job is the opportunity to participate in things that I enjoy, learn new things, grow as a chemist, and be part of a close work family. I can say that I protect public health by ensuring the water that is discharged meets all EPA requirements, In my position, I am encouraged to think outside the box and help solve complex issues. I absolutely love the feeling once things are figured out and replicated! I am proud of being part of the Operations Challenge team. As a lab nerd, I would have never expected to learn operations, rebuild pumps, rescue a dummy from confined space, and compete on a national level. It has been a very rewarding part of my career.
Q: What advice would you give to someone considering this line of work or new to the field?
Lindie: This field is overlooked a lot of the time. People hear wastewater and they automatically think that you’re wading ankle deep in poop on the daily. There are challenges to work through, but it is worth it in the end!
Q: Can you talk about a project you recently worked on?
Lindie: One major feat that I am proud of is bringing Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) testing in-house. We are the only utility in Colorado that completes this testing on-site. I typically work nine days straight to grow the organisms and count the babies, run the statistics, and complete the report for our NPDES permit. It is a lot of work, but having realtime data for this quarterly requirement is priceless!
Connect with Lindie on LinkedIn.
THANK YOU, LINDIE! WE LOOK FORWARD TO KEEPING UP WITH YOU THROUGH THE #PUMPTALK COMMUNITY!
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