Hicksville Water District Commissioner Karl M. Schweitzer was recently elected by his peers to serve as president of the Nassau/Suffolk Water Commissioners' Association (NSWCA), a professional organization of water districts administered by locally elected water commissioners. Richard Humann, Hicksville Water District Commissioner, who has been serving as NSWCA's treasurer for over seven years, was reappointed to another one-year term.

The association's mission is to maintain the excellent water quality of the Long Island public water supply. The NSWCA represents 21 commissioner-run water districts with a mission to keep everyone current on federal, state and local rules and regulations. The water districts within the association represent a population of over 640,000 people and over 145,000 accounts spanning over 158 square miles, and maintain a distribution system of 2,377 miles of water mains with only 257 employees.

As president, Schweitzer believes that the water suppliers are faced with the hard reality that for many years there were people dumping chemicals into storm drains and sump basins, which have contaminated the water supply. That, along with years of fertilizing the farmland in Nassau County and the use of cesspools, has created problems that have only begun to surface after many years. As such, each district is faced with its own problems of contamination; depending on who dumped where and when only adds to the plumes far below the surface where our drinking water comes from.

The need to plan, control and treat is a major part of the daily operation of some districts to maintain and meet the drinking water standards set by regulators. As fiscal managers the districts are also faced with the same budget battles of rising insurance costs and the high costs of fuel for energy. As such, approximately one-third of the cost of operating a water supply is for electric power and chemicals, both of which have increased at a greater rate than inflation.

Schweitzer participated as a panelist in a June 8 conference, which was held at Hofstra University and included Nassau County Comptroller Howard Weitzman. Schweitzer discussed the importance of "local control," where neighbors have a voice in how services are provided and how local taxes are used and stated that Hicksville residents continually express concerns that their local dollars will be diverted to support other communities.

Schweitzer, a lifelong Hicksville resident, has been a water commissioner since 2003 and is a member of the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the Long Island Water Conference. He also serves on the national level with the AWWA as a member of the Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committees. Professionally, Schweitzer has been in the environmental and safety field for over 18 years and has been employed as an EH&S manager for Con Edison for seven years.