Congratulations to ISD’s plant manager, Chris Christean, for being chosen as one of the California Water Environment Association’s (CWEA) Emerging Leaders for 2019. This summer, Christean was featured in the CWEA Clean Water Magazine as part of a series that features the organization’s top accomplished water professionals who are making a significant, positive impact on California’s water.

Christean has been a member of the ISD staff since 2011, working his way quickly into the role of plant manager. He also has experience with several different wastewater agencies before moving to ISD.

As a wastewater professional, Christean was required to receive a series of five licenses through the California State Water Resources Control Board. Through his focus, hard work and determination, Christean was able to become one of the youngest Grade V operators in the state when he received the license.

As the Plant Manager, Christean is instrumental in managing process control activities, regulatory compliance, development of policies and procedures, capital improvement planning and administration, budgeting, implementation of service contracts, and so much more.

Remembering that “Water is Life”, Christean’s vision of the future is to help build a generation of environmental stewards in the wastewater industry, so future generations have a safe water environment.

“Our biggest challenge,” he says, “is finding and retaining qualified staff. But rather than just hope and pray, I started an internship program. We created our own OIT program and have trained at least six operators since 2011. Three of them are employed with us today.”

To see the article in Clean Water Magazine featuring ISD’s Chris Christean go to, http://cweawaternews.org/meet-chris-christean-plant-manager-ironhouse-sanitary-district/.