Post 5.

I had the pleasure of working with many of the project managers in the division and even got to go on a few field trips! I visited a handful of waste sites around the county-all in various stages of the clean-up process and observed just how technical the job can be. A project manager must be attuned to the department's needs, the project's needs, the stakeholder's needs, and the public's needs. They must be knowledgeable in the technical sciences in order to work with the contractors who devise the Work Plan, they must possess interpersonal skills to address any questions or concerns of the public, and they must be politically conscious if they are to satisfy the needs of all of the parties involved. Many of these projects involve public organizations at all levels of government. In some instances, ADEQ must work with the military or the EPA. At other times, it deals with local businesses and industries. On one follow-along we visited ASU East to ensure that all residents living on campus were in compliance with a state mandate regarding clean-up site regulation. Even when a project has been "completed" that does not signal the end of a project manager's responsibilities to that site. Oftentimes, project's require frequent check-ups to ensure that all treatment systems are still in place or that there are not any new problems springing up out of the blue. It's an ongoing process that could last for 20 years or more. For example, in my home state of Washington there is a major federal clean-up site in Hanford that will be ongoing for the next 30-40 years! A project manager at this site could spend his entire career in Hanford! Despite the magnitude of some of these projects they often go unnoticed. I doubt that many of you even realize how many waste sites are located in AZ-some of them may be in your neighborhood! The silent heroes of the public sector are the ones that should be getting all the media attention, rather then the ones accused of fraud and corruption. I guess that's the unfortunate reality for many public servants.