Northern California’s Feather River is vital for the California State Water Project and a beloved fishing destination for steelhead, shad, sturgeon, and king salmon. This importance drives Laci Heggstrom, Yuba City’s Environmental Compliance Coordinator, to work tirelessly to prevent river pollution in her community.
“It’s my job to keep in mind the bigger picture of clean, safe water for the Feather River,” she said. “Making sure that the river is not polluted and understanding what we are doing can make a big difference.”
Laci came upon her unplanned career in wastewater in 2006. Just out of college from Chico State with a major in biology and a minor in chemistry, she started looking through the local newspaper for a job in the science field.
“I had no idea a career in wastewater even existed,” she said. “For so many years, this was a hidden career path, but that’s changed with colleges like Sac State offering a water program with two-year degrees.”
Laci secured a technician role in Yuba City’s wastewater lab. Upon entering the field, she pursued her CWEA certifications, beginning with a Grade 2 Lab Analyst, advancing to Environmental Compliance certifications (ECI), and eventually achieving her Grade 4 ECI certification. In 2015, she transitioned to her current role as Environmental Compliance Coordinator at Yuba City.
Laci helps coordinate the wastewater, stormwater, pretreatment, and FOG programs for a community of 69,000. The city’s Class 5 treatment facility handles 10.5 million gallons per day. The Environmental Compliance Department works with six industrial users and around 250 food service establishments in Yuba City.
In 2018, Laci increased her involvement in the CWEA community by becoming a Northern Sacramento Valley Section director. A position she continues to hold today. She recently joined the CWEA state-level Technical Certification Program (TCP) committee. One of her first assignments on the committee was to update the Environmental Compliance Inspection Grade 1 and 2 exams. The collaboration took seven months to complete with the help of 156 contributors. She was among the 25 pretreatment subject matter experts who participated in the process.
“I was honored to help work on the new ECI exams,” she said. “With our ever-changing industry, it is important to refresh the exams at least every five years.”
She said that the committee did not have the previous tests to review but allowed participants from various-sized agencies to build new tests with fresh eyes.
“It was a more of a start from scratch process,” she explained. “It worked well for us to develop each question from our own experiences.”
After the new tests were completed and put into service, Laci stayed with the TCP committee to represent the ECI community, review the certification process, and handle appeals or comments from those taking the ECI exams.
The TCP committee helps administer the applications, exam development, exam administration, and certificate renewal process. It also develops guidelines, criteria, and testing procedures that are responsive to the needs of the water quality industry and allow participants to demonstrate technical competence. In addition, the committee is responsible for maintaining the quality of the examinations through continuous upgrading and review.
Laci said that she enjoyed the exam refresh program and the work she is doing for the TCP committee. She hopes that other small matter experts in the ECI field will join her in putting other ECI exams together in the future.
“There are not a lot of ECI Grades 3 and 4 in our industry,” she said. “I really believe it is our responsibility to help our fellow colleagues get their certification.”
She went on to say she hopes those CWEA members with a Grade 3 and higher who are subject matter experts will consider getting involved in the process of refreshing the exams for their practice area. Learn more and get involved at cert.cwea.org.
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