For this week’s Community Conversations, we talked with Marlo Thomas Watson, former Community Relations Manager for the Prince William Service Authority and owner of the Marlo Company.
Q: What is the Service Authority?
A: So, the Service Authority the largest drinking water supply and waste water treatment facility in Prince William County. We service about more than a quarter of a million customers.
Q: So what are some of the programs that you have? Because I know people think of the Service Authority as just water, but you really do a lot more than that.
A: You’re absolutely right – so we partner with the local school districts, all three actually. The County School System, Prince William County Schools, Manassas City, and Manassas Park. We provide education on drinking water treatment, and water reclamation, which is waste water, we’re just cleaning water, cleaning it. And we also work with the community to participate in community events.
So some of our programs for the elementary school because obviously they don’t understand that language, is really age appropriate language programs and activities to help them to understand the importance of clean water, and to help them to understand what not to do that would impact our infrastructure negatively by certain things you don’t put down the drain.
So last year alone I taught more than 2,000 kids myself in the Prince William County school system and then we started a new initiative, where our staff can volunteer to help educate kids and people in the community. It’s very rewarding and necessary for us because we are building environmental stewardship, and helping people to understand. And more importantly, adults understand how they keep their water bills down.
Check back for the next episode of Community Conversations. Know someone that would be great for our show? Let us know!
