Sheldon Thomas is proprietor of Clear Water Legacy. Clear Water Legacy Inc. is a water distribution operator training service, created by Sheldon, retired Manager of Water Distribution for the City of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Mr. Thomas devoted more than a quarter century to operating and then managing Hamilton’s aged, unique, and complex water infrastructure.

Sheldon spoke on: “Trouble Underground: the Pipes are Calling” a story of the decaying water main infrastructure in Hamilton. To set the tone for his talk, Sheldon’s first slide showed a fire hydrant with dirty, rusty water gushing out of it. Most of the water pipes in Hamilton are made from cast iron. Although they are initially pristine, after about 15 years or so they begin to corrode.

 

Captain William Knox gave a brief history of his days as a pilot.  William retired last year from his job as a pilot with Ethiopian Airlines. He has always been interested in flying and wasn’t as interested in school so he went to flight school and became a pilot. His first position was in Wiarton where he was also an instructor for 11 years. He flew all over Ontario and several times to Newfoundland. He noted that it was always extremely windy in St. John’s – one time it as so windy that his small plane was being blown all over the place and had to be welded in place by freezing the wheels to the tarmac using water.

 

He graduated from the small 14 seat plane to the DC4 – a plane that he really loved to fly even though it was old and leaked oil. He graduated from the DC4 to a Convair and was, for the first time, a Captain (the head pilot). Over his career he worked for several airlines given the ups and downs of the airline industry. He worked in Guyana for 5 years. He was working for ICC Canada and flying often to Mexico when he met his wife Carlotta. Carlotta herself was once a member of DVSRC.

Tony Cupido is Research Chair, Sustainability IDEAWORKS, at Mohawk College. Tony’s research initiatives include the development of an operational performance database for Canada’s award-winning, largest institutional, net-zero energy and zero carbon building – The Joyce Centre for Partnership and Innovation – and the creation of an industry model for sustainable operational practices. He was recently appointed to the Board of The Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC). 
In his presentation, Tony discussed the following topics in Mohawk’s “Plan to Achieve Net Zero and Challenges”:
•Energy Targets & Model
•Building Envelope Design
•Mechanical Systems
•Solar PV and Solar Thermal Systems
•Measurement & Verification
•Change in Culture

Some of the slides from his talk are re-produced below.