Introducing John Van Wingerden

John graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. John worked at the Port of Sunnyside Industrial Wastewater Treatment Plant for 11 years in the lab, and then operations, before joining IER in September 2019. At the wastewater treatment plant, he started as a lab technician, but rapidly progressed in operations.

The treatment plant received a multitude of different industrial wastewater streams that varied seasonally. As a laboratory technician, John’s role was to observe the incoming levels of important parameters so that they could maintain optimized treatment in their sequencing batch reactor (SBR).

John was also actively involved in a range of activities from managing the lab to making day-to-day operational decisions for the treatment process.

This also gave John the chance to interact with the IER team as a customer. It was IER’s flexibility and ability to rapidly respond to the plant’s operational issues and technical challenges that convinced him to join the company. Today, he enjoys giving proactive service to his own customers and leads business development of AMALGAM products for the wastewater industry.

Outside of work, John likes to spend time with his family, playing board games with friends and working in his garden.