A Goulds resident is this year’s recipient of the Nathan Gosse Memorial Award for significant contributions to the field of environmental health. Deborah Smith was presented with the award at a meeting of the Newfoundland and Labrador Branch of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors (CIPH). Smith is Manager of Laboratory Services at the City of St. John’s Regional Water Supply. She started her career in the mid 1970s as a Medical Laboratory Technologist at Western Memorial Regional Hospital in Corner Brook. Since 1982, the Witless Bay native has been employed with the City of St. John’s Regional Water System where she was the lone technologist for over 20 years. Smith’s duties include managing the laboratories at the Bay Bulls Big Pond Water Treatment Plant, Windsor Lake Water Treatment Plant, Petty Harbour Lond Pond Water Treatment Plant and the Riverhead Wastewater Treatment Facility. Smith and her staff also look after 70 water sampling stations throughout the regional water supply system, analyzing water and wastewater samples from source to tap to harbour. The award is named for the late Director of Environmental Health for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, who hailed from Harbour Grace. Presenting her with the award were CIPH past president Tammy McDonald, left, and fellow institute member Douglas Howse.
