City News
Dirtiest Jobs Hit Moorhead ! ! !
Thursday April 29, 2011, was a very exciting day for Moorhead Public Service and all of it’s staff!
Mike Rowe and the crew for Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs were on site at the water treatment plant for the filming of a future episode of the show. As a condition and requirement for this project to take place, knowledge of this filming was limited to very few MPS staff in order to minimize distractions to the film crew.
The Discovery Channel has let Moorhead Public Service know that an episode of the show “Dirty Jobs” featuring Moorhead’s water treatment plant is tentatively set for its initial airing on Jan. 3.
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/343777/
The job Mike Rowe was tasked with was helping MPS personnel with annual maintenance of a water softening basin. This is the equipment for the first of three major treatment processes at the water plant. According to Mike Rowe himself, Thursday’s filming was the dirtiest in a long time for the show, being covered head to toe in sludge after the job was complete.
For the filming of the introduction and closing to the episode, Mike Rowe and the film crew utilized MPS being voted by AWWA as the best tasting drinking water in Minnesota two years running. Having Mike Rowe on site was an enjoyable day for all MPS staff involved and an opportunity to demonstrate the kind of work they routinely do.
During the filming process, no photographs were allowed by MPS staff since all film and photographs during that time are owned by the filming company and Discovery Channel. However, Mike Rowe took some time after filming to take pictures with MPS staff. I have attached a few of those pictures to this email. Thursday with the Dirty Jobs filming was a great way for a 36-year MPS employee, Jeff Wettstein, to go out on…he is retiring today (there is a picture of Jeff and Mike). A picture of the water distribution crew with Mike Rowe in front of their Ford trucks was taken with Mike Rowe’s phone and sent to the CEO of Ford Company.
The follow is a private video link for demo video filmed at the water plant. Filming for the video was done when water plant staff needed to do some repairs in the softening basin early this year:
I am glad we can share this exciting news with all MPS staff at this time! It will be fun to see our MPS people in action when the show airs. They are part of the great team of people we have working at MPS.
Troy Hall,
Water Division Manager
Moorhead Public Service