How to Use DecentralizedWastewater.org

In this blog post, we will offer a short tutorial on how to use the search tools to most effectively browse our Resource Library and Event Calendar. As a reminder, there is no signup or login required to use any feature of our website — everything is totally free, and is optimized to work on any mobile device as well as a desktop browser!

Resource Library

Here you can see the search module on our Resource Library page. The three main components of the module are highlighted by the blue arrows. 

The first is the “Select” dropdown menu on the left. This is where you can select the primary filters with which to populate the search results. The second is the Keyword search box, where you can search for terms that are not covered within the dropdown filters. Finally, there is the “Retrieve Documents” button — which is very important, because you must actually click this button in order to run a search. Just hitting enter on the keyboard will not work!

When using the “Select” dropdown menu to search, you will start with four filter types to choose from: Category, Type, State, and Host. 

Clicking Category will allow you to choose from the 20 onsite wastewater topical categories by which we sort documents and events. Clicking Type will allow you to choose from different types of resources; including factsheets, case studies, manuals, handbooks, reports, presentations, videos, webpages, and more. Clicking State will allow you to browse resources tailored to a specific US state, such as location specific case studies or information directly from state regulatory agencies. Finally, choosing Host will allow you to choose a host organization, which is the organization that has developed or is hosting the resource online. 

Once you select the first of these four filters, you will also have the option to add up to two additional filters to further refine your search. However, you will not be able to use the same filter type multiple times.

Once all filters you wish to use are selected, click on retrieve documents to populate the library. Below is an example of what the Resource Library would look like after first using the Category > System Design/Treatment filter, and then applying a second Type > Manuals/Handbooks filter. 

As you can see, the search results include the resource title, with the link to the resource embedded, a summary of the resource, the repository webpage where we found the resource, and who the host organization is. 

Should you choose a filter or filter combo that does not narrow the list of results far enough down to your liking, you can search within any list of results for specific keywords using the Keyword search box. Above, you can see that searching for the keyword “cluster systems” within the Host > US Environmental Protection Agency filter displays 22 search results — down from 140 total EPA resources with no keyword used!

Finally, you can start a new search at any time by clicking “Reset all” above the “Retrieve Documents” button!

Events Calendar

Here you can see the search module on our Events Calendar page, above an empty calendar, which will automatically populate with events when search filters are applied. Similarly to the Resource Library search module, you can see a “Select” menu dropdown and a Keyword search box highlighted with blue arrows.

The four filter options on the Events Calendar are just slightly different from those on the Resource Library. The Category and State filters will give you the same options as the library search module. When you choose Type for the calendar, you will see a different list of event types to search for: certification exam, conference/symposium, seminar/meeting, training/workshop, and webinar/live online. Choosing Sponsor will allow you to look through different organizations that are sponsoring/hosting training events.

When any of the filters are selected, the calendar will automatically populate with events that apply to the selected filter during the current month. If there are no events in the current month for which the selected filter applies, no results will show; but you can page forward through coming months using the “Next” button to check for events further in the future. 

Here you can see all of the trainings hosted in Texas (State > Texas) during February 2026. If you prefer to view the events in a list view, click the “View List” button below the Keyword search box. 

This will generate a popup window listing each event for which your filter applies in a chronological list, as seen above. The list view also shows the name of the sponsor organization, the city the event takes place in, and the event’s in-person or virtual status. Webinars or other online training opportunities will be listed as “live online.” 

Here, you can see event listing examples — one for an in-person event (left) and for a live webinar (right). The event listing details are launched by clicking on the event name link in either the calendar or list view. The additional event information you will see in the event listing includes dates, times, location, registration links, event summary, contact, cost, and CEU information. If the event is free, we always mention that in the summary as well.

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That’s it! If you have any further questions on how to use our search tools, need help searching for certain information, discover any issues or glitches in using the tools, or know of a resource or event that our databases are missing, please feel free to contact us at info@decentralizedwastewater.org!