Jack Ezell joins WLSSD Board of Directors
Jack Ezell first crossed the threshold of WLSSD on February 6th, 1975 before the regional wastewater treatment facility was even built. After graduating UMD with and Urban Studies and Geography degree, he was hard at work to find employment. He edged out hundreds of candidates to land a planner position at WLSSD through the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA).
In his first years of employment, Jack saw the construction of the regional wastewater treatment plant and the surrounding collection system. He can still recall when the plant started accepting wastewater from the Duluth area in the fall of 1978 and later when the remaining flow came from the western portion of the collection system throughout 1979.
Ezell continued to support WLSSD’s mission for 43 years as a planning technician, an assistant planner, a senior planner, Manager of planning, and ultimately the Manager of Planning and Tech Services. In that time he served under six executive directors and supervised over 50 staff members.
As a lifelong Carlton County resident, Jack remembers visiting Jay Cooke State Park as a child. He was always appreciative of the beauty of its natural features, but knew to Never touch the water. It was dirty and had an awful smell. In his work at WLSSD, he was able to observe the direct impact that effective wastewater treatment had on our natural resources and Jay Cooke. Within a few years of the plant’s operation, he started to see visitors kayaking and canoeing. Children were playing on the river rocks and fishermen were using the river and reservoir- all things he never imagined in his youth.
Jack recently reflected on his professional career at the District and the many people he had the pleasure of working with, “Whether in Accounting, Wastewater Operations, Quality Control, Solid Waste, Engineering, Environmental Programs, the Board, etc. We all shared in the common mission to improve wastewater and solid waste management in this far western end of Lake Superior. I am humbled to have shared my career with so many exceptional people.”
We are thrilled to welcome Jack Ezell back into the WLSSD family as our newest board member, representing Carlton County. We look forward to sharing many more years of preserving natural resources and protecting public health together.