Friday, May 14, 2010
MWA honored at spring conference of the Georgia Association of Water Professionals
Employees receive plant awards, top operator honors, and lead two technical sessions
The Authority’s Bill Maine (left), a plant operator at the Frank Amerson Water Treatment Plant, was selected by the Georgia Association of Water Professionals top operator in District 5. He now qualifies for statewide competition for the honor of best water plant operator in Georgia, which comes in the form of the AWWA Meritorious Service Award.
The Macon Water Authority (MWA) was well represented at the spring conference of the Georgia Association of Water Professionals in Columbus recently, as two facilities received industry honors, an employee brought home a top operator award, and three others led technical sessions that involved sharing valuable system insights to fellow water industry professionals in the state.
Highlighting the GAWP spring conference awards ceremony were the honors two MWA facilities received for 100 percent regulatory compliance this year. The Authority’s Rocky Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant received the GAWP Platinum Award for 11 straight years of operation without a permit violation.
“This is an impressive feat considering the challenges utilities face in operating large treatment facilities such as Rocky Creek without any errors,” says Terry Forrest, director of wastewater treatment for the MWA. “We have excellent operators at all of our facilities and these industry awards reflect their commitment to professionalism and service on behalf of the Authority and its customers.”
The Frank C. Amerson, Jr. Water Treatment Plant received the GAWP Gold Award for four straight years of operations without a regulatory permit violation. Next year, the Amerson Plant will go for the Platinum distinction itself, as the GAWP honors facilities that attain five straight years of violation-free operations with this industry honor.
At the spring conference, the Amerson Plant, which holds the current crown as the Best Tasting Drinking Water in North America as awarded by AWWA, also repeated as the utility producing the best tasting drinking water in Middle Georgia this year. As the winner of the GAWP taste test for District 5, the MWA now qualifies for this year’s statewide best tasting tap water contest, to be held at the GAWP Annual Conference in Savannah this July.
The Authority’s Bill Maine, a plant operator at the Amerson facility, was selected as the GAWP top operator in District 5. He too now qualifies for statewide competition, but as Georgia’s top water plant operator, an honor that will be granted in the form of the AWWA Meritorious Service Award. Maine has worked for the MWA for over four years, maintaining a Class II Surface Water Certification.
He has a chemistry degree from Arizona State University. He was born in Germany, but grew up in California and later moved to Houston County, where he attended high school in Warner Robbins. Maine is married, with two children and one on the way.
“Bill has a very good working relationship with his fellow operators at the Authority and within the industry,” says Gary McCoy, director of water for the MWA and a director-at-large for the American Water Works Association (AWWA), who oversees Maine’s work while managing the Amerson Plant. “Any new information or knowledge of plant operations he obtains, he’s quick to share it with other operators.”
A few MWA employees also led technical sessions during the GAWP spring conference in Columbus. Jared Zellner, who serves on the GAWP Safety Committee, gave a presentation on the steps taken at the Amerson Water Treatment Plant to win last year’s GAWP State Facility Safety Award. Zellner is a Class II Operator at the Amerson Plant and has worked for the Authority for over eight years.
Mark Cloutier, MWA maintenance manager, presented a technical session that updated the GAWP membership on the current progress of the Association’s Maintenance Technologist Certification Program. Cloutier notes that this program is a career path for mechanically and electrically inclined persons who provide defense against failed mechanical equipment critical to water production or wastewater treatment. The program also follows the same progression of the GAWP Operator Certification Program, which awards four levels of certification for water professionals – beginning with entry Level IV certification all the way up to the highest form of certification at Level I.
Finally, MWA intern Sarah Dorminy, a senior environmental engineering major at Mercer University, presented a paper during the GAWP spring conference on a project she’s been working on that is titled: “Using SCADA to analyze inflow and infiltration.” Her results helped to show industry professionals the potential use of a SCADA system to monitor and track system deterioration as a result of increases in inflow and infiltration.
Media contact:
Chris Wood, Ph.D.
770-757-1681 (cell)
jcwood@uga.edu (email)