The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) honored municipalities and organizations for outstanding and innovative technological achievements in wastewater treatment and pollution control during this year's National Wastewater Management Excellence Awards ceremonies.
Winners were announced Sept. 24 and the awards were presented during the WEFTEC 2001 conference in Atlanta, GA.
The awards are authorized under the Clean Water Act and presented annually for outstanding projects and programs in operations and maintenance, biosolids management, pretreatment, and combined sewer overflow (CSO) control. State water pollution control agencies and EPA regional offices recommend nominees for the awards, and review panels select winners based on criteria established for each program category.
Following are the award categories and 2001 winners:
Operations and Maintenance:First Place, Large Advanced Category - Littleton-Englewood (CC) Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Second Place, Large Advanced Category - Central Regional Wastewater System (Grande Prairie, TX).
First Place, Medium Advanced Category (two awards) - Metropolitan Council Stillwater Wastewater Treatment Plant (Oak Park Heights, MN) and City of Rutland (VT) Wastewater Treatment Facility.
Second Place, Medium Advanced Category - Fairmont (WV) Wastewater Treatment Plant-Fairmont Sanitary Sewer Board.
First Place, Small Advanced Category - Denver South East Suburban Water and Sewer District-Pinery Water Reclamation Plant (Parker, CO).
Second Place, Small Advanced Category - County of Berks (PA) Welfare Tract Sewage Treatment Plant (Bern Township).
First Place, Medium Secondary Category - Lebanon (NH) Wastewater Treatment Facility.
Second Place, Medium Secondary Category - Elk River (MN) Wastewater Treatment Plant.
First Place, Small Secondary Category - Troy-Jay (VT) Wastewater Treatment Facility.
Second Place, Small Secondary Category - Isle Royale National Park, Rock Harbor Wastewater Treatment Facility, (Houghton, MI).
Biosolids Management:First Place, Large Operating Projects - Anne Arundel County (MD) Department of Public Works (Annapolis).
First Place, Small Operating Projects - City of Gresham (OR) Wastewater Treatment Plant.
CSO Control:First Place - Columbus (GA) Water Works.
Second Place - City of Brewer, ME.
EPA Plans Revisions to "WET" MethodsThe Environmental Protection Agency has announced plans to modify several analytic test procedures measuring whole effluent toxicity, which the agency standardized in 1995.
The agency's proposed rule change satisfies obligations of two settlement agreements between EPA and stakeholders over the 1995 rulemaking. The changes are intended to improve the performance of whole effluent toxicity (WET) tests, and increase confidence in the reliability of the tests.
The settlements included one with Edison Electric Institute from July 1998 and another with Lone Star Steel in March 1998.
The proposed rule would update WET test methods and provide minor corrections and clarifications. EPA also has proposed method revisions in response to specific stakeholder concerns.
The proposal also presents the final results of an inter-laboratory variability study of WET test methods and proposes to ratify the previous approval of those methods evaluated in the study. WW/
