The water group at Endeavor B2B has selected five projects as the WaterWorld 2026 Top Projects winners in the drinking water category, recognizing utilities and project teams for innovative approaches to complex infrastructure challenges.

Originally launched by WasteWater Digest, the Top Projects program expanded to include WaterWorld in 2023 to recognize outstanding projects in the drinking water sector. The program recognizes projects that demonstrate ingenuity, flexibility and hard work in helping utilities better serve their communities.

Projects are evaluated by editors across the water group based on a range of factors, including complexity of the work, community impact, size and scale, challenges overcome during design and construction, stakeholder coordination, collaboration and innovative processes or equipment.

This year's winning projects include major treatment plant expansions and rehabilitations, a digital transformation at a small Pennsylvania utility, and a relatively small automation project that demonstrates how targeted technology can deliver significant operational and financial benefits.

Bud Ervin Water Treatment Plant Phase V Expansion

Mansfield, Texas

The City of Mansfield's Bud Ervin Water Treatment Plant Phase V Expansion is designed to increase treatment capacity while modernizing critical infrastructure throughout the facility.

The $50 million project expands the plant's advanced microfiltration/ultrafiltration membrane treatment system and provides for an ultimate treatment capacity of 75 million gallons per day. The work also includes expansion of the on-site sodium hypochlorite generation system, replacement of bulk chemical storage tanks, new 500-horsepower vertical turbine pumps, automatic transfer switches, redundant backup generators and comprehensive PLC and SCADA integration.

One of the project's defining challenges is that the plant must remain operational throughout construction. The project team developed a 16-step sequence of construction governing facility shutdowns and system transitions. Major tie-ins were scheduled during low-demand periods, while technologies including terrestrial LiDAR scanning, UAV photogrammetry and 3D modeling helped the team work around existing infrastructure.

The project is being delivered through a collaborative Construction Manager At-Risk approach involving the City of Mansfield, Archer Western Construction and Plummer Associates.

Chattahoochee River Raw Water Pump Station

Newnan, Georgia

The Coweta County Water & Sewerage Authority's $65 million Chattahoochee River Raw Water Pump Station establishes a new long-term water supply source for more than 30,000 customers while strengthening regional water supply resiliency. The project includes a 27-million-gallon-per-day pump station and 11 miles of new 36-inch raw water transmission line connecting the facility to CCWSA's existing system. The project also marks the first new permitted water intake on this reach of the Chattahoochee River in more than a century. The team navigated a lengthy permitting process, coordinated with multiple regulatory agencies and addressed environmental, floodplain and geological constraints to bring the new source online.

Digital Twin Implementation

Freeland, Pennsylvania

The Freeland Municipal Authority's Digital Twin Implementation demonstrates how advanced water management technology can be applied at a small, rural utility.

Serving approximately 3,900 residents through 2,100 service connections, the Authority faced persistent non-revenue water losses associated with aging infrastructure and difficult-to-locate leaks. The $225,033 project integrated Bentley OpenFlows WaterSight with 74 acoustic leak loggers, 15 AMI smart meters, the existing SCADA system and other operational data to create a real-time virtual representation of the distribution system.

The project was supported by a $203,500 Susquehanna River Basin Commission grant secured with assistance from HRG.

Implementation required the team to overcome data-integration issues between the existing SCADA system and the digital twin platform, ultimately requiring a middleware solution. The acoustic leak loggers also required field optimization to account for traffic noise, mechanical equipment and varying site conditions.

The result is a centralized platform that allows utility staff to identify leaks more quickly, monitor system conditions, prioritize infrastructure investments and reduce the time and resources required for leak detection. The Authority continues to expand its use of the system, making the project an evolving asset-management program rather than a one-time technology installation.

Deer Valley Water Treatment Plant Rehabilitation

Phoenix, Arizona

The City of Phoenix's Deer Valley Water Treatment Plant Rehabilitation project tackles aging infrastructure at a critical drinking water facility serving a large portion of the city's population.

The $38.2 million, 30-month project includes replacement of 17 conveyors in the plant's Dewatering Building, structural modifications to improve maintenance access and construction of a new 3,300-square-foot East Electrical Building. More than half a mile of duct bank was also installed to create electrical redundancy.

The project faced an especially difficult procurement challenge when the switchgear required for the new electrical building carried a 144-week lead time. Through early procurement, close coordination with the manufacturer and self-procurement of the switchgear, the project team reduced the expected schedule by nearly 480 days, receiving the equipment in March 2025 rather than the originally targeted September 2026 delivery.

Construction also required two carefully planned plant-wide shutdowns. The team used extensive Maintenance of Plant Operations planning, prework and trade sequencing to complete critical work within the limited shutdown windows while maintaining the City's ability to provide water to residents.

The project demonstrates the importance of detailed preconstruction planning and collaboration when critical drinking water infrastructure must be rehabilitated without compromising service.

Gilligan Creek Stream Diversion Automation

Skagit County, Washington

The Gilligan Creek Stream Diversion Automation project shows how a relatively small investment can address a significant operational challenge.

Skagit Public Utility District serves approximately 116,000 people and draws water from both the Skagit River and four streams in the Cultus Mountains. Before the project, operators had to travel approximately 45 minutes each way along an old logging road to manually adjust the Gilligan Creek intake valve.

The $130,000 project brought the diversion under SCADA control. Operators can now monitor stream level, valve position, flow rate and pipeline pressure from the treatment plant, while automated PLC logic modulates the valve based on Department of Ecology minimum in-stream flow requirements.

The project team encountered several unexpected challenges, including problems with the original magnetic flow meter, air intrusion caused by rapid valve operation, cellular communication issues and the transition from manual to automated operation. The team ultimately replaced the meter with an externally mounted ultrasonic unit, modified the PLC logic and worked through the communication and operator-transition issues.

The project has an estimated annual savings of $165,000, resulting in a projected payback period of less than one year. It also provides a template for automating another stream intake in the district.

Recognizing the work behind the infrastructure

Taken together, the 2026 Top Projects demonstrate the range of challenges water and wastewater utilities face — from expanding treatment capacity and rehabilitating aging facilities to managing complex construction in operating plants and using new technology to address longstanding operational problems.

The winning projects will be featured across the water group's media properties, including online coverage, WaterWorld news emails and WaterWorld magazine.

All Top Projects nominations submitted by the deadline were reviewed and scored independantly by four Endeavor B2B water group editors. Winners were chosen based on the submission criteria outlined on the nomination page. This press release includes summaries organized with the assistance of artificial intelligence using content taken directly from the submissions/nominators.