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EPA Recognize One NH and Two Vermont Municipal Wastewater Plants

Release Date: 09/26/2001
Contact Information: Amy Miller, EPA Press Office (617-918-1042)

BOSTON – Three municipal wastewater treatment facilities – two in Vermont and one in New Hampshire - were recognized this week for excellence in operations and maintenance in a national competition this summer.

The Lebanon, NH and Rutland, and Troy/Jay, Vt., facilities were all recognized as first place award winners.

Treatment plants are nominated by state agencies to compete for EPA's regional awards. All three won regional awards earlier this year and were then selected in a national competition for their outstanding innovative and excellent operations and maintenance, resulting in consistent excellent effluent quality.

"We should all applaud these communities and the outstanding treatment plant operators who serve them. It's their hard work and dedication that translates to something real -- something that New Englanders can point to with pride," said Robert W. Varney, regional administrator of EPA's New England office, in announcing the awards today.

According to the EPA award, the 25-year-old Lebanon facility, first place winner in the category of secondary treatment for medium-sized plants, has established "an outstanding in-house preventive maintenance program that has saved a significant amount of capital costs." The plant has implemented an outstanding energy savings program, which reduced energy demand by 25 to 35 percent, through numerous process equipment and plant upgrades. Finally, to address the needs of surrounding communities and the state, the plant became a regional facility and established a model industrial pretreatment program. This honor reflected the efforts of plant officials Kevin Kingston and Donald Schagen and their staffs.

The Rutland facility, which tied for first place in the advanced treatment category for medium-sized plants, is an "outstanding facility in all aspects of operations and maintenance, collection system maintenance, and management," EPA said. "It has an impeccable compliance history. The staff is well trained and is exceptionally pro-active by offering training to other wastewater operators within the state." According to EPA, Rutland implemented numerous innovative in-plant process equipment and pump station upgrades, which resulted in significant energy savings. It also instituted an aggressive industrial and commercial pretreatment program and became a regional facility to serve the needs of surrounding communities and the state. The honor reflects a well trained and dedicated staff led by Warren Conner, commissioner of Public Works.

One of the major challenges facing the Troy/Jay facility, which won first place for small plants in the secondary treatment category, and Chief Operator Ken Hamelin was to drastically downsize plant operations in recent years due to the lost of a major industry which had contributed to over 60 percent of waste flowing into the facility and 90 percent of the nutrients that deplete oxygen. Besides saving money, the downsizing maintained excellent effluent quality. In addition, Troy/Jay implemented innovative in-house equipment maintenance measures to save money and avoided problems by reducing pump operating and check valve pressures. Troy/Jay has also made operations changes to eliminate algal blooms in the lagoons.

In addition to recognizing the three plants, EPA recognized George Neill of the NH Department of Environmental Services and Paul Olander of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and their respective staffs and colleagues for their technical assistance efforts at these three facilities. All three winners will be honored at the annual Water Environment Federation Conference that will held in Atlanta, Georgia Oct. 15.