It was a busy ending to 2024 for our Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant employees. Join us in congratulating them on the following statewide recognitions.  

Water Treatment Plant AWOP Award 
For the 9th year in a row, our Water Treatment Plant received the prestigious North Carolina Area Wide Optimization Award. Of the 157 surface water treatment plants in the state, the NC Division of Water Resources has included Greenville Utilities among the 79 honored for surpassing federal and state drinking water standards in 2023. The award is a state effort to enhance the performance of existing surface water treatment facilities.   

In 1998, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) developed regulations to reduce the risk of biological contamination. They then partnered with states to form the Area Wide Optimization Program (AWOP). This program introduced more stringent water quality goals and helps water systems meet those goals. North Carolina has participated in AWOP since 2000 and is one of 31 states involved in the program.   

The focus of the AWOP award is turbidity removal, a key test of drinking water quality. Turbidity is a measure of cloudiness of water caused by individual particles that can interfere with disinfection and provide a medium for harmful microbial growth. Eliminating particles lessens the amount of chemicals needed to process water, which reduces byproducts in the water. While all drinking water systems must meet strict state and federal drinking water standards, these systems met performance goals that are significantly more stringent.  

Achieving AWOP turbidity goals is challenging for water treatment plants in the eastern part of the state due to the high number of particles typically found in the source waters in the east. Consequently, most winning plants are from the western parts of the state.  

“This achievement is one of many examples of WTP employees taking pride in their jobs to provide our customers with quality drinking water,” said WTP Facility Manager Julius Patrick. “Meeting AWOP goals is a joint effort between operations, maintenance, and lab staff that couldn’t happen without everyone doing an outstanding job every day.”  

Three NC One Water Awards 
 During the first week in October, our “Barrel Boys” and “Smooth Operators” did well in the NC One Water Hydrant Hysteria and Operations Challenge competitions in Raleigh. 

NC One Water, our state member association for the Water Environment Federation and American Waterworks Association, provides water and wastewater education, training, and service in an effort to protect public health and the environment. 

Hydrant Hysteria is NC One Water’s fast-paced competition that measures a team’s ability to completely assemble a utility hydrant as quickly and accurately as possible. Teams, comprised of two competitors and one coach, compete head-to-head in a race against the clock for the fastest assembly time. 

Our Water Treatment Plant Barrel Boys competed for the second time ever and made it to the final round this year, finishing in 2nd place overall! Congratulations to Maintenance Mechanics Matthew Clark and Tripp Morgan, and Distribution Water Quality Specialist Luke Hagee on this accomplishment. 

NC One Water also hosts an annual Operations Challenge to showcase how wastewater treatment operators and technicians overcome challenges and emergencies. It also helps them determine which two utilities will represent them at next year’s national competition.  

Our Wastewater Treatment Plant Smooth Operators team did well again this year, placing 1st in Maintenance, 1st in the Lab event, 2nd in Safety, 2nd in Process Control, 2nd in Collections, and 2nd Overall. Congratulations to Operations Supervisor Chris Hill, Operations Crew Leader Bryon Orr, Maintenance Mechanic Adam Garris, and Operators Kyle Meeks and Steve Hedgepeth on this accomplishment. 

Last but certainly not least, our Water Treatment Plant placed 3rd out of 11 in the Best Tasting Water Contest. Water samples are judged on four criteria - color, clarity, odor, and taste - with judges cleansing their pallets with saltine crackers between each sample.  

Congratulations to our Water Resource Department on these outstanding achievements!