Awards for Program Implementation

Excellence in Water Treatment Award

Champlain Water District (CWD) was the first water supplier in the nation to receive the "Excellence in Water Treatment Award" for completion of all four phases of the Partnership for Safe Water Program.An independent eight-person team performed Champlain Water District's (CWD) on-site Phase IV Comprehensive Performance Evaluation during the week of May 17, 1999. This 3 day on-site evaluation encompassed fifty separate assessment parameters in the areas of facility design, and associated administrative, operational, and maintenance practices and capabilities.

The review was conducted to identify any factors that may be adversely impacting the water treatment facility's capability to achieve continuous optimal performance protective of public health. Once potential performance limiting factors are identified, they are classified according to the following guidelines:

• A = Major effect on a long term repetitive basis
• B = Moderate effect on routine basis, or major effect on a periodic basis
• C = Minor effect

Award Details

Not only did the Champlain Water District "pass" the Comprehensive Performance Evaluation, the Assessment Team stated that CWD was the first water utility, since protocol inception in 1988, that did not have any performance limiting factors identified during the extensive on-site evaluation. Champlain Water District is Vermont's largest regional public water supplier, serving 70,000 people in twelve municipal water systems in Chittenden County.

CWD's receipt of the first "Excellence in Water Treatment Award" in the country is a culmination of ten years of staff effort. Following water treatment upgrades beginning in 1989 to further protect public health. CWD has extensively researched optimization of its upgraded water treatment processes. CWD has also made numerous regional and national presentations on its process optimization efforts, with many of these papers being published in both the New England Water Works (NEWWA), and the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Journals.

Other Awards

CWD was the fifth water utility in the country to receive recognition for successful completion of the Program's Phase 3, Self Assessment requirements in 1997. CWD was recognized as the first water supplier in the nation to successfully complete all four phases of the Partnership for Safe Water Program during Opening Ceremonies of the New England Water Works Annual Conference on September 20, 1999 at the Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in South Burlington, Vermont.

CWD was also recognized for this achievement at AWWA's Water Quality Technology Conference on November 1, 1999 in Tampa, Florida. In June 2004 CWD was presented with the Five Year Anniversary Partnership for Safe Water Excellence in Treatment Award in Orlando, Florida at the AWWA Annual Conference for continuing to meet all Phase IV requirements on an annual reporting basis. At this time there are only sixteen other water treatment facilities in the U.S. that have attained this "Excellence in Water Treatment" status which is the pinnacle of treatment optimization for public health protection.

For the past twenty years since 1999, CWD has maintained this level of excellence through successful submission of a comprehensive annual report that is reviewed for water quality test results, as well as demonstration and documentation of the operational tenacity toward continued quality improvement as required by the Partnership for Safe Water Program.