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The Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) announced last week that the agency was recently recognized by the Partnership for Clean Water (PCW) with a Directors Award for its report on the district’s largest wastewater treatment plant. CVWD is the first plant in California to achieve this status with the 2019 Directors Award for Wastewater Treatment Plant Optimization.
The American Water Works Association (AWWA) initiated the PCW in 2016 as a global optimization and recognition program for wastewater utilities. It is a parallel program to AWWA’s Partnership for Safe Water, which has successfully helped drinking water utilities optimize performance for more than 20 years.
The PCW is a voluntary program to recognize utilities throughout the wastewater community for their progress through in AWWA’s PCW’s milestones and optimization achievements. CVWD has successfully completed Phase 3 of the four possible phases for its largest treatment plant and has also submitted reports on two of its smaller treatment plants for Phase 3 review. In total 61 utilities have enrolled in the program. Six utilities, including CVWD, comprise the first group to receive the Directors Award.
“This award recognizes the commitment of our staff to complete a comprehensive self-assessment on our largest wastewater treatment plant that included an action plan for improved performance,” said Jim Barrett, CVWD general manager. “This report, which was peer-reviewed, will help prioritize and guide our future projects at the plant.”
In addition to being a voluntary program, AWWA’s Partnership for Clean Water was established “for utilities, by utilities” to provide wastewater utility staff with the tools and resources needed to comprehensively assess wastewater plant performance and develop plans to improve operations, performance, and efficiency.
Wastewater treatment plant self-assessment and optimization, to improve efficiency and effluent quality, is the initial focus of AWWA’s Partnership for Clean Water’s wastewater utility optimization program. The first Partnership for Clean Water program is for wastewater treatment plant optimization, with programs for the optimization of reuse facilities and collection systems to be launched in the future.
