Columbus Public Utilities employees display their awards, from left to right: Collection Systems Chief Equipment Operator Blaich Allen, Collection Systems Supervisor Brad Norris, Engineering Assistant Director Ashley Getz, Quality Control Supervisor Angela Bowling and Treatment Plant Supervisor Travis Calhoun.
Columbus Utilities and individual employees received several awards at the 2024 Indiana Wastewater Environmental Association (IWEA) annual conference held in August in Indianapolis.
Columbus Utilities received the following awards:
• Laboratory Excellence Award
The Columbus Utilities Quality Control Laboratory is one of the other municipal facilities that received the 2024 IWEA Laboratory Excellence Award. Each year, a member of the IWEA Laboratory Committee travels around the state to conduct laboratory audits, and each laboratory must receive an overall audit score of 90% or higher to qualify for the award. The Columbus Utilities Quality Control Laboratory received a score of 99.8% in an audit conducted earlier this year. This audit is similar to the audits conducted by the Indiana Environmental Management Agency (IDEM), except that IWEA audits are only conducted in voluntary participating laboratories.
• Safety Excellence Award
Columbus Utilities Wastewater Treatment Plant was one of the other plants across the state to receive the 2024 Safety Excellence Award. The IWEA award recognizes all plants that received high scores for having the lowest rates of lost-time accidents. Columbus Utilities Wastewater Treatment Plant was inspected by members of the IWEA Safety Committee, who collected information about accident experiences from the plant’s year-end safety report.
• O & M Excellence Award
Columbus Public Utilities has been honored with the 2024 IWEA O&M Award. The IWEA award recognizes the WRRF (Water Resource Recovery Facility) for excellence in operations and maintenance, with zero violations on its NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit, reflecting the outstanding performance of its operations and maintenance staff over the previous year.
Utility employees received the following individual awards:
• Collection Systems Professional of the Year
Brad Norris, a collection systems supervisor, has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Collection Systems Professional of the Year Award. The IWEA award recognizes individuals who have worked hard to improve the collection systems profession.
• LL LARSON Safety Award
Travis Calhoun, a wastewater treatment plant supervisor, has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 LL Larson Safety Award. The IWEA award is given to the person responsible for improving the safety of operations at a waste treatment facility. The improvement could be a change in plant design, a change in plant operations, the development of safety rules, an education program or anything that helps reduce the number of accidents at the plant.
• Barbara Smith Award
Travis Calhoun, a wastewater treatment plant supervisor, has been selected as the recipient of the 2024 Barbara Smith Award. The IWEA award is presented to an individual for outstanding contributions to public outreach, promoting wastewater education, and mentoring the water and wastewater industries.
Angela Bowling, Quality Control Supervisor, and Brad Norris, Collection Systems Supervisor, were recognized for completing the Indiana Water Environment Association’s LDI program. The LDI (Leadership Development Institute) program is comprised of 10 courses where students delve into topics ranging from communications to human resources to organizational leadership over a 12-month period. Each course is designed to best develop and inspire future water industry leaders.