Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - NACWA in the News
Clean Water Services plants earn awards
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Washington County's Clean Water Services says all four of its sewage treatment plants received "gold peak performance" awards for "excellence in wastewater treatment" from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.
The countywide sewage treatment agency says the "gold" awards go
only to plants which have achieved 100 percent compliance with their "national
pollutant discharge elimination system" permits, which include about 1,000
daily, weekly and annual requirements.
CWS' treatment plants include two large regional treatment facilities -- Rock
Creek in southeast Hillsboro and Durham near Tigard High School -- and two
smaller plants at Hillsboro and Forest Grove.
Since the awards program begin in 1986, Clean Water Services has received multiple awards, but this marks the first time all four of its facilities have received gold awards in the same year, a spokesman said.
Nationally, more than 3,000 facilities are considered for the award, but only 240 actually got the award, CWS said. There are more than 16,000 publicly owned wastewater treatment plants.
National pollutant discharge elimination system permits are required under the federal Clean Water Act, administered by the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Oregon's Department of Environmental Quality.