Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - NACWA in the News
They'll Drink to That Kalamazoo Water Plant to Celebrate Violation-free Performance
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
By Kathy Jessup
kjessup@kalamazoogazette.com 388-8590
Employees may not toast with ``sparkling'' water discharged from
Kalamazoo's Water Reclamation Plant on Wednesday, but they will celebrate
operating one of only 16 plants in the United States that can brag of having no
discharge-permit violations in the past five years.
Kalamazoo is the lone Michigan facility to receive a 2006 Platinum Peak
Performance Award from the 370-member National Association of Clean Water
Agencies, a professional organization representing treatment plants in nearly
all major U.S. cities. Kalamazoo officials said this week the plant has had only
one discharge-permit violation in the past 10 years.
The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issues discharge permits to
wastewater-treatment operations statewide, setting the quality standard for the
water that can be discharged from the plant after the entering effluent is
treated. Water quality is continually monitored to determine how well plants are
adhering to those discharge standards.
Former and current employees will be feted Wednesday at the Kalamazoo plant,
located at 1415 N. Harrison St. The program will include lunch and a formal
award presentation.
Other Platinum award-winning plants this year are in Alabama, California,
Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington,
Wisconsin and West Virginia.