Saint Paul Regional Water Services' McCarrons Water Treatment Plant Achieves Highest Level Of Performance

Saint Paul Regional Water Services is among an elite group to reach this superior level of performance

Saint Paul Regional Water Services’ McCarrons treatment plant received the prestigious Presidents Award from the Partnership for Safe Water.

The Partnership is a drinking water optimization program sponsored by the American Water Works Association, the Environmental Protection Agency and other water organizations. The award recognizes water treatment facilities that continuously provide drinking water quality that surpasses regulatory requirements through treatment plant and distribution system optimization. The President’s Award recognizes treatment plants that meet the program’s highly stringent optimization goals for individual filter effluent turbidity. Turbidity levels are a good indicator of the filter plant’s effectiveness.

The award is based on a four-phase, self-assessment and peer review process. For the Presidents Award, the plant received recognition for achieving optimized levels of individual filter effluent turbidity. SPRWS is the first treatment plant in Minnesota to achieve this level of performance, and the 11th plant in the country to receive the Presidents Award. It is the final step before reaching the Excellence in Water Treatment Award.

“Reaching Presidents Award status is a very significant achievement in our ongoing work to meet stringent performance goals,” said Steve Schneider, general manager. “Improving the quality of our water is a goal we will always try to meet and exceed. The Presidents Award is an important milestone as we seek to continuously improve and ultimately satisfy the requirements for the Excellence in Water Treatment award.”

SPRWS received the15-Year Directors Award in 2013, being recognized for 15 years of maintaining Directors Award status for the McCarrons treatment plant. Only a dozen other utilities in the country had achieved that goal when the award was received.

The Partnership for Safe Water is a self-assessment program for water treatment plant and distribution system optimization. More than 250 utility subscribers, collectively serving more than 100 million people, commit to the Partnership’s goals of providing safe, high-quality drinking water by achieving operational excellence in water treatment or distribution. Partnership utility subscribers participate in a rigorous self-assessment and peer review process, developed by industry experts, and achieve recognition for their commitment to the delivery of safe water for their community.

The Partnership for Safe Water is an alliance of the American Water Works Association, Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies, Association of State Drinking Water Administrators, United States Environmental Protection Agency, National Association of Water Companies, and the Water Research Foundation.