Recognizing Ingenuity From Treatment Plant Employees

In all-too-rare recognition of treatment plant workers and the lengths to which they’ll go to provide water and wastewater services, the Water Environment Federation (WEF) announced winners for its fifth annual Ingenuity Contest at its technical exhibition and conference in New Orleans.

The group of winners was selected based on their ability to think creatively and use whatever was available to at the time to solve an operational challenge.

“The program began as a way to recognize the amazing work that frontline operators do on a daily basis,” according to a joint statement from WEF’s Steve Spicer and Susan Merther. “Working in the field, these men and women face challenges that have to be dealt with quickly to get the job done … These types of ‘duct tape fixes’ often go overlooked and unsung but they often save the day.”

An open call for submissions from WEF asked for a short description of an inventive fix, either a new tool implemented to solve a problem or the use of an existing item in a clever way. After the entries were compiled (this year there were 24), they were sent to a group of volunteer judges for numerical ratings on their usefulness, originality, safety, and resourcefulness.

The winners were invited to present during the awards ceremony and given a certificate and prize package. Beyond a pat on the back for clever operators, the award is meant to inspire others that might face similar problems or need to find an on-hand solution.

“If an operator is facing a situation similar to one encountered by an award winner, they likely might find a readymade answer,” said the WEF officials. “But beyond that, the message is to not discount an idea just because it’s simple and straightforward.”

Among this year’s winners was James Spielvogel from the Borough of Ellwood City Wastewater Treatment Plant in Pennsylvania. He was used to donning a life preserver and climbing out to the plant’s clarifier skimmer during the winters to raise it up and keep it from freezing to the grease box when he realized there could be a better way.

“I thought that if I could get some kind of hook and hold it to the arm of the clarifier, I could stand right on the bridge and reach down with a pole, hook it up, and pull it off,” he said. “Then, it only requires one guy to do it as opposed to two guys standing there for safety reasons and a life preserver and the safety harness.”

Spielvogel received the “Ice Breaker Award” for his invention, which is made of materials from a local hardware store.

The crew at the York Wastewater Treatment facility in New England faced a similar problem. Freezing would cause ice to buildup on the scum trough, creating stress on the skimmer arm. Employees would have to use an ice pick to chip the ice off.

Workers designed and built the framing and hood to mount an infrared heater, which hangs above the trough without obstructing operation, to keep ice from building up. Aaron Dressel, Chris Wize, Kelly Wolfe, and Dan Danhauer received WEF’s “Trough Toaster Award” for the innovation.

“It’s nice to know the effort we put into this was worthwhile and if the idea can help another treatment plant do something similar or encourages them to submit an idea of their own to the ingenuity contest, that’s what it’s all about,” said Dressel.

The “Danger Dodger Award” went to Cheryl Read from the King County Wastewater Treatment Division in Washington. Working at a secondary treatment facility with solids handling and tertiary treatment for recycled water, Read dealt with sediment tank valve actuators that were located in a pit below gallery level.

“The pit is a confined space requiring two operators, an air monitor, proper documentation, and usually a ladder [to access the actuators],” she said. “The pit is somewhat small and not easily accessed. This task was cumbersome for the operations group.”

Read found that by rotating the valves 90 degrees, their handles could be reached from the outside, making the work safer and easier.

“The idea was a group effort that evolved out of the frustration of continual gathering of equipment to make an entry into the pit,” she said.

A group from the Prince William County Service Authority (PWCSA) in Virginia took home the “Digital Trailblazer Award” after they built their own map-based application for use by operators in the field. The group found that many staff members were regularly accessing multiple systems to complete their day-to-day work, so they integrated their systems and developed a GIS application that would provide “one-stop shopping” for all the information they could need, building everything themselves.

“Early program business case development showed that if we hired talented, motivated people and built our own applications, we would not only be able to save significant costs, but develop great functionality, own the process for the long-term, keep the knowledge of the process in-house, and have tremendous flexibility to adapt to changes as they arise,” the group said in a statement. “Those benefits are not easily obtainable by using external resources and certainly not at the low cost we incur with our current application development model.”

PWCSA estimated that it saved roughly 50 percent of the cost to develop and administer its apps program compared to using external resources, all while achieving greater customization for its specific needs. The group also offered some advice for other utilities that are considering taking innovation matters into their own hands.

“Develop a strong, clear vision to start, shoot for the stars, and be bold,” it said. “The benefits you’ll get will be great and at relatively low cost.”

In perhaps the best demonstration of how everyday items can be used in innovative ways, Gregory Williams from Ontario’s Good Harbour Laboratories took home the “Beaker Peeker Award” for his use of graduations on a glass beaker to measure scum depth. Traditionally, operators would insert a clear tube (known as a “sludge judge”), plug the top, and pull it out to obtain a core sample of scum. Williams saw some problems with this method.

“For one, it is difficult to maintain a good seal, so the liquid usually starts to drain out right away so the layers are a moving target,” he said. “For at-grade or above-grade units, the 4-foot sections [on a sludge judge] can be awkward to use and they are always awkward to clean.”

Williams found that the markings on an average glass beaker can be recorded and the distance between them measured to provide accurate thickness without those drawbacks. Though he did not imagine that such a simple solution could garner an award.

“I have to admit that winning the award was quite a shock, I thought the idea was too obvious,” he said. “Instead of putting the liquid in a clear tube, why not put a clear tube in the liquid?”

Others receiving recognition included Walton J. Summers II from the Jacksonville Wastewater Utility in Arkansas, who won the “Explainer in Chief Award” for a Christmas parade float and tabletop display for consumer outreach, and Jerome Marshall, a quality assurance service inspector for the Sewage and Water Board of New Orleans and the first operator to receive the New Orleans Municipal Employee of the Year Award, who received the “Honorary Operator Ingenuity Award.”