2002 Award Winners

Metropolitan Water Utilities Recognized for Competitiveness

Washington, D.C. -- Major metropolitan water systems across the country are taking an increasingly competitive stance in order to meet the high and growing expectations of drinking water consumers and municipal government leaders. To recognize the achievements of these public water utilities, the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) today announced its 2002 Gold Awards for Competitiveness Achievement.

"AMWA's 16 Gold Award-winning water agencies are setting new business directions in an increasingly competitive water industry environment," said AMWA Executive Director Diane VanDe Hei. "These organizations employ pace-setting management practices to reinvent, reengineer, downsize and reinvest in order to meet the challenges of competition."

AMWA's 2002 Gold Awards for Competitiveness Achievement were awarded to:

City of Boca Raton Utility Services Department

Butler County (Ohio) Department of Environmental Services

Fort Wayne City Utilities

City of Henderson (Nevada) Department of Utility Services

Honolulu Board of Water Supply

Houston Department of Public Works and Engineering -- Water Production Branch

JEA (Jacksonville, Florida)

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department

Minneapolis Water Works

Nashville Metro Water Services

Newport News Waterworks

Norfolk (Virginia) Department of Utilities

Santa Clara Valley Water District

City of Scottsdale Water Resources Department

Tempe Water Utilities Department

"The public has very high expectations for safe drinking water and low-cost service, and local government leaders want water systems to operate like profit-making companies," VanDe Hei said. "The AMWA Gold Award winners have met and exceeded those expectations by using cross training for smaller, more flexible work forces, establishing capital improvement reserve funds to stabilize rates and introducing technologically advanced automation and information systems. These competitive publicly owned systems outrank even the best private companies," she added.

Gold Award entries were judged by experienced water system executives who looked at each company's benchmarking and competitiveness strategy and assessed their competitiveness improvement initiatives in the areas of plant, maintenance, engineering, finance, administration and employee development. Winners met goals for overall efficiency, cost of operation and quality of service. Many successfully used labor-management task forces to reengineer work process, had strong ongoing programs for evaluating customer satisfaction and employed proactive measures to ensure or improve their bond ratings. They also had forward-looking plans for systematically replacing and rehabilitating their production and delivery system infrastructure to help ensure adequate future water supplies.

"AMWA's Gold Award winners are among the best-operated, most efficient water systems in the nation and are a credit to their communities," VanDe Hei said.

Download the booklet describing the accomplishments of the gold award winners.