Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
The Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance recognizes member water systems that exhibit high levels of performance in the areas of community sustainability, customer experience and satisfaction, enterprise resiliency, financial viability, infrastructure strategy and performance, operational optimization, reliability and regulatory requirements, stakeholder understanding and support, water resource sustainability, and workforce development. These are the ten Attributes of Effectively Managed Utilities identified in 2007 by a blue ribbon panel of water and wastewater utility executives and revised in the 2024 Effective Utility Management: A Primer for Water Sector Utilities.
Any AMWA member utility that has never won a Gold Award is eligible to apply for the Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance.
- Example Gold Award-Winning Application
Recent Award Winners
Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust
2017 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
The Oklahoma City Utilities Department and Oklahoma City Water Utilities Trust strive to meet the city’s growth by securing surface water rights through a groundbreaking water rights agreement. The department develops leadership opportunities for employees across all divisions by encouraging safe workforce practices, accountability and customer service. Its Standard and Poor’s (AAA) and Moody’s (Aaa) bond ratings were reaffirmed in 2015, and strong financial principles place it in the top 5.5 percent of water utilities nationwide. A strategic business plan helps it weigh community needs against available capital and personnel resources with 59 key strategies to continually monitor progress and make improvements.
Central Arizona Project
2016 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
The Central Arizona Project (CAP) plays a critical economic role, delivering more than 1.5 million acre-feet of Colorado River water annually to municipal, industrial, agricultural and Native American water users. CAP works collaboratively with customers, government agencies, water users in the seven basin states and the Republic of Mexico to address regional water supply issues. The agency helped develop cooperative interstate and international agreements designed to conserve Colorado River water and ensure the continued reliability and sustainability of that shared water supply. It employs open, transparent budgeting and rate-setting processes, and a recent assessment found CAP’s asset management program led all surveyed North American utilities.
City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities
2016 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
The City of Richmond Department of Public Utilities’ (DPU) Enterprise Asset Management Plan assists in coordinating planning and management of projects across the city and includes components to maintain inventory and maintenance schedules, track key performance indicators and capture Standard Operating Procedures in a centralized location. DPU has continually been in compliance with all federal and state drinking water requirements and new technologies have been adopted to improve operational efficiencies. The Department engages and educates customers through its website, newsletters, social media posts and advertising. DPU staff present information at community meetings, and a Citizens’ Academy was developed to provide a more in-depth look at utility operations.
Coachella Valley Water District
2016 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) is a multi-faceted California Special District serving more than 318,000 people across a 1,000 square-mile area in portions of Riverside and Imperial counties. Services include drinking water for homes and businesses, irrigation water imported from the Colorado River, recycled water for golf course and landscape-related use, wastewater treatment, regional stormwater protection, groundwater basin management and conservation programs and education for customers. Strategic plan goals include employee workforce development, financial stability, water supply sustainability, exceptional customer service, water quality and environmental leadership, and infrastructure investment and management. Progress is measured using the SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely) matrix.
Montgomery County Environmental Services
2016 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
Montgomery County Environmental Services provides high quality water, wastewater, solid waste and recycling service to citizens in Southwest Ohio. Its innovative “block and index” energy purchasing strategy has allowed the utility, since 2013, to reduce energy costs by 15 percent. Leadership development is addressed through a cross-department Executive Steering Team and a Managers Bookclub for middle management, which provides training in team building, effective communication and understanding personal strengths and weaknesses. The department also opened a state-of-the-art Environmental Learning Center, constructed with sustainable building materials and designed to educate citizens about utility services, waste reduction, recycling and water conservation.
Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans
2016 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
In recent years, the Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans (S&WB) coordinated a massive rebuilding of destroyed infrastructure with the city’s Department of Public Works, accelerating the timeframe of recovery and saving taxpayers millions of dollars of unnecessary duplicative efforts. A $2.1 billion Hurricane Katrina FEMA settlement was negotiated and the funds used to construct the Southeast Louisiana (SELA) drainage program to prevent street flooding in parts of the city previously damaged by heavy rains. The utility is also constructing a Water Hammer to mitigate boil water advisories and is replacing 124 miles of water lines. S&WB has produced seven green infrastructure projects and is planning a green roof for its main office downtown.
Fort Collins Utilities
2015 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
Fort Collins Utilities has put in place numerous processes for exceptional utility performance, starting with ISO Certification for Environmental Management for its water treatment facility. The water system benefits from a robust strategic financial planning process, an asset management program that includes infrastructure modeling and capital improvement planning, and use of a continuous improvement cycle. Customer satisfaction and stakeholder understanding efforts garner high grades. An extensive water rights portfolio ensures access to water in even the driest years and a rigorous testing program assures high-quality finished water.
Greenville Water
2014 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
Greenville Water has completed the first formal Natural Resources Management Plan for two of its watersheds and obtained a permitted water resource portfolio from three separate watersheds that can sustain its service area with water for over 56 years. The utility actively engages its stakeholders through its economic development, community giving and public outreach programs and implemented the Greenville Water Leadership Academy to provide in-house leadership training to supervisory employees. It maintains AAA bond ratings with all three major bond-rating agencies, developed a formal asset management system to more accurately prioritize and budget water main replacements and updated its security and emergency response plan and training.
Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority
2014 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
The Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority, a wholesale water supplier to four county members in southwest Florida, has secured a reliable, sustainable and affordable water supply for the residents of the region and provides the infrastructure for business development, economic recovery and prosperity.Through the creation of public and private partnerships, the Authority successfully completed an extensive expansion program over the past decade, utilizing alternative water supply in lieu of groundwater pumping. The Authority has been a model in the state in development of alternative water supply through surface water storage by off-stream reservoir and aquifer storage and recovery systems.
Beaver Water District
2013 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
Beaver Water District’s focus on performance measures has improved its bottom line, making operations more efficient and sustainable while engaging employees. Operations and cost savings were improved through programs such as oil analysis and electrical load shedding. Refinancing long-term indebtedness reduced annual debt payments by more than $2 million per year. Creation of a stakeholder group, and the resulting Beaver Watershed Alliance, focused regional efforts on protecting Beaver Lake, the District’s only raw water source. The District also built a LEED Gold Administration Center that includes a Water Education Center for educational efforts on drinking water, source water protection and sustainable practices.
City of Dayton Water Department
2013 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
Since 1955 the City of Dayton has received national recognition as a Groundwater Guardian Community. The City of Dayton Water Department works to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and has implemented numerous projects for recycling and to reduce energy usage. The City reclaims 800,000 gallons of water softening residuals daily and converts these to calcium oxide for water softening. The Water Department has established a successful Leadership Development program for employees and is developing a Water University Program. In 2011, the Water Department completed an assessment of its baseline conditions. Critical deficiencies were corrected, optimization projects were scheduled and a $180 million infrastructure improvement project was launched.
City of Mesa Water Resources Department
2013 Gold Award for Exceptional Utility Performance
The services provided by the City of Mesa Water Resources Department underlie the functioning of the local economy, enable public health and safety, protect the environment and provide for quality of life. Achievements include the development of a strategic plan emphasizing the use of performance measures that lead toward effective utility management. The organization focuses on water quality, superior customer service, asset management, sustainability projects that protect the environment and insistence on operational efficiency. Mesa Water highlights reduction of electrical usage for treatment facilities and reduction of O&M costs per capita compared to the national median.