Award Winners
Beaver Water District
2016 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
Beaver Water District optimizes operations to produce a quality product by setting a goal of 100 percent compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, maintaining membership in the Partnership for Safe Water and ensuring that capital planning focuses on maintaining high quality water. The utility updated its asset management plan and used the information to establish funding requirements for its Replacement & Refurbishment Fund, which is integral to its 15-year financial plan update and associated recommended wholesale water rate increases. The District promotes customer satisfaction and stakeholder support to achieve community sustainability through various outreach activities.
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 Raleigh Public Utilities Department
2016 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
As a regional utility, operations of the City of Raleigh Public Utilities Department are supported via an enterprise fund model and are fully funded by revenues received from rates and fees for services, as well as fees associated with new development. Over the past three years, the utility made significant progress in strategic plan elements of employee and leadership development, operational optimization, stakeholder outreach, reliability, environmental stewardship, water resource management and financial viability. The strategic plan was updated in 2015 to identify new initiatives, and primary focus now includes customer service, reliability and operational optimization.
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.
DC Water
2016 Sustainable Water Utility Management Award
DC Water has tripled its water main replacement program, supported by changing its water rate structure to create a dedicated $40 million annually. To fund large-scale environmental projects, the utility issued an innovative green century bond in 2014. Its $2.6 billion Clean Rivers Project will significantly reduce the combined sewer overflows and a $470 million waste-to-energy project uses innovative technology to turn residuals from the wastewater treatment process into electricity and a beneficial soil amendment. DC Water’s research teams have provided insights into the effects of galvanized plumbing on lead leaching and leading to advancements in thermal hydrolysis.
Fort Wayne City Utilities
2016 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
Fort Wayne City Utilities consistently produces quality water for its customers, allowing management to focus on other key initiatives to improve its organization. The utility prioritizes employee and leadership development by encouraging continuous learning through in-house and external training opportunities, for example, growing the number of professional engineers on staff from two to 16. Management has also rewritten all job descriptions to provide for career growth. In 2015, the utility implemented a new customer account management and billing system, which has benefited both customers and the utility. And new chemical feed programs were implemented at its filtration plant, resulting in more consistent and better quality water.
Kansas City Board of Public Utilities
2016 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
Kansas City Board of Public Utilities has implemented improvement initiatives including: valve, hydrant and customer leak detection programs; water treatment plant filter upgrades; water distribution facility maintenance and Geographic Information System; a water main and fire hydrant replacement project; a new four-million gallon water reservoir; and a Maximo asset work order management program. The utility develops programs to ensure training and understanding of work processes and standards throughout the organization. It works continually to improve its services to the community and measures overall customer satisfaction by reviewing data from customer satisfaction studies, customer inquiry reports, a cost-of-service study and AEGIS risk assessment.
KC Water
2016 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
KC Water has capitalized on challenges to establish an evidence-based, data-driven utility in all aspects, including infrastructure rehabilitation, maintenance, operational and customer-service programs. Achievements include: new infrastructure rehabilitation based on increased customer satisfaction as measured by customer surveys; improved main replacement protocols based on business risk exposure; and significant automation of many business processes. Careful management of debt coverage requirements to support long-term infrastructure investment has improved financial results. Forward-thinking processes have been implanted throughout administrative functions including customer service operations, employee training and staff development and long-range organizational planning.
Louisville Water Company
2016 Sustainable Water Utility Management Award
Louisville Water Company adopted the Effective Utility Management performance benchmarking framework and also makes use of a 20-year facilities plan, a five-year capital improvement plan, and both five- and ten-year financial projections. Its asset management program is focused on transmission main assessments, lead service replacements, water main and fire hydrant rehabilitation and replacements, and water storage tank inspections and restoration. Its customer outreach with the pure tap program serves tap water at hundreds of events and includes an education and social media campaign, drinking water fountain signage and partnerships with local businesses that serve tap water.
Mesa Water
2016 Platinum Award for Utility Excellence
To conserve finite resources, Mesa Water decreased its dependence on non-renewable groundwater supplies from over 70 percent in 1984, to around 10 percent today. The utility recharges approximately 8,000 acre-feet of effluent a year and achieves close to 100 percent reuse of reclaimed water. Its technology initiatives include Cityworks computerized maintenance management software and asset management system, and its mobile dispatch utilizes geolocation to ensure responsive dispatch to emergencies and complaints. Mesa Water maintains an Aa2 bond rating from Moody’s and developed a 20-year forecast model to anticipate revenues and expenses and prepare reserves for smoothing potential future rate increases.
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.