Rather ironic, wouldn’t you say, what with all the problems
at the other end of the water usage pipeline?
This award is for treating water as it comes out of the city’s wells.

WCTV posted a City of Valdosta press release yesterday,

Valdosta Receives GAWP Water Treatment Plant of the Year Award,

The City of Valdosta Water Treatment Plant has been recognized as
the 2013 Water Treatment Plant of the Year by the Georgia
Association of Water Professionals (GAWP).

The plant was recently evaluated by GAWP inspectors on its well
field operations, chemical processes and documentation, and scored
90% or better in all areas. City staff will accept the award in the
category for groundwater systems that pump over 10 million gallons
daily (MGD), at the GAWP Conference in Macon, Ga., on Tuesday April
16.

“Every day,

thousands of water customers in our city turn on
their faucets with little thought to the water that streams out and
how it moves from its initial source through the treatment process
and ultimately to our taps,” said Director of Utilities Henry
Hicks. “I commend Water Treatment Plant Superintendent Craig
Dozier, Assistant Superintendent Jason Barnes, and the other skilled
men and women responsible for bringing Valdosta water customers
quality drinking water daily.”

The city’s water treatment plant, located on Guest Road, processes
over 3.5 billion gallons of drinking water for its residential,
business and industrial customers annually. The state-of-the-art
facility obtains the city’s water supply from 7 wells that are
drilled into an underground layer of porous, water-bearing limestone
known as the Upper Floridan Aquifer.

“The City of Valdosta is proud to provide quality water
services to our customers for public health purposes, fire
protection, economic development and the quality of life of our
citizens,” said City Manager Larry Hanson. “Any measure
of a successful community is in some way related to access to safe
water, and we are proud of the Valdosta Water Treatment Plant


personnel who make this their daily mission.”

Originally built in 1992, the plant’s major treatment systems were
upgraded in 2007 to maintain quality water services while keeping up
with city growth. The plant uses ozone as the primary treatment
process and was the first municipal plant in Georgia to use this
technology. It has many innovative features, including on-site
generation of sodium hypochlorite for disinfection and computer
monitoring and control of treatment processes and a Supervisory
Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to monitor the
distribution system pressure and water levels in all elevated tanks
in the system. The system is permitted for an average daily flow
capacity of 14 MGD and a maximum daily flow of 22.5 MGD and flows
through over 300 miles of mains throughout the city. Considerations
were also given during the 2007 upgrade to allow for a future
expansion of the Water Treatment Plant to 45 MGD to meet the city’s
expected growth needs.

“The City of Valdosta is proud to offer some of the finest
water in the state, not only to our citizens but also to the
industries that choose to locate in Valdosta due to the quality of
our water,” said Mayor John Gayle. “Our Water Treatment
Plant is also positioned for growth with the capability of meeting
the water needs of our city and its citizens for years to
come.”

The Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP) is a
not-for-profit association founded in 1932 with membership of over
4,000 water and wastewater treatment plant operators and managers,
municipal and industrial officials and environmental managers, civil
engineers, environmental engineers, scientists, manufacturers and
their representatives, contractors, elected officials and others
concerned with Georgia’s water resources. The organization’s main
purpose is to educate and assist those who have an interest in the
proper management and protection of Georgia’s water resources.

To schedule a group tour of the Valdosta Water Treatment Plant or
for more information, contact Public Information Officer Sementha
Mathews at (229) 259-3548.

-jsq