HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-08-2007 South Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant Applauded for Excellence O�a$pU T$
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Office of the Mayor
NEW RELEASE
Friday, June 8, 2007
CONTACT: Mikki Dobski, Director, Communications & Special Projects, 235-5855 or 876-
1564
Jack Dillon, Director of Environmental Services, 277-8515
South Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant Applauded for Excellence
The City of South Bend congratulates its Wastewater Treatment Plant Team for winning
1"Place overall at the 2007 State Wastewater Challenge competition and 1"Place in the
Residuals Competition, which was recently held in Seymour, Indiana The city team includes
Jill Norton, Jeff Sieradzki, Patrick Henthorn and Ken Smith. South Bend wastewater teams won
the overall Championship in 2001, 2002, and 2003.
"The continued success of South Bend's Wastewater Treatment Plant staff in the annual
Challenge competition, speaks to the commitment of the department to deliver the highest
quality of service to the residents of South Bend," said Mayor Luecke. "Our Wastewater
Treatment Plant employees continually strive to use the best management tools, safety practices
and processes available for compliance and improvement of performance standards."
The Wastewater Challenge was started in 1986 in an effort to bring Wastewater
employees together for educational competition and fun. Teams of four people from across the
state, spend one hour at five different challenging events. The five discipline events include
Residuals, Safety, Lab, Operation & Maintenance, and Collection System. Wastewater
professional teams are not told until the day of the events, what to expect from the hands-on and
written experiments that test skills acquired through training and day-to-day activities.
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Jack Dillon, Director of Environmental Services, stated "I am extremely proud of our
Wastewater Treatment Plant Team. These awards acknowledge the professionalism of our staff,
as they go about the task of safeguarding the city's water, while preserving the St. Joseph River
as the important community asset that it is."
Last year, South Bend celebrated the Wastewater Treatment Plant's fifty years of
operation, since it's inception in 1956, and was also the host site of the Challenge competition
tournament, placing third in the overall competition. Since the 1990's, over $87 million has been
invested in the Wastewater Treatment Plant and last year the city launched a 10-year, Clean
River-Healthy Neighborhoods Plan that will eliminate chronic sewage backups into basements
and continue to improve sewage collection and treatment capabilities. The 10-year plan will also
reduce raw sewage overflow volume by 38 percent in atypical year.
The Plant treated a total of 11.559 billion gallons of wastewater in 2006, which converts
to an average daily flow of 31.67 million gallons per day, meeting the permit conditions and
water quality standards of the new National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, which then
allows the Plant to discharge treated wastewater into the St. Joseph River.
Additionally, Jill Norton and Michelle Smith, both chemists with the Environmental
Services Laboratory Team obtained their Class IV and D wastewater certifications, the highest
certifications offered in Indiana.
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