The Williamsburg water department was recently recognized for its clean drinking water. The department was awarded its eighth consecutive Area Wide Optimization Program (AWOP) award from the Kentucky Environment and Energy Cabinet.
Chris Brewer, supervisor of maintenance for the Williamsburg Water Department, explains why the award is important. “What it actually means to everybody here in Williamsburg is that the people of Williamsburg have the cleanest drinking water available in the state of Kentucky.” Williamsburg Water Department was one of 36 water treatment plants to receive the award.
Williamsburg Water Department officials say what makes them unique is that they pump their water off of a river, a technique that no longer used by many departments.
In order to receive the award, the water in the plant was tested every four hours and it had to fall underneath the federal standards for surface water treatment plants. Brewer says the department’s water was not anywhere close to exceeding the standards.
In addition to receiving the AWOP award for eight consecutive years, the Williamsburg Water Department also received the Kentucky Division of Water’s Champion award in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015.
Through the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the AWOP is an administered multi-state initiative. AWOP’s purpose is to encourage drinking water systems to achieve the optimization goals that are more stringent than the regulations.
Read more at: https://www.thenewsjournal.net/wburg-drinking-water-among-states-cleanest/
