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Powdersville Water Wins Prestigious Award We continue to pursue excellence in our primary mission—providing safe drinking water to our customers at all times. This is a critical job and we do not take it lightly. This pursuit was recognized recently by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) which presented Powdersville Water District with the Director’s Award for its participation in the Partnership for Safe Water’s Distribution System Optimization Program (DSO). PWD was one of only eleven systems in the nation that has received this award. The DSO program is a voluntary continuous improvement program that uses optimization methods to improve public drinking water systems beyond what the state and federal regulations require. This program was introduced by AWWA in 2011 and was designed specifically for water distribution systems that want to be “top of their class”. This process seeks to improve system performance by stressing the optimization of daily operation and maintenance tasks that collectively make a difference in the final product. When implemented conscientiously and diligently, the program provides an ongoing assessment of a water system’s ability to deliver high quality drinking water to all users at all times. DSO uses three primary system goals to determine if a system is optimized. The first goal is water quality -- largely determined by testing for adequate disinfectant residual system-wide. The presence of the disinfectants lets PWD know that the system is bacteria-free. The second goal is hydraulic in nature, whereby system pressure is continuously monitored in each pressure zone of the system. By continually monitoring the system pressure, PWD can regulate pressure fluctuations to the customer, protecting the infrastructure and guarding against contamination from extremely low pressure. The third goal is infrastructure integrity. In pursuing this goal, main break frequency is monitored and minimized. When main breaks occur, the system could be exposed to contamination. By working to minimize these events and by following recommended procedures during repairs, PWD seeks to ensure that contaminates never enter the system. Although the three goals are clear and straightforward, the complete optimization of our system to meet these goals is complex and involves numerous steps for corrective action. To properly assess the system, we are asked to look at every facet of the business. However, winning an award for this effort is not the end game for us—it is an opportunity for our staff to get better at what we do. To get better at anything, you must always be improving your understanding and then act on this new knowledge. Complacency will never result in improvement; operating a water system is no different. This program has provided our staff with great training and a better understanding of their jobs. With great understanding, comes quality results and with increased quality, comes a pride in a job well done. As you can see, we believe in going the extra mile to validate that your water is always of the best quality—because this is our mission. We hope that these efforts cause your confidence in your water company to grow even stronger. Thank you for being our customer! SOURCE: The Pipepline - http://www.powdersvillewaterdistrict.com/Pipeline_JUNE_2016.pdf