The Federal Environmental Protection Agency has announced that the Village of Johnson Waste Water Treatment Facility has been awarded second place in the EPA National Operations and Maintenance Excellence Award in the Small Advanced Category for Waste Water Treatment Facilities. The Village of Johnson advanced to the national competition by winning the EPA Region 1 Award in the same category in December of 2002.

The Village of Johnson Waste Water Treatment Facility was nominated for this prestigious award by the Waste Water Management Division of the Vt. Agency of Natural Resources. In her letter of nomination, Director Marilyn Davis noted, “The facility has had a spotless compliance record for the past two years, with BOD and TSS effluent values averaging in the low single numbers and total phosphorus values consistently below 0.6 mg/l.”

The facility was Vermont’s first “Sequencing Batch Reactor” (SBR) Waste Water Treatment Facility when it was constructed in 1995. This state of the art facility uses ultra violet light disinfection instead of chlorination in the treatment process and requires very few chemicals to operate. The plant is operated by Chief Operator Donald Garrett, WWTF Chief Operator, a 30 year veteran Village employee (recently honored by the Board of Trustees for dedicated service) and Tom Elwood the Assistant Chief Operator. The Village Board of Trustees is justifiable proud of the achievement of these two individuals.