April 26, 2017 | From City of New Orleans
Sewerage and Water Board Wins Two Awards in March 2017
The Sewerage and Water Board (SWB) was awarded the Environmental Leadership Program (ELP) Municipality Achievement Award in Community Environmental Outreach for its Growing Water Literacy Program.
Chief of Environmental Affairs, Ann Wilson and Environmental Affairs Utility Services Manager - Scott Finney, accepted the award from Secretary of Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality - Dr. Chuck Brown, at the DEQ awards ceremony in Baton Rouge on Wednesday, March 22.
The Growing Water Literacy Program aims to promote environmental quality and reduce pollution and environmental degradation in New Orleans by informing, educating, and empowering the city’s residents to be watershed stewards. It also creates opportunities and programs that encourage Board employees and City counterparts to share their knowledge, skills and abilities in water management with the community in ways that grow local water literacy while fostering trust in the agency’s expertise.
In addition to winning the DEQ’s 2017 Environmental Leadership Award, the SWB’s “Water Dogz” competitive operations team won two first place state titles at the Regional Water Environment Association Annual Conference. The Dogz took home a first place win in the Maintenance Event and first place in the Safety Event on Tuesday, March 20 in Lafayette.
The three-time State Champion team consists of employees from different parts of the Board including Networks Repairs, Networks Engineering, Water Quality, and Environmental Affairs. The team competed in five different events that included collection systems, laboratory, process control, maintenance and safety. Winners of the events are determined by a weighted point system designed to test their diverse skills.
Members of the team include SWB Networks Division staff Jerome Marshall (Captain), Carlton Allen (Co-Captain), Ron Ferdinand, Phillip Minor, Ja’Ryan Youngblood, and Mark Bearchild.
The SWB Water Dogz beat the Lafayette Cajuns. This is the Dogz second consecutive state title. They also won in 2011. The Dogz will go on to represent the state of Louisiana in Chicago at the Water Environment Federation (WEF) Annual Conference in October.