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U.S. EPA presents prestigious national water award to Bay Area city / City of Santa Rosa places second in nation in large wastewater pretreatment category

Release Date: 11/19/2008
Contact Information: Wendy Chavez, 415/947-4248, chavez.wendy@epa.gov

(San Francisco, Calif. -- 11/19/08) As part of the 2008 National Clean Water Act recognition awards, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that the city of Santa Rosa, Calif.., has received a second-place award for its outstanding and innovative achievements in wastewater treatment and pollution prevention.

Alexis Strauss, the EPA’s Water Division director for the Pacific Southwest region, presented the national award to the Santa Rosa City Council.

“Santa Rosa has an outstanding pretreatment program, which in tandem with its strong pollution prevention program focuses on pollutants which affect the watershed directly,” said Strauss. “The city’s outstanding program is making a huge difference in reducing pollution loadings to the areas streams and rivers.”

The EPA recognized the city’s pretreatment program for having significant reductions of heavy metals and organic compounds in the wastewater entering the treatment plant. The city is also being honored for its industry compliance and oversight, enforcement, program integration and partnerships, oil and grease program, and outreach and public education. The city of Santa Rosa has 30 significant industrial users.

The EPA’s pretreatment awards recognize municipalities that effectively implement a complex regulatory program that ensures industrial wastewater is being treated before entering the nation’s waters. Award recipients implement measures that go beyond the basic pretreatment program and demonstrate innovation in implementing the program.

The EPA also recognized 24 organizations across the country for demonstrating outstanding water quality achievements for projects and programs in five award categories: operations and maintenance, exemplary biosolids management, implementation and enforcement of local pretreatment programs, cost-effective stormwater controls, and combined sewer overflow controls.

The EPA-sponsored awards program is in its 23rd year, and recognizes wastewater treatment facilities and their contributions to protecting the public’s health and safety and the nation’s water quality.

For a complete list of the winners, visit: https://www.epa.gov/owm/mtb/intnet.htm and for more information on the EPA’s pretreatment program, visit: http://epa.gov/region9/water/pretreatment/index.html