CWEA Wastewater Professional :: April 2014 March 2014 Volume 2 | Page 14

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of sewage treatment and its role in protecting the
health of their communities.
With the foregoing in mind the CSWA Award of
Merit program was started as reported in the 1929
California Sewage Works Journal:
“The Board of Directors has decided to award
a yearly prize for the best maintained and operated sewage treatment plant. The prize will consist of a bronze plaque, on which each year will
be engraved the name of the town or district and
operator in charge. In addition to this, the operator will receive a cash prize of $25. These prizes
will be donated by the manufacturer-members of
the association (California Sewage Works Journal,
1929, Vol. II, No. 1).
It was recognized by the CSWA Board of Directors that the Award of Merit would need a process
and criteria for nominating and evaluating sewage treatment plants for the award, so the Board
directed the CSWA Award Committee to establish a
procedure for the Award of Merit. The development
of the procedure was accomplished by the Award
Committee in time for the 1930 spring CSWA conference. The first award “procedure” was short and
simple compared to the current CWEA program
and it included a selection rotation between plants
with different treatment processes to ensure the
award would not be skewed towards plants with
more sophisticated treatment systems. The Award
Committee presented the following to the Board
for adoption in early 1930 in order to process the
award nominee for 1929:
Procedure for Making Annual Award of Merit
The 1930 Award of Merit Committee, Leon B.
Reynolds, chairman, reported at the Third Spring
Conference, Ventura, on the following procedure
to be used in determining the plant to which the
annual award of merit shall be made:
A. Consideration Involved – The consideration involved in the decision, with their relative
weights, shall be as follows:
a. Intelligent and conscientious operation 30%
b. Efficient results 30%
c. Ingenuity in method of operation, develop

Wastewater Professional April 2014

ment of new devices, adaption to local
conditions 20%
d.  ttractiveness and appearance of plant, sufA
ficiency of support 20%
B. Plants Considered – During 3 out of 5 years
the award shall be made to a plant producing a
filtered or oxidized effluent and during th H