Perry water good as gold

Perry residents will not have to endure the water troubles experienced by the people of Flint, Mich., according to a water official.

The city and ESG Operations Inc. were recognized at Tuesday’s city council meeting by the Georgia Association of Water Professionals for their continuing high level of achievement.

Three awards were bestowed on the city and ESG by the association: a Gold Award for Quality of Laboratory Assurance in Drinking Water for systems serving between 10,000 to 100,00 population, a Gold Award for Collection System Excellence, and a Silver Award for Distribution System Excellence.

The awards were presented at the associations Fall Conference in November.

“The city of Perry should be proud of its laboratory, collection and distribution systems and staff for reaching this impressive level of achievement,” said Jimmy Knight, member of the association’s executive committee.

“In the news, you’ve read about Flint, Mich. With these awards, you can rest assured … your systems can rest assured that your mayor and this council and all of your employees have done their due diligence, and what happened in Flint won’t happen in Perry. You can take time to be proud of yourself and proud of your employees.”

Knight didn’t stop there.

“I’m a 30-year veteran of water utilities, and I can tell you these awards are hard to achieve,” he said. “It doesn’t take one bottle or one shift. This excellence award is not for one day or one week, it’s for the entire year.”

Mayor Jimmy Faircloth said, “ESG has done a stellar job for us in several different aspects of providing quality service and continues to do that.”

It was a team effort, said Chad McMurrian, project manager for ESG.

“Thank you council for acknowledging our hard work, but I couldn’t do it without my team, the guys we have and the support from the city we’ve received,” McMurrian said. “It couldn’t be possible to achieve this level without their help.”

This is the fifth year running Perry and ESG have been earning awards from the association, Knight said.

They won a Silver Award in 2011, and Gold Awards in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

“The award reflects the caliber of employees in the collection system and your exceptional leadership and management,” Knight said.

HHJ News