Annual Excellence Awards

Please select the respective boxes below to learn more about the nomination criteria. 

32nd Annual Excellence Awards Honorees

Austin Water honored 29 commercial and industrial water customers for Excellence in Pretreatment Compliance, Water Protection, 
Water Conservation and Reclaimed Water Project and Onsite Water Reuse Project during the year 2023. Honorees were recognized 
during the 32nd Annual Recognition & Awards Ceremony at the Austin Central Library’s Special Event Center on Friday, April 26, 2024.

32nd Annual Excellence Awards Poster

Photos from the 32nd Annual Excellence Awards Ceremony

Excellence in Pretreatment Compliance

For 17 Consecutive Years:

• AI Industries

For 15 Consecutive Years:

• City of Austin, Austin Resource Recovery, Mabel Davis

For 12 Consecutive Years:

• Samsung Austin Semiconductor

For 10 Consecutive Years:

• City of Austin, Austin Resource Recovery, FM 812 Landfill
• NXP USA, Inc. - Ed Bluestein

For 9 Consecutive Years:

• NXP USA, Inc. - Oak Hill
• University of Texas - J.J. Pickle Research Campus

For 7 Consecutive Years:

• Travis County TNR

For 5 Consecutive Years

• ICU Medical, Inc.

For 4 Consecutive Years:

• Enovis Surgical
• Stellarray, Inc.

For 3 Consecutive Years:

• Liquid Environmental Solutions of Texas

For 2 Consecutive Years:

• Infineon Technologies
• Sante Laboratories, LLC

For 1 Year:

• Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
• Tesla Giga Texas
• TLMI Corporation

Excellence in Water Protection

• 1st Fire Safety
• C & K Plumbing
• Fluid Meter Service Corporation
• Ryan Waeltermann of G Hyatt Construction
• Hill Country Springs
• Lester Duncan of Rangeland Services, LLC
• Suzanne Burkhalter of Danly Properties
• T’s Sharper Stylez & Cutz

Excellence in Water Conservation

• The Conservatory of North Austin by Discovery Senior Living

Excellence in Reclaimed Water Project and Onsite Water Reuse Project

• Austin Energy
• Austin Public Library
• Travis County

Pretreatment

Austin Water’s Excellence in Pretreatment Award honors distinguished Significant Industrial Users (SIUs) who exhibit environmental stewardship by proactively preventing pollution and managing wastewater discharge. This award is part of our P2 pollution prevention program, which partners with local businesses to reduce pollution and minimize waste.

For all Austin industrial waste generators, meeting effluent quality standards typically requires more than just a properly designed, operated, and maintained pretreatment system. The City must meet stringent water quality standards because TCEQ has designated Austin’s segment of the Colorado River for exceptional aquatic life use, contact recreation and public water supply. Meeting these standards is possible only because Austin Water Utility and local businesses work together to strictly control wastewater discharge.

Pretreatment Award winners go beyond meeting effluent quality requirements by devoting significant time and attention to self-monitoring and reporting requirements, carefully designing a pollution prevention strategy, training staff and encouraging active participation throughout the organization. Award winners must meet the following criteria during the permit year:

1. The permit holder must meet the EPA’s definition of Significant Industrial User (SIU) and must be in operation and permitted the entire permit year.
2. The SIU must meet all permit sampling and reporting requirements.
3. The SIU may not have any pollutant discharge that causes a pass through, interference or other significantly negative effect on the wastewater collection or treatment system.
4. The SIU may not have any accidental or slug discharge to the City’s sanitary or storm sewers resulting in a Pretreatment violation.
5. The SIU may not violate any mass or concentration effluent standards and must comply with the following criteria regarding pH:
   • SIUs that do not monitor pH continuously may not violate any pH effluent limitations.
   • SIUs that do monitor pH continuously may not discharge from any regulated outfall wastewater with a recorded pH that is less than or equal to 4.0 or greater than or equal to 12.0.
   • The discharge from any continuously monitored regulated outfall may not include any individual excursion from pH limits that lasts longer than 60 minutes
   • For continuously monitored regulated outfalls, the total time in a year during which measured pH values do not comply with applicable limits may not exceed eight hours and 46 minutes.

Water Protection

The criteria used for awarding Austin Water customers in the Water Protection workgroup include:

• Customers that have complied with the water protection regulations with little or no enforcement measures from Austin Water.
• Customers that have complied with the water protection regulations for the City of Austin, even after they were told that all inspections have passed and are final. This is new construction and remodeled sites.
• Third Party Testers that have an excellent working relationship with Water Protection Staff.

Water Conservation

The general criteria used for Water Conservation nominations include a significant water savings or innovative conservation program or measure in the commercial or multifamily areas done in partnership with Austin Water through its rebate or other conservation programs (HACA/AW SEED Grant program).

Environmental Stewardship

The Environmental Stewardship Award is presented by Austin Water’s Special Services Division to an entity that implements a change in operations that has a quantifiable benefit to the City of Austin’s Wastewater Collection and Treatment System. The honoree also goes above and beyond in responsible use and protection of the natural environment through conservation and sustainable practices including the implementation of Pollution Prevention (P2) program initiatives.

Qualifications:

• Open to any City of Austin General Industrial User, Major Industrial User, or Significant Industrial User.  Status can be verified on the Industrial User Permittees Report.
• Process improvements must have been taken during the 2023 calendar year (January 1, 2023-December 31, 2023).
• Process improvements related to issues that required enforcement or a requirement from the Austin City Code will not be considered.
• Industrial Users that did not maintain an overall compliant status during the 2023 calendar year can apply; however, compliance will be considered in the judging process.
  • If any of the above qualifications are not met, the application will not be considered. 

Application Submittal Requirements:

Applications for the 2023 Environmental Stewardship Award are no longer being accepted. Thank you to those that applied.

Environmental Stewardship Award Criteria: 

The winner of the Environmental Stewardship Award will be selected based on the following criteria:

• Benefit to the City of Austin Wastewater Collection and Treatment System:
  • How did the process improvement benefit the City of Austin’s Wastewater Collection and Treatment System?
  • The benefit should be quantifiable (be able to be demonstrated analytically over the course of the year).  For example, a measurable difference in the quantity or quality of discharge to the collection system.
     
• Additional Environmental Benefits:
  • What residual benefits did the process improvement produce?
  • The benefits should be scientifically viable, not necessarily quantifiable.  For example, replacing a chemical used to one that is less corrosive.
     
• Innovation:
  • How did the process improvement come about? 
  • Whose idea was the process improvement (internal idea or external solution)?
     
• Model for Others:
  • Are you willing to share this process improvement idea with others who may benefit from implementing the same change?
  • How broad could the innovation be spread?  Is it limited to the company only or could it be replicated by those in the same industry or even the whole community of Austin?

We want to acknowledge and thank the award winners for their hard work and dedication in addressing all the different regulatory requirements and expectations under which they must operate. This in turn helps Austin Water meet the multitude of environmental, conservation and health and safety standards under which we must operate.

To view photos from prior Austin Water Annual Recognition and Awards Events, please view our Annual Recognition and Awards Flickr Collection.