Our Operations & Management (O&M) business has solved staffing, compliance, and operational challenges through full contract operations at more than 50 municipal and industrial water and wastewater treatment plants, public works departments, and private groundwater treatment systems across the country. Our ultimate goal is to ensure these critical water infrastructure systems are running efficiently and sustainably, implementing an assessment and improvement program with that in mind. We create plans to update standard procedures, implement short-term fixes and upgrades, and prepare for the future with these utility and industrial partners.
Our teams implement comprehensive safety programs, help with training and education, and draw on the skills of our network of engineers, scientists, and regulatory experts to make sure these facilities are doing what they are intended to do: protect our water resources, improve our environment, and deliver clean drinking water to our communities.
Since 2017, we followed a comprehensive process to report out on the quantity of water impacted by our O&M teams. According to our 2020 data, more than 50 billion gallons of water was distributed, wastewater reclaimed or recycled, and groundwater remediated from our contract-operated facilities. This is a significant increase since our original assessment of nearly 34 billion gallons in 2016.
O&M has always promoted sustainability to its clients. Chemicals, sludge production, and power are all areas where we look for efficiencies and reduced impacts. Savings in these areas have often helped fund critical repairs to operationally inefficient equipment. Technology has also helped us become more streamlined in how we approach our work.
To expand upon our O&M business data collection efforts, in 2020 we developed a process to collect additional information from facilities we operate in a few categories – energy, resource recovery, and awards/community involvement. Even during an unusual and stressful year for these essential workers, positive social and environmental impacts remained a focus. Continued community engagement (notwithstanding the many cancelled events due to the pandemic), consistent recycling and resource recovery systems, and a focus on energy efficiency are mainstays of our O&M business.
