Only two years after its ribbon cutting, North Texas Municipal Water District’s (NTMWD) Leonard Water Treatment Plant (WTP) is celebrating its first year of meeting criteria for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s Texas Optimization Program (TOP) recognition.
TOP is a non-regulatory, voluntary program that requires water treatment plants to continuously meet more stringent turbidity levels than required by state regulations. Decreasing turbidity, which is cloudiness caused by suspended particles, also lowers the risk of disease-causing microorganisms in the plant.
Mason T. Miller, TCEQ Source Water Protection Specialist, presented the Leonard WTP team with a certificate, patches and a flag. He noted that out of about 320 conventional surface water treatment plants in the state, only 22 participated in TOP program – representing just 7% of all such facilities statewide.
Jeffery Striplin, NTMWD Assistant Water System Manager, recognized the hard work and dedication it took from the Leonard WTP team to get the plant commissioned and optimized to meet TOP criteria while treating water from Bois d’Arc Lake, which started providing water in 2023.
“This plant getting the TOP recognition so early in its commissioning was a really proud moment for all of us,” he said. “It’s a brand-new plant and a new water source. We had a lot of first-time operators among our staff. The supervisors here at the plant getting that staff up to where they needed to be with the necessary knowledge and technical skill was just amazing, and so are the accomplishments they were able to achieve so early with this plant just starting up.”
Leonard Water Treatment Plant Supervisor Adam Baugh now strives to meet the next milestone, five years of continuously meeting the monthly TOP criteria. He said working at Leonard WTP has been a unique set of both challenges and rewards.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed starting this facility up because I’ve always been a fan of science,” said Baugh. “It is a great honor to get a chance to do this. Not many people in water treatment get the opportunity to start a new facility with a new water source. It poses a lot of challenges, but at the same time, when things line up the way they should with water quality, it’s a very gratifying experience.”