- May 18, 2024
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The city of Palm Coast’s “Water Buoys” team has won the American Water Works Association’s Top Ops National Championship for the fifth time since 2006.
The contest is a brain-bowl style event, and team members from Palm Coast’s Utility Division — Fred Greiner (team captain), Tom Martens and Peter Roussell, coached by Palm Coast Utility Systems Manager of Water Operations Jim Hogan — answered questions on with water treatment, chemistry, hydrology, water distribution, public health and sanitation, plant maintenance, safety and process control, according to a city of Palm Coast news release.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the Water Buoys!” Hogan said in the news release. “They displayed a single-minded determination to reach their goal of regaining the state championship and then the national championship. They exemplify our entire Public Works/Utility Division’s efforts to provide excellence in water and wastewater services to the City of Palm Coast.”
The team defeated 18 teams from across the United States and Canada to win national championship at the American Water Works Association’s Annual Conference and Exposition in Boston, Massachusetts, and won the the state championship in April for the eighth time in the past 10 years, according to the release.
The Water Buoys team was formed in 2005, and have since placed in every national competition they’ve entered. City funds aren’t used for the competitions; AWWA paid for the team’s trips.
The team will attend the national conference as returning champions next year, and Hogan said the competitions have a major pay-off.
“The educational aspects of Top Ops cannot be understated,” he said. “The Water Buoys study relevant technical manuals and practice for the competition all year long.”
Team members then teach that information to their staff in regularly-scheduled, in-house training sessions, he said.
