National AWOP Meeting

August 9, 2013 Anthony DeRosa

ASDWA Conferences, AWOP, Drinking Water Headlines

ASDWA and EPA’s Technical Support Center (TSC) hosted the fifth National AWOP meeting this week in Cincinnati. This meeting brought together the states and regions involved in the Area Wide Optimization Program (AWOP) for the purpose of “Identifying strategic activities to build, maintain, and strengthen high quality Area Wide Optimization Programs.” Topics the group heard about included:

Status and Direction for National Optimization Programs (including AWOP and AWWA’s Partnership for Safe Water);
Building AWOP Team Capacity in Times of Transition;
Development of Optimization Tools Through the AWOP Network; and
Distribution System Optimization

The 70 attendees also broke into discussion groups to consider issues like developing optimization training, tapping into SDWIS to support AWOP, data integrity, and utilizing third party technical assistance providers. The main meeting was preceded by a special meeting for new states interested in joining the AWOP network.

The AWOP leadership is already planning for the next National Meeting to be held in 2015. Currently, 20 states and four EPA regions actively participate in this program that assists water systems in achieving improved public health protection through the optimization of treatment plants and distribution systems. More information about AWOP can be found on ASDWA’s AWOP webpage.