ACWA Honors Patterson Irrigation District With 2012 Clair A. Hill Award

SACRAMENTO, CA--(Marketwire - May 10, 2012) - The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today presented the prestigious Clair A. Hill Award to Patterson Irrigation District for its Fish Screen Intake Project.

The award was presented during the annual ACWA Spring Conference & Exhibition in Monterey, where more than 1,700 local water officials are gathered through Friday for programs and panel discussions on a variety of key water issues. Patterson Irrigation District was selected from among six finalists to receive the award.

"Patterson Irrigation District is an outstanding example of a local agency implementing creative solutions to manage California's water resources," ACWA President Randy Record said. "PID's program demonstrates innovation and achieves real benefit to endangered fish by preventing them from entering the intake. It does all this while maintaining a reliable water supply to its customers."

The new facility is the largest on-river fish screen along the banks of the San Joaquin River. With an automated brush-cleaning system to keep the screens free of debris, the new pump station prevents endangered fish like Chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead from being harmed at the intake while maintaining a reliable water source for local farmers.

ACWA's Clair A. Hill Water Agency Award for Excellence is an annual award program that recognizes outstanding achievements by public water agencies. The winning agency has the honor of awarding a $5,000 scholarship to a deserving student in the name of Clair A. Hill, founder of the consulting engineering firm CH2M Hill.

Other finalists for this year's award were:

• Coachella Valley Water District, for its Thomas E. Levy Groundwater Replenishment Facility, which allows 40,000 acre-feet of new recharge water to percolate annually.
• Nevada Irrigation District, for its Auburn Ravine Fish Passage Project, which restored 200 feet of creek channel to a more natural state for native salmon.
• San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority, for its Integrated Groundwater Quality Management and Remediation Plan, which has guided the construction of more than 54 clean-up projects in one of the nation's most contaminated groundwater basins.
• Santa Margarita Water District, for its Upper Chiquita Reservoir, which holds more than 244 million gallons of treated water and provides water supply reliability.
• Sweetwater Authority, for its Perdue Treatment Plant Upgrades Project, which updated its 50-year-old water treatment plan to comply with today's more stringent standards with no adverse impact to its ratepayers.

ACWA is a statewide association of public agencies whose 440 members are responsible for about 90% of the water delivered in California. For more information, visit www.acwa.com.