EPA recognizes Industrial Pretreatment Program in Portland, Maine

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) New England regional office recently recognized the City of Portland Maine’s Industrial Pretreatment Program for its efforts to inspect, permit and sample industrial users of the city’s collection system.

Portland’s program received the 2015 Regional Industrial Pretreatment Program Excellence Award at the 17th Annual EPA New England Industrial Pretreatment Program Conference, and the honor was also announced at the New England Water Environment Association Conference. The award is a way for the EPA to recognize employees working to better their local water quality at publicly owned wastewater treatment plants.

“The professionals implementing the industrial pretreatment program, as well as the state environmental agencies that support them, are key to keeping our environment healthy,” EPA New England Office Regional Administrator Curt Spalding said. “I am proud to give them the credit they deserve.”

The pretreatment program in Portland is led by Ben Pearson and Michael Moore. The EPA selected the program this year because of the staff’s efforts in inspection, permitting and sampling, and for developing an electronic industrial pretreatment data management system.