The award honors the wastewater system that has demonstrated top compliance and reporting, innovation, operational practices, cost-effectiveness, waste reduction, and other evidence of superior plant operation.

In addition to Plant of the Year, the facility and staff earned three other awards, presented in February's annual meeting:

• Safety Program of the Year Award, earned for the sixth time in seven years.

• Operator of the Year Award for lead operator Oscar Baltazar.

• Laboratory Person of the Year Award for laboratory director Jesus Luna.

These awards validate that the SCRWA facility is one of the top wastewater treatment and reclamation facilities in California. The facility was built in 1994 for $39 million. It is designed to provide advancement treatment for up to 8.5 million gallons per day during dry weather flows, and to provide wet weather treatment for up to 11 million gallons per day. The recycled water that comes out of the system is reused around the community to irrigate golf courses, parks, sports complexes, park strips and median islands.

SCRWA team is currently working on a facility expansion project that is anticipated to be completed by 2012 at an estimated cost of $85 million. The system is what engineers call "membrane bioreactors," which is considered state of the art in wastewater science. The new treatment system will be comparable to long-delayed wastewater treatment plant currently under construction in Hollister.