The Work Is the Reward

Awards earned by Linda Barrier and her team at Rock Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant came from attention to detail — right down to the bugs

Dec 15, 2011 | by L.K. Williams |

Bugs Award Alfa Laval HDR Ingersoll Rand Invensys Operations Management Siemens Water Technologies Corp. Air Compressor Belt Filter Press SCADA System

The Work Is the Reward — Clarifier tanks at the Independence treatment plant. The Rock Creek plant treats 10 mgd and uses a basic activated sludge process. The biosolids treatment process includes dissolved air flotation and wet-air oxidation. Biosolids are burned in a fluidized bed incinerator. (Photography by Denny Medley)

The Work Is the Reward — The Independence plant has earned numerous awards, including the 2009 Treatment Plant of the Year Award from the Missouri Water Environment Association. It received the same award in 1983, 1986 and 1989. In addition, the plant won the MWEA Treatment Plant Safety Award for 2010.

The Work Is the Reward — Plant superintendent Linda Barrier.

The Work Is the Reward — Operator Dan Francis takes samples at the belt press (Ashbrook Simon-Hartley).

The Work Is the Reward — Operator Justin Smith takes sludge samples.

The Work Is the Reward — The Rock Creek team includes, front row, from left, Stephanie Mitchell, Ken Kalwei, Khristina Irvine, Christine Smith and Casey Park; back row Frank Bailey, Randy Dickison, Don McPheeters, Dan Francis, Wayne Brock, Justin Smith, Jon Irvine, Jon Staton, Vince Kackley, Linda Barrier, John Rucker and Dennis Lewis.

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How do operators work after winningconsecutive safety and plant awards from their peers? Harder than they did before, according to Linda Barrier, superintendent of the Rock Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant in Independence, Mo. In 2010 the Missouri Water Environment Association (MWEA) recognized the facility with the Treatment Plant Safety Award. It had earned the Treatment Plant of the Year award in 2009 — one achievement the Rock Creek team wanted most. “We all set our minds to it and went after it,” Barrier says. On the ground, that meant seeing the big water-quality picture and attending to all the details that make

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