WICHITA — John Douglas, operator at Rural Water District No. 2, Trego County, has been recognized by the Kansas Rural Water Association as Rural Water Operator of the Year. The award was presented recently during the association’s 49th annual conference and exhibition at Century II Convention Center, Wichita. The conference was attended by nearly 2,400 people from more than 300 cities and 200 rural water districts.
Douglas is a lifelong Kansan who grew up in south-central Kansas. With the exception of approximately three years in construction, he has spent his entire career in the water business. For the last nine years, he has worked for RWD No. 2, Trego County. Douglas has a Class II Water Operator’s Certification issued by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
RWD No. 2, Trego County, serves residents in a part of the state with either no available water or poor water quality. Douglas oversees the daily operations of the system which produces as much as 500,000 gallons per day for approximately 1,000 customers and several wholesale customers. This district has nearly 1,000 miles of pipeline stretching into three counties.
Douglas is overseeing a $1.5 million project that includes construction of two new wells and new elevated storage. These improvements will allow the district to serve more customers as the district recently started approving of new services after a moratorium on the sale of meters over recent years.
Other municipal and rural water and wastewater operators were recognized during the conference. The conference training program included 58 seminars on all aspects of water and wastewater utility operations and management and 345 exhibits of products and services for municipal water and wastewater utilities. Special guest speakers included Kent Evans, program director of USDA Rural Development’s Water Programs Division of the Rural Utilities Services Water and Environmental Programs, Washington, D.C., and Rex Buchanan, interim director of the Kansas Geological Society.
The Kansas Rural Water Association provides training and technical assistance to cities and rural water districts and also supports a variety of other community programs, from GPS mapping to the popular KAN STEP self-help program through the Department of Commerce. See www.krwa.net to learn more about the association.