Left to right: Alcoa Water Treatment Plant Senior Operator Paul Phillips, Lead Plant Operator T.J. Emory, and Plant Operator Russell Whitehead

The City of Alcoa Public Works & Engineering Department’s Water Treatment Plant Operations Team traveled to the Kentucky/Tennessee Water Professionals Conference July 24 – 27, in Covington, Kentucky to compete in the KY/TN Top Ops Competition. The City of Alcoa Team won First Place in the competition defeating the Murfreesboro, Tennessee team with a final score of 52 – 18. Team members included Alcoa Water Treatment Plant Senior Operator Paul Phillips, Lead Plant Operator T.J. Emory, and Plant Operator Russell Whitehead.

Top Ops is the "college bowl" of the water industry. Teams of three water operators compete against each other in a competitive, fast-paced question-and-answer tournament. A moderator poses a broad range of technical questions about aspects of water treatment, storage, and distribution and the team scoring the most points in the championship round is declared the Top Ops Champions.The Alcoa Team’s KY/TN Championship qualifies them for the National Top Ops competition that will be held at the 2012 American Water Works Association Annual Conference that will be held June 10 – 14 in Dallas, Texas. There they will compete against teams from the U.S. and Canada.

The Alcoa Team’s 2012 KY/TN Top Ops championship brings their total regional championships to six, having previously won the competition in 1998, 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2006. The Alcoa team has placed as high as second in the National AWWA Top Ops competition, achieving that at the 2000 conference.