Paul Phillips (right) receives the M.L. Brickey Award from Randy Harrison, Chairman of the Lower East Region of TWWA

Paul Phillips, Senior Operator at the Alcoa Water Treatment Plant, is the 2007 recipient of the TWWA M.L. Brickey Award. Paul began his water treatment career in 1980. After working for two other utilities and one private company, he was hired by the City of Alcoa as a WTP Operator Assistant in June 1996. Since then he has progressed through the ranks to his present position of Senior Operator where he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the plant. He was a significant contributor to the design and construction of the new membrane WTP and has personally overseen its startup and “de-bugging.”

In addition to Mr. Phillip’s award, the J. R. Fleming Award for Water Treatment Plants was given to the City’s Membrane Water Treatment Plant. Named for the late Julian Fleming, a leader in engineering and academics in the water and wastewater field, this award recognizes the year’s most outstanding water treatment operation in the state. The Alcoa WTP was completed in March 2007 and is the largest membrane filtration drinking water plant in the state of Tennessee. Already the recipient of the 2007 Public Works Project of the Year for Tennessee, it has also been nominated for a number of other construction industry and engineering awards.

Ken Reynolds (right), Alcoa Water Treatment Plant Supervisor, receives the J.R. Fleming Water Treatment Award from Randy Harrison, Chairman of the Lower East Region of TWWA