Clean Water Services Receives International Award for Public Participation

Hillsboro, OR — January 24, 2006 — The International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) awarded Clean Water Services' Board of Directors and staff the 2005 Core Values Award for Organization of the Year at the District's Board meeting on Wednesday, January 24. The top honor was originally announced at the IAP2 annual conference in Portland, Oregon last October. Presenting the award was IAP2 Board Member Doug Zenn.

“Something good is happening here," said Tom Brian, Chair of Clean Water Services' Board. "Clean Water has won several prestigious national and international awards recently. All four treatment facilities won gold awards from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, then the Durham Wastewater Treatment Facility won the top EPA award, and now this award for public participation.”

IAP2 is the only professional association for public participation professionals and has chapters in 22
countries. The IAP2 Core Values seek to ensure that people have a say in decisions that affect them in public
policy, public projects and other community scale decision-making.

On behalf of the nationally-recognized wastewater and stormwater utility, Public Affairs Manager Mark Jockers said, “We use the IAP2 Core Values and stakeholder involvement for policy decisions, construction projects that affect the community, internal decision-making and more.”

Clean Water Services (District) has nearly 500,000 customers in fast-growing Washington County, Oregon. Its mission to provide cost-effective and environmentally sensitive management of water resources for the Tualatin River Watershed puts the District at the heart of many partnerships and policy discussions that shape the future of the community and the environment.

The District’s Board of Directors, who are also the elected Washington County Commissioners, has engendered and supported the strong commitment to public participation when it adopted a Public Involvement Philosophy that incorporates the IAP2 Core Values. In 1995, the District developed the Master Planning Process (MPP) as a formal mechanism to include stakeholders in planning and decision-making. By clearly communicating the process, roles, and key input and decision points, the MPP ensures that projects include stakeholders in a thorough and objective analysis of issues and options, and identifies when and how stakeholders will be involved.

Clean Water’s communication plan includes a public involvement strategy to "engage stakeholders through effective public involvement activities that result in better decision-making for District policies, programs and projects."

The District has had dedicated public involvement staff since the early 1990s, and its two public involvement coordinators, Sheri Wantland and Jeanna Cernazanu, earned IAP2 certification in 2005.

Clean Water Services is a water resource management utility for more than 480,000 people in urban Washington County and small portions of Multnomah County, Clackamas County, Lake Oswego, and Portland. Clean Water Services operates four wastewater treatment facilities, constructs and maintains flood management and water quality projects, and manages flow in the Tualatin River to improve water quality and protect fish habitat. Although Clean Water Services maintains a close working relationship with Washington County government, it is a separately managed and financed public utility.

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