On Oct. 3 at 9:30 a.m., three new winners will be recognized for fixing a persistent and pesky problem with just the materials at hand and a big shot of ingenuity.
This will mark the seventh year of the WEFTEC Operator Ingenuity Contest. In its first six years, the contest discovered about 40 award-winning fixes.
This contest seeks to recognize the simple, everyday fixes that operators invent to make work easier and safer. Entries are judged on safety, resourcefulness, and how transferable the ideas are.
Past winners have included painting buildings different colors to make deliveries easier; building a replica manhole, lateral, and cleanout cap to show customers how smoke inspections work; and a device to safely and easily lift the clarifier skimmer in the winter to prevent it from freezing to the grease box.
Have a fix to share?
To help capture and share more of these ingenious solutions, the 2019 contest is open now. The competition is open to all clever ideas related to any aspect of the water sector from equipment maintenance to emergency response to process optimization to anything else associated with the water sector. All it takes to enter is:
- a short description of the problem you faced and the fix you found
- a few photos of your invention or improvement, and
- the three answers (how transferable is it? How safe is it? Where did the materials and money come from?)
Visit www.weftec.org/ingenuity to see all past winners and start your entry. Winning entries also appear in Water Environment & Technology magazine. (Missed this session, see the October 2018 issue of Water Environment & Technology for descriptions for this year’s winners.)
Operator Excellence: Operations Ingenuity Contest Winners (Session 535), Wednesday, 9:30 – 10:30 a.m., Booth 3129, Hall E.
Come see the simple, everyday fixes that will walk away winners this year at Session 535,
on Wednesday, Oct. 3, at 9:30 a.m., in Booth 3129
