Southwest Water Subsidiary Wins Public-Private Partnership Award

A member of Southwest Water Company's service group, Operations Technologies, Inc. (OpTech), has won an award from the National Council for Public-Private Partnerships (NCPPP) for outstanding delivery of public works services in the city of Long Beach, Miss. The award is one of only five given by the NCPPP this year.

The NCPPP said that a key to winning the award was documentation showing that, as guaranteed in the original contract, OpTech has provided Long Beach with average annual savings in excess of 10 percent of the city's public works budget, with cumulative five-year savings of more than $1,000,000.

"We are honored to be recognized by the NCPPP for this partnership." Anton C. Garnier, Southwest Water president and chief executive officer, said. "It exemplifies the level of service our Services Group companies strive for in more than 450 operating contracts. We are proud that for the second year in a row OpTech's performance has been recognized as award winning."

This year's award marks the third consecutive year that the NCPPP has recognized a Southwest Water Services Group company. Last year, the NCPPP honored OpTech for providing comprehensive public works services to Gulfport, Miss., and ECO Resources, Inc., for providing water and wastewater treatment services to rapidly developing areas of Sugar Land, Texas, near Houston. In 2001, the Council recognized ECO Resources for its innovative reverse osmosis water treatment plant contract with the El Paso County Water Authority near El Paso, Texas.

Source: Southwest Water Company