Annual Excellence Awards

Each year, Austin Water's Utility Compliance Services, Water Conservation and Utility Development Services divisions come together to honor industries, businesses, individuals and government agencies for their work in pretreatment compliance, water protection, water conservation and Go Purple.

34th Annual Excellence Awards

Austin Water honored 31 commercial and industrial water users for excellence in pretreatment compliance, water protection, water conservation and Go Purple during 2025. Honorees were recognized at the 34th Annual Recognition and Awards Ceremony at the Austin Central Library Special Event Center on Friday, April 24, 2026.

• 34th Annual Excellence Awards Poster (PDF)

2026 Awards

 

Excellence in Pretreatment Compliance	Consecutive Years
AI Industries	19
City of Austin, Austin Resource Recovery, Mabel Davis	17
Samsung Austin Semiconductor	14
City of Austin, Austin Resource Recovery, FM 812 Landfill	12
NXP USA, Inc. - Ed Bluestein	12
University of Texas - J.J. Pickle Research Campus	11
Travis County TNR	9
Enovis Surgical	6
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport	3
Tesla Giga Texas	3
TLMI Corporation	3
Brooks Industrial Coatings, Inc.	2
Wastewater Residuals Management, LLC	2
Liquid Environmental Solutions of Texas	1
SkyWater Technology	1
SouthWaste Disposal, LLC	1

Excellence in Water Protection

• Aaron Johnson of Flowman Inspection And Repairs LLC
• Apple, Inc.
• Clint W. Hambrick of Fluid Meter Service Corporation
• Guy Pemberton
• H2O Innovation
• Jason Holloway of Lupton Backflow Testing & Repairs LLC
• Katrine Hricko of Preferred Association Management Company
• Keith Waldrep
• Marty J. Jenkins
• Nieves Elliott of Johnson Controls
• Tesla Giga Texas

Excellence in Water Conservation

• Austin Housing Authority
• Top of the Line Landscapes

Excellence in GoPurple

• Greystar & Ivanhoé Cambridge
• Lincoln Property Company and Kairoi Residential

Awards Criteria

Pretreatment

Austin Water's Excellence in Pretreatment Award honors Significant Industrial Users who demonstrate environmental stewardship by proactively preventing pollution and managing wastewater discharge. This award is part of our pollution prevention program, which partners with local businesses to reduce pollution and minimize waste.

Meeting effluent quality standards requires more than a properly designed pretreatment system. Because the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has designated Austin's segment of the Colorado River for exceptional aquatic life use, contact recreation and public water supply, the City must meet stringent water quality standards — which is only possible through close coordination between Austin Water and local businesses.

Award winners go beyond minimum compliance by investing in self-monitoring and reporting, developing pollution prevention strategies and training staff throughout their organizations. To qualify, award candidates must meet all of the following criteria during the permit year:

1. The permit holder must meet the EPA's definition of Significant Industrial User and must be in operation and permitted for the entire permit year.
2. The user must meet all permit sampling and reporting requirements.
3. The user may not have any pollutant discharge that causes a pass-through, interference or other significantly negative effect on the wastewater collection or treatment system.
4. The user may not have any accidental or slug discharge to the City's sanitary or storm sewers resulting in a pretreatment violation.
5. The user may not violate any mass or concentration effluent standards and must meet the following pH criteria:
6. Users that do not monitor pH continuously may not violate any pH effluent limitations.
7. Users that do monitor pH continuously may not discharge wastewater from any regulated outfall with a recorded pH of 4.0 or below or 12.0 or above.
8. No individual pH excursion from any continuously monitored regulated outfall may last longer than 60 minutes.
9. The total time in a year during which measured pH values do not comply with applicable limits may not exceed eight hours and 46 minutes.

Water Protection

The Water Protection award recognizes customers who have:

• Complied with water protection regulations with little or no enforcement action from Austin Water
• Continued to comply with regulations for new construction and remodeled sites even after inspections are complete and final
• Third-party testers who maintain an excellent working relationship with Water Protection staff

Water Conservation

The Water Conservation award recognizes significant water savings or innovative conservation programs in the commercial or multifamily sector, carried out in partnership with Austin Water through its rebate or other conservation programs.

Go Purple

The Go Purple Award, presented by Austin Water's Utility Development Services Division, recognizes entities that incorporate water reuse systems in their buildings to reduce demand on the City's drinking water supply. Winners go beyond City Code requirements to advance water reuse and sustainable practices in development.

Candidates are evaluated on four criteria:

• Benefit to Austin's water supply — How did the project benefit the City's water supply? The benefit should be quantifiable, such as the volume of drinking water saved through reuse over the course of a year.
• Additional water reuse and sustainability benefits — What other benefits did the project produce? These benefits should be scientifically sound, though not necessarily quantifiable. For example, did the project advance water reuse policies or procedures?
• Innovation — Is this a first-of-its-kind project or does it have unique characteristics? Did it advance water reuse practices through new or innovative methods?
• Model for others — Is the project replicable? Are the participants willing to share their experience with others who may benefit? Could the approach be adopted more broadly across an industry or the Austin community?

We would like to thank all of our award winners for going above and beyond to meet these operating standards and regulatory requirements. Your dedication makes it possible for Austin Water to uphold the environmental, conservation and public health standards keeping our community's water safe for future generations.

Photos from prior Austin Water Annual Recognition and Awards Events are available in our Flickr Collection.