Oftentimes, the best approaches, techniques, and tools to make a tough job easier come from the hands and minds of the people who perform that job every day.

Water and wastewater operators routinely devise outside-the-box ideas that enhance how their facilities protect public health and the local environment. But many of these ingenious solutions find use only among their creators, despite their potential to help other water professionals around the world.

The 2021 Operator Ingenuity contest recognizes, celebrates, and spreads the word about home-spun innovations and clever ideas that advance the sector. Submit basic information about the problem you encountered and the fix you developed to receive one of this year’s coveted awards, which includes an invitation to demonstrate your winning innovation at WEFTEC 2021 as well as an appearance in Water Environment & Technology magazine.

Enter Today

To have your fix considered for an Operator Ingenuity award by a panel of WEF operations experts all you need is a description your solution and the problem it addresses and at least one photo or video of your invention in action. As you make your entry, you’ll also be asked three questions:

• How transferable is this fix to other facilities or locations?
• How does this fix take operator safety into account?
• Where did the materials and any money used for the fix come from?

Entries will be accepted from virtually any segment of the water and wastewater profession, including infrastructure operations and maintenance, laboratory procedures, administration and human resources, and more. If you have a creative solution that can help other water-sector organizations, we want to hear about it.

Submissions must be received no later than July 7, 2021.

Enter the Contest.