Boston named wastewater operator of the year for his work in Decatur

DECATUR — James Boston, Decatur’s public services director, was named wastewater operator of the year for towns with a population less than 5,000 by the Northwest District of the Arkansas Water Works & Water Environment Association.

The City of Decatur also received the Small System Award for Wastewater.

William Winn, of the NWD-AWWEA, presented Boston with the awards at the annual regional meeting at Fayetteville Town Center on Dec. 17.

“It was a team effort for all our guys. We came from the dark ages to the modern day,” Boston said.

Boston will now have a chance to compete with operators from eight other districts in Arkansas for the wastewater operator of the state for towns with populations of less than 5,000. The results will be announced during the last week of April, Winn said.

Decatur’s wastewater plant has come a long way over the past several years and no one knows better what it has taken to get to this place than mayor Bill Montgomery, who nominated Bostonand the city for the award.

When Montgomery took office as mayor in 1996, he jumped straight into Tulsa’s federal lawsuit against the city of Decatur and six other poultry companies. Over the past 14 years he has seen the settlement of the lawsuit and the financing and construction of the new plant. Throughout the process, the city faced a number of challenges and had to make some major decisions.

For example, the plant was originally planned to be completely underground, but when the dirt work was done, the footprint kept filling with water. Plans had to be redrawn so the plant could be partially above and partially below ground.

After the construction was complete, there were still the challenges of getting all the operators used to the new plant and getting into compliance, Montgomery said. The city worked closely with Peterson Farms and then with Simmons Foods throughout the whole process.

“It has been a juggling act, but when we finally got it completed, it was phenomenal … It’s probably the most state-of-the-art system in our area,” he said.

The new plant is servingits purpose and, after working out a few kinks, has kept Decatur consistently under its phosphorus limit of one. Now, as Montgomery serves his last month in office, the wastewater treatment plant has come full circle from being the object of a lawsuit centered on pollution to being an award-winning facility.

Building the new plant has taken a team effort from a lot of people, including the community and the city council, Montgomery said.

“It’s been the effort of a lot of people. It took support from the community and the council, just everyone working together ... It was a great job on everyone’s part,” he said.