All Around Pennsauken

By Frank Sinatra, AAP Editor

The tagline for the Merchantville-Pennsauken Water Commission (MPWC) is that “Only Tap Water Delivers.” This statement was never truer than when the public water utility recently received the award for the best tasting water in the state by the New Jersey Section of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the largest non-profit, scientific, and educational association dedicated to managing and treating water.

“We’re all excited about it,” says Mike Saraceni, chief operating officer for the MPWC. “When water is clean and drinkable, it’s easy to take it for granted. But water’s just like air: if you didn’t have it, you’d be upset. In the same way, it’s hard for our staff to see something they do daily that translates into something tangible. Just knowing that you have high quality water that meets all the standards at the lowest possible rate sometimes isn’t enough. This award helps push it over for everybody here. It basically shows you’re not only doing a good job, you might be doing it better than most.

“For a small organization of only 37 employees that provides safe drinking water to four communities, we get a lot accomplished with a small group of people.”

The MPWC submitted a water sample for a public water taste test during the New Jersey Section American Water Works Association’s 80th annual conference held in Atlantic City. The public utility that provides water to Pennsauken, Merchantville, and portions of Cherry Hill and Camden, competed against six other utilities, including New Jersey American Water and Aqua America, two of the largest water providers in the state.

“The AWWA wanted to keep the competition smaller this year. They wanted to have people that they knew were passionate about water. They wanted people who cared,” explains Sean Fitzgerald, a water treatment technician for MPWC. “So they brought it down to a smaller numbers and we jumped on that right away.”

The MPWC had to submit a minimum of five water samples at room temperature for the competition; participants were not allowed to have any state or federal drinking water violations from the last 12 months. Personal attendance was also required for the competition. Samples were then reviewed and judged by approximately 300 water professionals and industry experts.

“Kathleen Udasco from the AWWA said that it wasn’t even a contest. We were the hands down winner, which was very nice to hear,” says Fitzgerald.

MPWC Superintendent Craig Campbell added that the Commission beat out another public water utility and the two-time reigning champ – The Township of Livingston.

“I think this award says a lot about our program in regards to our people and the efforts that they put out to make sure that we have a good quality water and we still maintain it at a decent price,” says Campbell. “It’s a group effort. It just shows that everybody here really does care.”

Campbell went on to say that the MPWC’s very proactive approach to maintaining water quality was the major factor in the utility’s first place win. “We maintain our stations and we maintain our system. Nothing sits. If we have issues with anything, it’s fixed, it’s repaired. We don’t sit on it.”

“Our main repair is done by our people. They’ll go out there and fix it themselves,” continues Saraceni. “They’ll reduce pressure; they won’t shut the water off. Our gang won’t disrupt service. We’ll reduce the pressure enough so that we can do the repair; and if we don’t reduce it too low, we don’t have to worry about anything creeping in to contaminate the water. So there’s extra care and vigilance there.”

“People often call and they’re surprised to find that we haven’t needed to turn the water off. The complaints are very few,” adds Brandy Eisenmann, MPWC’s customer service director.

The staff of the MPWC also takes pride in the rapid response offered to customers in need of a service call.

“If you’re not out there in 20-30 minutes, that’s a problem,” says Fitzgerald. “We live here too. Our customers really are our neighbors. It means a lot to us to provide quality water and quality service.”

“We advertise 24/7 and we mean it,” adds Eisenmann. “We work with our customers, scheduling appointments that are convenient to them.”

The MPWC’s commitment to quality water and service has gotten them this far and the staff is confident that their hard work behind the water area residents and businesses use will take them a little further – as the utility now has an opportunity to compete for best tasting water on a national level at the AWWA’s annual water convention this June in Anaheim, CA.

“The state of New Jersey is being represented by us in the AWWA’s national competition,” says Saraceni. “That’s not small potatoes.”

For more information on the Merchantville-Pennsauken Water Commission, visit their web site at http://www.mpwc.com. You can also find the water utility on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TheMPWC.