"One of the things we’ve learned over the eight years of this award competition is that there are a number of great water treatment facilities in our industry with very dedicated staff," said John Starkey, USPOULTRY president.

"They reclamate over 90 percent of the water we use to process poultry, and return it to the environment in a state fit for others to use and enjoy. We always look forward to this award process, and the special touch these facilities bring to the competition."

There are two categories for the award: one for full treatment facilities (those that fully reclamate their wastewater prior to discharge into a receiving water or final land application system) and one for pretreatment facilities (those that discharge pretreated effluent to publicly-owned full treatment facilities).

Any USPOULTRY member company is eligible to submit one nominee in each category. Facilities which have previously won the award may not be re-nominated for five years. Applications must be submitted by 31 December.

An evaluation committee, which is comprised of university personnel, industry engineers and managers, and state regulatory officials, will review the applications package and select two semifinalist facilities in each category. The review committee will then visit the semifinalist facilities to select the award recipients.

The winners will be announced at USPOULTRY’s Environmental Management Seminar in Atlanta March 5 – 6, 2008.

Award recipients will receive a trophy, be profiled on the USPOULTRY Web site, and receive assistance from the association in publicizing the award on a local, regional, and national level.

The winners of the 2007 Clean Water Award were Simmons Foods, Southwest City, Ark., for full treatment facility and Tyson Foods, Corydon, Ind., for pretreatment facility. Tyson Foods, Noel, Mo., received an honorable mention in the full treatment facility category.