Anchorage Assembly to honor AWWU treatment plants for 2025 compliance awards

The Anchorage Assembly will take up a resolution Wednesday, Nov. 4, recognizing all three Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility wastewater treatment facilities for 2025 national compliance awards.

The National Association of Clean Water Agencies gave the plants Peak Performance Awards for compliance with their discharge permits, which govern what the facilities release.

The Eagle River facility, which serves Anchorage's Northern Communities, earned a Platinum Award for five consecutive years of 100% compliance with no violations of its state permit. The Asplund plant, which serves the Anchorage Bowl, and the Girdwood plant each earned Silver Awards for fewer than five permit violations in 2025. Asplund is Alaska's largest wastewater treatment plant and treated an average of 30 million gallons a day in 2024, according to the utility's budget documents.

The resolution credits the professional staff at each plant and notes that the utility's board of directors unanimously congratulated them. Assembly Chair Anna Brawley, Vice Chair Daniel Volland, the other 10 Assembly members and Mayor Suzanne LaFrance submitted it.

The wastewater utility serves about 252,500 people under a 2026 operating budget of about $56.5 million, according to its 2026 approved budget.

The Assembly passed a similar resolution Aug. 26, 2025, for the 2024 awards. That year Asplund and Eagle River each earned Gold for zero violations and Girdwood earned Silver.

Accepting that recognition, General Manager David Persinger credited "our 285 professional staff that work 24/7 365" to keep the plants running at peak performance.