Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals | Bruce Greenstein, Secretary

Area-Wide Optimization Program (AWOP)

AWOP is a national program sponsored by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and established at the state level by participating state regulatory agencies including the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals/Office of Public Health (LDHH/OPH). The goal of the program is to optimize particle removal and minimize disinfection by-product (DBP) formation at existing surface water treatment plants (SWTPs) in order to achieve higher quality finished water and maximize public health protection. Through Comprehensive Performance Evaluations (CPEs), the ability of a SWTP to optimize can be evaluated by a team of OPH specialists. In addition to CPEs, optimization training for plant staff is offered through AWOP's Performance-Based Training (PBT) events. A Surface Water Treatment Plant is considered optimized if it meets the AWOP Performance Criteria Goals.

For over 13 years, OPH has recognized that optimizing the performance of Louisiana's SWTPs (which serve approximately 2-million people in the state) is an important safeguard that should be pursued to protect public health to the greatest extent possible. The LA AWOP Team consists of Engineers and Sanitarians from each of OPH's Central, Regional, and District offices. These team members continue to receive training from USEPA, Process Applications, Inc. (PAI), and the University of Cincinnati in order to properly conduct CPEs and PBTs.

Downloadable Software and Files

This section contains some useful Optimization Tools as well as the latest Surface Water System Optimization Ranking.

• Official FY11 SWTP Turb Ranking - The latest annual turbidity based ranking for all Community SWTPs in Louisiana from data collected from October 2010 through September 2011.  Prioritization criteria were developed by Louisiana AWOP in support of an annual turbidity-based ranking.  The criteria are used annually to rank all of the State's surface water treatment plants (SWTPs).  The ranking is then used by Louisiana AWOP to assist in determining where to conduct optimization activities.
  

• ETurb ver 3.0R - An electronic form for surface water treatment plants (SWTPs) enter their monthly turbidity results and submit to AWOP program at AWOP@dhh.la.gov.  The data is then compiled into the Optimization Assessment Software (OAS) and the system is ranked on how effectively they meet optimization goals.  Note: Reporting Eturb data to AWOP is not sufficient to meet the requirements of submitting your Monthly Operating Reports (MORs) to your DHH District Office.

• Optimization Assessment Software FY2013 - Designed for SWTPs to self assess annually over 1 fiscal year each of thier treatment barriers against the AWOP Optimization Goals.  This is achieved by water system personnel entering raw, settled and finished turbidity data.  Note:  Reporting an OAS spreadsheet to AWOP is not sufficient to meet the requirementsof submiiting your MORs to your DHH District Office.