ABINGDON, Va. — For the 14th year, the Washington County Service Authority (WCSA) has been awarded the 2024 Virginia Optimization Program Gold Standard of Excellence by the Virginia Department of Health’s Office of Drinking Water. The recognition is the highest ranking bestowed on Virginia’s water utilities.
The award was officially presented in April 2025, recognizing WCSA’s outstanding commitment to water quality and public health. WCSA received the award for the Middle Fork Drinking Water Plant following a 12-month data analysis by the Office of Drinking Water.
The Virginia Optimization Program (VOP), established in 2004 by the Virginia Department of Health, annually honors water treatment plants that exceed minimum water quality standards. The program’s main goal is to reduce public health risks linked to drinking water.
The VOP seeks to accomplish this mission by establishing and communicating optimization goals to water utilities and measuring performance. Water treatment plants are graded on six criteria. To meet gold standards, a water treatment plant must meet or exceed goals at least 95 percent of the time.
“We are extremely pleased to have earned the Gold Award for our 2024 operations,” says Ron Seay, WCSA’s general manager. “It is particularly encouraging to have earned this award again, as 2024 was heavily marked by Hurricane Helene with a tremendous amount of infrastructure damage throughout our service area.
“In addition to recognizing WCSA as one of the top-performing water plants in Virginia, this award is a strong testament to the hard work and dedication of our employees to repair the damage, bring our service back to a high level and still meet the VOP’s criteria for optimal drinking water.”
WCSA has the largest permitted capacity and serves the largest number of service connections in the Mount Rogers Planning District. The utility’s Middle Fork Drinking Water Plant is a conventional surface water treatment plant with a capacity of 12 million gallons per day.