Operations Challenge Overview

Operations Challenge is the water sector’s premier skills competition. It is unmatched in delivering cross training, team building and professional development.  

Teams of four compete to earn the highest score in five different events: Process Control, Laboratory, Collections Systems, Pump Maintenance and Safety. Each event is designed to put the diverse skills required to operate and maintain a water resource recovery facility or collection system to the test. 

We Sent a Record Number of Teams to WEFTEC 2024. See the Rosters and Watch the Teams in Action Below!

Operations Challenge at Our 2024 Spring Meeting

Seven teams competed in Buffalo, New York on June 4 & 5 at NYWEA’s Spring Meeting. They were vying for a chance to compete at WEFTEC 2024, with the top four teams representing NYWEA in New Orleans this October. A great time was had by all and the spirit of camaraderie and mentorship was unmatched; if you have yet to witness an Operations Challenge in person, put it on your “must see” list—and remember to breathe, it is intense. As an added bonus, attendees participated in a Dunk Tank to support Operation SOS: Support Operator Scholarships.

The results of this year’s competition are below, both overall and per event.

Congratulations to all the teams, judges, coordinators and everyone who lent a hand in making this year’s Operations Challenge at NYWEA’s Spring Meeting in Buffalo, New York, an amazing time and a resounding success!

 

2023 Operations Challenge

On June 7 and 8, 2023, eleven teams went head-to-head at the Joint NYWEA/NEWEA Spring Technical Conference in Saratoga Springs. 

A good time was had by all, competitors and observers alike.  

Overall

1st: Place: Metropolitan Chapter Bowery Bay Coyotes (NYWEA)

2nd Place: Rhode Island Rising Sludge (NEWEA)

3rd Place: Long Island Brown Tide (NYWEA)

Process Control

1st Place: Rhode Island Rising Sludge

2nd Place: Bowery Bay Coyotes

3rd Place: Watertown Water Bears

Laboratory

1st Place: Rhode Island Rising Sludge

2nd Place: Watertown Water Bears

3rd Place: Long Island Brown Tide

Safety

1st Place: Long Island Brown Tide

2nd Place: Bowery Bay Coyotes

3rd Place: Coney Island Sludge Hustlers

Collections

1st Place: New Jersey Cake Breakers

2nd Place: Coney Island Sludge Hustlers

3rd Place: Rhode Island Rising Sludge

Maintenance

1st Place: Bowery Bay Coyotes

2nd Place: Coney Island Sludge Hustlers

3rd Place: Long Island Digested Dragons

Best of luck to the Coyotes, the Brown Tide, the Sludge Hustlers and the Water Bears who will join teams from across the country in Chicago this October for Nationals at WEFTEC!