Innovative Technologies Set Benchmark for Sustainable Operations 

WASHINGTON, DC  – CDM Smith of Fairfax, Va., has earned a National Recognition Award for exemplary engineering achievement in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 53^rd annual Engineering Excellence Awards (EEA) for Loudoun Water’s Trap Rock Water Treatment Facility Expansion project in Leesburg, Va.

The cost-effective expansion increases the facility’s treatment capacity to 40 million gallons per day, incorporating two-step ozone, two-stage mixing, flocculation, sedimentation, biological filtration, chlorine disinfection, and ultraviolet inactivation systems.

Applying sustainable expansion and low-impact development principles, the treatment plant’s Administrative Building achieved LEED Gold status through the use of recycled and locally sourced building materials, drought-tolerant landscaping, water-efficient plumbing fixtures, energy-efficient lighting with automatic controls, natural ventilation, and a high-efficiency HVAC system that operates based on an energy recovery method. A new solar photovoltaic system will generate roughly 40,000 kilowatt-hours of clean renewable energy annually.

CDM Smith provides engineering and construction services for water, environment, transportation, energy, and facilities projects.

The project is eligible for additional honors as part of a record 203 entries this year representing engineering excellence from throughout the nation and the world. Judging for the awards program—known industry-wide as the “Academy Awards of the engineering industry”– took place in February and was conducted by a national 35-member panel of built environment leaders, along with experts from government, the media and academia. Award criteria focused on uniqueness and originality, technical innovation, social and economic value, and generating excitement for the engineering profession.

Recognition of all award winners including top winners—20 Honor Awards, 16 Grand Awards and the prestigious “Grand Conceptor Award” for the year’s most outstanding overall engineering achievement—will take place at the annual EEA Dinner and Gala, a black-tie event to be held Tuesday, April 28, 2020, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) is the business association of America’s engineering industry, representing more than 5,200 independent engineering firms and more than 600,000 professionals throughout the United States engaged in the development of America’s transportation, water and energy infrastructure, along with environmental, industrial and other public and private facilities. Founded in 1906 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., ACEC is a national federation of 52 state and regional organizations.