Wastewater employee's success runneth over with Ill. water award

Village of Danvers superintendent of public works Scott Seniff takes a daily reading Friday morning at the wastewater treatment plant North of Danvers. The Pantagraph/STEVE SMEDLEY

DANVERS -- Most people take it for granted when water comes out of the faucets or they flush a toilet.

But for Scott Seniff, such routine maneuvers consume his every waking moment.

Seniff, a Danvers town employee, has been named Wastewater System Operator of the Year by the Illinois Rural Water Association, the state’s largest rural utility association.

“He is very conscientious and takes his job very seriously,” said Frank Dunmire, executive director of the rural water association.

The Taylorville-based association is a private non-government organization coordinating water and wastewater programs on a statewide basis in rural areas of 10,000 or less. Dunmore said the field staff of eight visits 2,500 sites annually.

Two-thirds to three-quarters of the water that goes into a typical household goes out as wastewater that must be treated to a point where it can safely be released into streams and the like.

Those on-site visits throughout the year figure into narrowing the field to the top three wastewater system candidates, one of the award categories for the association. They then compare notes to select the top three operators in wastewater treatment.

Association representatives visited the Danvers facility in January. “Basically, they interviewed me about operations — what we do and how we do it,” said Seniff.

And it is one thing to achieve something when money is plentiful, but quite another with limited resources such as in rural areas. “These operators know how to stretch a buck,” said Dunmire.

“I was tickled to death,” said Seniff, after learning he won the award. “I’ve got the trophy in my office for now.”

Seniff, superintendent of public works since 1991, credited fellow village workers Jon Slaughter, who works full-time, and Greg Lemons, who works part-time, with helping make the award a reality.

“I told the selection committee and the (village) board I couldn’t have done it without their help,” he said. Record-keeping requirements by the Environmental Protection Agency also have greatly increased over the years, he noted.

By Sharon K. Wolfe

Pantagraph Publishing Co.

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