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For the first time in 12 years a team from outside California and Virginia has won the Water Environment Federation's Operations Challenge. Forty-one teams from the United States and Canada participated in this years challenge, held October 11 and 12 in New Orleans. The Littleton / Englewood Commode Commandos, comprised of team members Greg Farmer, Leonard Robb, Kevin Hill and Stacey Sumpter competed in Division I for elite teams. The teams compete in 5 events. Each event is timed and additional time is added on for penalties. The winner of each event receives 100 points. The remaining spots are prorated based upon the fastest and slowest times. The team with the most points wins.
The process control event was held on Monday, the 11th. While wandering aimlessly on Bourbon Street Sunday night, the Commandos devised a clever strategy for the event. "Write down what you know very quickly, when you don't know anymore, you're done."
That strategy seemed to pay off. When the process control scores were handed out the next day the Commandos were surprised to find themselves in the lead by a rather wide margin. As word spread through the competition area another strange thing happened. The perennial favorites from Virginia and California were suddenly interested in how we were doing. (result - 100 points)
The next event was Lab. This year's lab events included counting and calculating fecal coliforms, running a titration, and a 25 question test on fecal coliform test procedures. The combined time was good enough for 3rd place in the lab event. (result - 82.9 points)
Now, by this time the team started to feel that we actually had a chance to win the national title. We'd never been in this position before. So naturally our first thought was "Don't Choke!!"
The next event was Safety. The safety event was new this year and consisted of rescuing a "dummy" from a room with a chemical leak, re-entering the room and making repairs to the leaking pipe. The event went smoothly but we encountered a few penalties. We escaped with a 7th place finish. (result - 74 points)
On to the Collection event. This event consists of replacing a "broken" section of 8" PVC pipe with a replacement section and installing a saddle tap. The repaired section is then checked for leaks. The team had a great raw time, fast enough to win, but had drips when leak tested. Still, we finished 5th and didn't loose too many points. (result - 96.8 points)
That left one event, Maintenance. This event involves performing a multitude of tasks on a 3" Gorman Rupp centrifugal pump. The team had not had a lot of time training for this event so we were a little worried. Before the event we were given encouragement from the other teams, "go slow, go real slow". Heeding the advice of our co-competitors we limped in with an 8th place finish. (result - 66 points)
That brings us to the awards ceremony. We were thrilled to be called up to pick up the 1st place trophy for process control. Then we were back up to receive the 3rd place lab award. Then we got worried. Did we do well enough in the other events to hold on for 1st place overall? Did I remember to turn off the coffee pot back at the hotel?
"And the winner is......the RMWEA Commode Commandos!! Hooray, Yippy, Who's You're Daddy!! These are just a few of the emotions we felt as we strutted to the podium to accept the 1st place National Championship trophy.
For those of you thinking, this sounds like fun, why not give it a try. For information on how you can form an RMWEA Operations Challenge team please contact Greg Farmer or Kevin Hill.
