Innovation & Leadership Recognition

H2GO Executive Director Bob Walker receives Technology Innovation Leadership Award.

Government Technology Magazine and AT&T recognized Brunswick Regional Water and Sewer H2GO Executive Director Bob Walker as a Special Districts Program Award Winner in the Leadership Category for 2020. The Special Districts Awards Program recognizes innovation and leadership within special district agencies across the country. Walker’s exceptional leadership guiding H2GO and its staff through the Aquifer-Sourced Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment Plant project helped him standout in the crowd of nominees in the Leadership category.

The Leadership category “recognizes special district leaders who have led innovative technology initiatives. The nomination should highlight vision, leadership and the use of information technology.”

Walker has been researching, planning and developing the aquifer-sourced reverse osmosis (RO) water treatment project since its inception in 2011. His strategic and critical planning initiatives will soon culminate in a resilient, sustainable, clean water resource and treatment system for H2GO customers.

Under Walker’s leadership, H2GO’s team of professional planners, consulting engineers, hydrogeologists and financial rate consultants investigated, evaluated and developed detailed technical studies and financial analyses necessary for H2GO’s staff and Board of Commissioners to determine that building a reverse osmosis water treatment facility, in lieu of continuing as a wholesale water purchaser, would be financially beneficial to the organization and its customers.

Using best available technologies in reverse osmosis water treatment, Mr. Walker’s decade-long efforts will serve the community with clean, contaminant free water in early 2022 and at no water rate increase. The aquifer-sourced reverse osmosis water treatment plant will have an immediate impact on finished water quality and will meet the growing water needs of H2GO’s rapidly expanding customer base.

“I am incredibly grateful to have received this recognition,” Walker says.

“It is a privilege every day to be surrounded by professional staff and a supportive board of commissioners working together for the betterment of our community. For our team, it is a daily endeavor to provide the highest levels of water and sanitary sewer services for our customers in a safe and cost-effective approach. The reverse osmosis water treatment system started out as a means to better manage customer water rates, but with the discovery of PFAS contaminants in the Cape Fear River supplies, the aquifer-sourced RO water treatment project took on a more meaningful function to provide clean, safe, contaminant free water in a cost-effective manner.”

Walker was recognized at H2GO’s regularly scheduled board meeting on October 19, 2021, and will be recognized during the 2020 Year-In-Review & Recognition Summit on November 3. This event presents a unique opportunity to hear from district leaders nationwide as they share best practices and showcase innovation.

As imagined by AT&T and with Government Technology, the Special Districts Program is the first program designed for special district leaders across the United States. Special districts, such as port authorities, sanitary districts, water authorities, transit and park districts, make up the largest portion of local government agencies.