Blue Thumb Award

Each year, Dallas Water Utilities recognizes Significant Industrial Users (SIUs) with excellent compliance records that discharge into the sanitary sewer. The program started in the 1987-1988 pretreatment year during a discussion between the Pretreatment Staff and representatives of SIUs.

At that time, the City only took action against noncompliant SIUs by issuing notices of violations, citations, administrative fines, and publishing Significant Noncompliance (SNC) SIUs in the newspaper. However, there was a mutual agreement between the City’s pretreatment personnel and the industrial representatives for the need to recognize the positive impacts on the water quality of the Trinity River by the compliant SIUs.

This recognition led to the creation of the Blue Thumb Award. In order to receive the Award in a given pretreatment year (July 1st through June 30th), an industrial user must be:

• In compliance with discharge limit requirements
• In compliance with all reporting requirements, and
• Permitted for the entire pretreatment year (July 1st through June 30th).

The 2009 Blue Thumb Award winners are displayed on a plaque at the Dallas City Hall.