Photo By Willliam D. Ritter | Col. Samuel Morgan, Commander of the Blue Grass Army Depot, places the Army Civilian...... read more read more
RICHMOND, Ky., August 25, 2025 – University of Kentucky Chemical Engineering graduate Tim Hadley recently won the Army Materiel Command's Top Employee of the Quarter award for his work as a Facilities Engineer in the Directorate of Public Works at the Blue Grass Army Depot in Richmond, Kentucky.
Hadley, a Casey County, Kentucky native, is the Contracting Officer Representative for BGAD's water and sewer infrastructure. He first won the Employee of the Quarter award at BGAD before also collecting the award at the Joint Munitions Command and AMC levels, both of which are higher headquarters of BGAD.
Hadley won because he single-handedly and successfully designed, scoped, and cost-estimated a $2 million project to repair the installation's sewer infrastructure.
In general terms, Hadley described the problem as "too much inflow and infiltration into BGAD's wastewater treatment plant, during large rain events." Inflow and infiltration refer to the unwanted intrusion of stormwater and groundwater into a sanitary sewer system.
More specifically, the problem was a leaking sewer infrastructure that allowed stormwater intrusion, which routinely inundated and overwhelmed BGAD's wastewater treatment plant, causing releases of partially treated effluent, which is liquid waste or sewage discharged into the environment. This release triggered several notices of deficiency from the Kentucky Department of Environmental Protection, along with the threat of future fines.
"Basically, rainwater precipitation would go through the cracks and holes in the sanitary collection system, and it would overwhelm the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant," said Hadley. "The overwhelming capacity causes bypasses, which is water that did not receive full treatment processes."
Hadley has worked at BGAD for over 15 years in various engineering capacities. Before his current job as BGAD's Facilities Engineer, he worked for three years as a Chemical Engineer at the depot's washout facility and as a General Engineer in BGAD's environmental department.
"Tim's work has always been top-notch, but his sewer infrastructure initiative was a level up," said Joe Elliot, BGAD's Director of Public Works. "His ideas not only fixed a problem, but they also maximized the use of modernization dollars, which will greatly reduce negative environmental effects, while expanding the life expectancy of the infrastructure."
As the COR for BGAD's water and sewer infrastructure, Hadley oversees the water collection from Lake Vega, the treatment at the water plant, and the water distribution to BGAD's buildings. On the wastewater side, Hadley oversees the collection of sanitary sewer water, the operations of BGAD's wastewater treatment plant, and monitors the depot's outfalls to ensure compliance with national pollution discharge elimination system requirements. An outfall is the point where water, wastewater, or stormwater discharges into a larger body of water.
Hadley's project initially identified the worst area where excessive amounts of water were entering the system.
"A lot of BGAD's infrastructure was installed around 1942 and utilized brick manholes and was prone to having water seep into them after the groundwater table got up so high," said Hadley. "We eliminated old clay piping and replaced it with the current materials like PVC piping. We also rehabilitated the manholes, replacing the old brick ones with precast concrete material manholes."
Before coming to BGAD, Hadley worked for two years as a Chemical Engineer in the refinery industry and six years as a Manufacturing Engineer in the automotive paint industry.
"Tim Hadley exemplifies the type of employees we have here at the depot. Smart, creative, and ingenious," said Col. Samuel Morgan, BGAD's commander. "He saw a problem, figured out a solution, and requested the resources he needed to solve the problem quickly. He deserved these awards for his outstanding efforts."
To date, Hadley's project has reduced stormwater infiltration by over 50%, proving BGAD's commitment to environmental excellence. Once the depot completes additional projects, the amount of stormwater infiltration will decline further.
| Date Taken: | 08.26.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 08.26.2025 16:35 |
| Story ID: | 546584 |
| Location: | RICHMOND, KENTUCKY, US |
| Web Views: | 44 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Ingenuity Solves Water Problem While Helping the Environment, by Willliam D. Ritter, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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