The Man Who Keeps West Jordan’s Water Running: Meet Cliff Garrett

"Whether on Thanksgiving Day or whenever it is, when there is no water, we leave our family and do everything we can to make sure you don't have to leave yours," Cliff Garrett, West Jordan Water Operations Lead, said.

Garrett just won the Operator of the Year Award from the American Water Works Association - Intermountain Section, and from his quote, it's easy to see why.

Not only does he spend extra time on holidays to make sure everyone in the city has water, but he also gets ahead of bad symptoms in the system before they become problems.

Inside of every home or business there is a pressure-regulating valve, or PRV. This little device makes sure that the water coming into a house from the street comes in slowly, about 20 gallons per minute. Without one of these, the pressure of water coming in will burst the pipes inside a home.

The City of West Jordan has dozens of PRVs, but instead of something that fits in a pocket for $60, city PRVs take a crane to install and cost up to $30,000. And these manage up to 25,000 gallons per minute.

Instead of simply fixing PRVs when they broke, Garrett set up a system to check the equipment regularly: take it apart, clean it and look for problems. He also takes care of cleaning out water tanks during the winter months. This means draining them, scrubbing, disinfecting, refilling the tanks, then testing the water before it can be pushed out to residents.

"Cliff took the initiative," Travis Kennedy, Water Operations Supervisor, said. "He built spreadsheets and trackers and now there's a schedule, and he catches a lot of really small problems before they turn into big problems."

Water flowing from a faucet means toilets can be flushed, baby formula can be mixed, or mac and cheese can be made at midnight. But if that water stops, what happens then? And what happens if it's gone longer than a few hours? A day or two? Thanks to Garrett and his crews, outages are rare, and only last a couple hours if necessary.

West Jordan is the third-largest city in Utah and has 69 PRVs in 46 different places. Garrett also trains crews to make sure there are enough people to take care of every one of these. If one PRV fails, those 25,000 gallons per minute can break the pipes and cause a 40-foot geyser. This isn't good for anyone: for you, for the city, for the water supply.

If the equipment is cared for and replaced before something can break, those geysers, and major problems, are much less likely.

"Garrett serves as the backbone of our water maintenance program," Kennedy said. "The reliability of this infrastructure directly impacts residents, businesses, emergency services and critical facilities throughout the community."

Clean water flowing through homes and businesses every moment of every day is a given, especially with excellent crews behind the scenes. But it takes 24/7 care.

"That there's a lot of effort and care that goes into making sure that they have water," Garrett said. "We take our jobs very seriously, very personally."

By Erin Dixon