Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings has opened the entry submission process for its annual Sherwin-Williams Impact Award. The program recognizes application contractors, specifiers, and owners for excellence on North American water and wastewater projects that demonstrate a long-lasting impact on the industry.

Eligible projects include any water-related structure that is new, restored, and/or rehabilitated and was completed using coating and lining materials from Sherwin-Williams Protective & Marine Coatings from January 1 through December 31, 2016. This includes projects covering all aspects of the water and wastewater market – such as water treatment, water storage, water transmission, sewer collection, and wastewater treatment – not just highly visible structures.

“The Sherwin-Williams Impact Award recognizes the most challenging water and wastewater projects of the year, highlighting how the parties involved used high-performance protective coatings to overcome various obstacles and deliver a long-term solution to asset protection. Award-winning projects demonstrate project excellence, as well as a positive community impact related to enhancing public safety, asset protection, and infrastructure life,” said Kevin Morris, Water & Wastewater Market Director, Sherwin-Williams Protective and Marine Coatings.

Applications for the prestigious award will be accepted April 15 through July 15, 2017, via the Sherwin- Williams Waterblog (http://sherwinblogs.com/impact-award).

An independent panel of respected water industry experts will review all entries to determine the winners. The judges’ work encompasses corrosion and materials engineering, consulting, specification, testing, and inspection services. The panel will narrow down the top 12 projects and then choose the winner, a runner-up, and an honorable mention.

Award entries will be rated on the difficulty of the submitted project, challenges the participants overcame, solutions provided to the owner, satisfaction of the outcome, and overall uniqueness of the scope and story for the project.

Winners of the inaugural Sherwin-Williams Impact Award in 2016 included the project team of Short Elliott Hendrickson Inc. (SEH®), Champion Coatings, and Wapasha Construction for their challenging rehabilitation of a domestic anaerobic digester for the city of Austin, Minnesota. Carolina Management Team (CMT) earned runner-up distinction for rehabilitating a 500,000-gallon water tank. In addition, two elevated water tank recoating projects earned honorable mentions, including: the city of Fort Worth, Texas, Tank Industry Consultants, and Classic Protective Coatings; as well as the city of Duncanville, Texas, DeltaTek Engineering, and Utility Service Group.

“Water and wastewater professionals can face seemingly insurmountable obstacles when tackling both restoration projects and new construction projects, as we learned following the inaugural year of the Impact Award program,” said Morris. “We’re eager to learn more about the challenging water and wastewater projects that took place last year so we can honor those parties who successfully addressed corrosion-related problems and enhanced the life and aesthetics of those assets.”

The 2017 Sherwin-Williams Impact Award will be presented at the Water Environment Federation’s Annual WEFTEC Conference, which takes place September 30 through October 4, 2017, in Chicago, Illinois.