Hays retires as water plant superintendent

    After serving as Washington?s water plant superintendent for two decades, John Hays will step down from his post at the end of this week. Assistant utilities director Chad McCleary will fill Hays? position after the first of the year. In retirement, Hays said he will travel the globe to provide clean drinking water to villages that need it.

    Hays will stay on as a consultant to the city for 18 months after his retirement in exchange for receiving health insurance. City Administrator Dave Plyman said the city is making an effort to cut city staff by training water plant and wastewater facility employees to operate both facilities. Plyman said the city plans to construct a new wastewater treatment facility in the next few years, which will be more automated than the current facility and thus will require less labor.

    Hays was born in Long Island, N.Y., but grew up in Mediapolis. He got a job working for the city of Mediapolis where he was a jack of all trades, working in trash pickup and wastewater management, among other things.

    ?Garbage men are out there in the rain and the snow. I have the highest admiration for garbage men,? said Hays.  

    He moved to Washington in 1983 when he was hired for a job at the water plant. He said his first few years as a Washington city employee were rough.

    ?We fixed water mains, we dug ditches and we installed mains,? said Hays. ?We had at least one person at the plant all day making water,? said Hays. ?At that time, the operation of the plant was not automated so we had to work weekends and through the middle of the night.? 

    After six years as a water plant employee, Hays was promoted to the position of water plant superintendent.

    ?About the time that I became superintendent, I lost the privilege of fixing water mains,? said Hays. ?The city crews who fix mains usually have to do it in the middle of the night or during a snowstorm. They get cold, wet and muddy, and they never get any glory. I?ve been there and done that. It?s one of the hardest jobs in the city.?

    When Hays began working for the city in the 1980s, the federal government required that Washington treat its water because of the radium content. In 1993, the Washington water plant began treating its water with electricity, something only a few other water plants had done.

    ?Electricity removes all the chemicals that have charges on them,? said Hays. ?For example, calcium is thrown out into the wastewater. Well, radium attaches itself to calcium when it?s charged, so when you run a current through the water you can get rid of both at the same time.?

For the full article, see the Dec. 29 print edition of the Washington Evening Journal.