Craig Nowak, our Great Falls Operations Manager, was the American Water Works Association (AWWA) Montana Section’s recipient of the George Warren Fuller Award. His 36-year career has helped provide communities throughout the West with clean water. As a lifetime member of AWWA and ASCE – organizations that have benefitted from his longtime involvement – Craig and his contributions were honored at the annual conference in Spring 2019.

Craig was honored for his years of work in Montana on water projects in Glasgow, Chinook, Cut Bank, Harlem, Cascade, Billings, and Great Falls. From pipeline crossings, to pump station designs, to irrigation system rehabilitation projects, to water master plans, PER’s, and system improvement projects, his expertise on water (and wastewater) projects has been felt throughout the western United States.

A South Dakota native, Craig mostly likely had no idea that he would become a civil engineer who would design and oversee a 23-year potable water supply project in his home state. The Mni Wiconi Rural Water Supply System, covering almost the entire southwest quarter of South Dakota, is an $86 million project that now supplies 52,000 rural residents and livestock with clean water for the first time in history. Here’s what it includes:

  • 375 miles of main line piping
  • 260 miles of service line piping
  • 1,575 rural residential connections
  • 15 community system connections
  • A 14 million gallon per day surface water treatment plant on the Missouri River
  • 24 groundwater wells
  • 7 well water treatment buildings
  • Numerous trenchless stream and road crossings
  • 22 pump stations
  • 14 ground surface reservoirs
  • 4 elevated storage tanks

Craig received his B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering both from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.