Todd Jorgenson, gas/water/engineering director at Austin Utilities was recently honored with a Personal Achievement Award from the American Public Gas Association (APGA). Recipients of this award have made substantial contributions towards the attainment of APGA goals and enhancing the prestige of APGA in the nation, and have served as an employee of an APGA public gas system member with at least three years of active participation in APGA.

Jorgenson has been employed with Austin Utilities since May 1992. He has been the Austin Utilities APGA Representative and APGA Board Member for the last three and a half years. In addition, he has been an APGA Research Foundation Board Member, worked with other APGA Members and APGA Staff on development of the APGA System Operational Achievement Recognition (SOAR) program, and participated in the Direct-Use Task Group established to identify specific threats to the direct-use of natural gas and develop strategies to respond to those threats

In addition, Austin Utilities was awarded the Bronze designation for the prestigious American Public Gas Association System Operational Achievement Recognition (SOAR) program. This is the inaugural year for APGA’s SOAR program, and 21 public natural gas systems have won the recognition. SOAR is given to natural gas utilities that demonstrate excellence in the four operational areas of worker safety, workforce development, system integrity, and system improvement.

“Earning the Bronze SOAR Award and Jorgenson’s personal achievement award are only possible because of the dedication and hard work of the employees of Austin Utilities who make the safety, reliability and efficiency of our utility systems their priorities,” said Mark Nibaur, general manager of Austin Utilities, in a press release.