The Poofighters are WTD’s team at the International Operations Challenge Competition sponsored by the Water Environment Federation (WEF) at the WEFTEC annual conference .

The Ops Challenge is like the Olympics of wastewater. Teams of some of the best wastewater operations staff in the world display their talents and skills in five different, timed events simulating real-life scenarios like process control, laboratory, collections, maintenance, and safety (view WEFTEC YouTube channel  ).

The Poofighters’ teamwork shows that working in wastewater can be dynamic and fun. The Ops Challenge gives our staff opportunities to demonstrate their skills, enhances our training program, and helps us build relationships with other agencies in our business.

To qualify to compete at WEFTEC (the national level), the Poofighters compete at the regional level at the Pacific Northwest Clean Water Association’s (PNCWA) annual conference . (It’s kind of like the playoffs so you can play in the Superbowl). The PNCWA sponsors the regional teams that go to WEFTEC.

Students from all over King County learned about careers with our agency and saw the Poofighters in action at a recent career fair. View more photos  .

Poofighters videos

Watch the Poofighters practice and hear what they have to say about the WEFTEC extreme challenge.