OCC and ODAFF Recognized for Quality Oklahoma Team Day Blue Ribbon

Staff from OCC’s Water Quality division and the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry’s Laboratory Services division were recognized at the June 2011 Commission meeting for receiving a Blue Ribbon at the Quality Oklahoma Team Day. The joint agency project, “Field and Lab Connection: Cross-Training for Better Understanding,” received the Blue Ribbon as well as a Governor’s Commendation at the event at the Capitol on May 5.

The project came about when OCC/WQ and ODAFF/Lab personnel recognized the need for greater understanding between the OCC staff collecting water samples out in streams and the ODAFF staff analyzing the samples in the lab to produce water quality data. Supervisors of both agencies encouraged personnel to spend a day or two cross-training with the other group in order to increase their understanding of the entire process. As a result, OCC field staff and ODAFF lab staff have greater communication with each other and more fully appreciate the work being done by both agencies in partnership to accomplish the shared goal of accurately assessing Oklahoma’s waters.

Present for the recognition at the June Commission meeting were OCC/WQ staff Stacey Day and Brooks Tramell and ODAFF/Lab personnel Mike Talkington and Tanna Kilpatrick. Also involved in the project were OCC/WQ personnel involved were Greg Kloxin, Jerry Carr, Daniel Franke, Jeanette Lamb, Leonard Moore, Jason Ramming, Ashley Rhea, and Wes Shockley. ODAFF/Lab personnel also involved were Brenda Snodgrass, Robert Whitney, Paul Kerr, Nina Patton, Thuy Ta and Yvette Turner.