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Worked at Louisville Water since 2018
August is National Water Quality Month, but we’d probably be quick to argue that Louisville Water strives to deliver high-quality water every day. Distribution Water Quality Specialist Christina Ferguson will celebrate six years with the company this month.
“Our responsibility in distribution water quality is to make sure that the water that is produced at the (water treatment) plants stays good quality all the way to people’s taps, even as far as Bullitt County and Shelbyville,” Ferguson said.
Ferguson discovered her interest in water as a teenager.
“I always knew I was going to do something in science in high school. I did Science Olympiad and my favorite event was water quality. So, I knew even in my sophomore year of high school that I was going to do something in that field.”
Ferguson graduated from Eastern Kentucky University, then returned to her home state of Indiana where she started off with a company sampling groundwater and then took a job at a wastewater plant. Eventually, she felt it was time to move closer to home in southern Indiana.
“I found the water quality department (at Louisville Water) and everything just clicked. I found my place. I’ve been so happy there ever since,” Ferguson shared.
She really enjoys that each day brings something different.
“You’re not doing the same thing over and over again. Yesterday, I was in the office working on customer complaints and today I’m out doing Pure Tap sampling, and I’ll go monitor some tanks later.”
A big part of Ferguson’s job is collecting and testing water samples before each event where Louisville Water serves Louisville Pure Tap® to the community.
“We sanitize the tap. For Pure Tap samples, we are testing the environment because we know the water is good to start,” Ferguson said.
“If I’m watching the news and they’re talking about an event, I’m like ‘I sampled that, they have good water.’ That’s a point of pride for me.”
One thing that Ferguson, who considers herself an introvert, never imagined doing- handling customer concerns. The number of calls can spike during the summer if we have a streak of hot, dry weather which can lead to changes in the Ohio River conditions. Louisville Water scientists manage them to the best extent to ensure quality. Ferguson says it feels good to be able to reassure customers that Louisville Water’s water quality team is always monitoring and working to maintain the high-quality water they expect.
“A lot of them say we have the best quality water they’ve ever tasted and that this is such an anomaly. (They say) ‘This is so weird so they had to call.’ It’s nice to be able to tell them, ‘yes, it’s okay’.” She added, “For the most part, our customer base is really happy with our water.”
Ferguson’s interactions with customers inspired her to step out of her comfort zone. She will do a presentation on the topic of customer concerns at the American Water Works Association’s Water Professionals Conference which Louisville will host in September.
Ferguson isn’t the only one in her family with a passion for water. In fact, she has an extraordinary reason to cheer on Team USA in the summer Olympics. Her cousin Lilly King will be in the pool in Paris with hopes of adding more medals to her collection.
“She is a two-time gold-winning Olympic breaststroker. She worked really hard to get where she is; this is her third Olympics.”
Just as Ferguson is proud of Lilly, we’re glad to have Christina on Louisville Water’s team where we have award-winning drinking water!
