CORINNA — Betty Patterson is a better employee as a result of her team’s experience at the national competition of the Water Environment Federation held this fall in Toronto.

Patterson, an employee of the Corinna Sewer District, along with Joe Madigan of the Orono wastewater plant; Mike Curtis of the Old Town plant; Danny Stevens from the Newport plant; and their coach, Sandy Perry, employed by Acheron Engineering in Newport, placed 13th in the national competition which featured teams from all over North America.

The Maine team attended the national event after beating out other teams from the state at the Maine Wastewater Control Association competition, and winning the New England Water Pollution Control Association event.

At Toronto, each team competed in five activities, placing third in safety, ninth in process-control, 13th in the laboratory event, 18th in pump maintenance and 29th in the collection systems event. Overall, the Maine team placed 13th out of 33 teams.

The team was up against some tough competition, Patterson said. Some teams practiced three hours a day and some participating districts purchased the pump that would be used in the competition so that teams members could familiarize themselves with its operation.

Members of the Maine team practiced when they could after working at their respective jobs, and took turns traveling to each other’s treatment plant for practice drills. One advantage that the Maine team had, she said, is that they took great pride in their work and worked very well together in meeting the challenges provided by the competition.

Some of those challenges were problems that the Maine team had never encountered at their own plants. As a result, Patterson said, she learned new skills such as remove belts from equipment and gauging them, as well as replacing broken pipes. By participating on the team, Patterson learned some valuable emergency techniques.

“I feel confident now that if there was ever an emergency here (at the Corinna plant), I would be able to respond to it,” she said.

The camaraderie that helped the team in Toronto has continued, Patterson said, and the group has decided to enter state competition again next year with an eye on returning to the regional and national events.

Patterson and Tom Todd, superintendent of the Corinna Sewer District, encouraged other treatment-plant employees in the state to enter the competition, not only for the enjoyment of the challenge, but also as a way to improve their professional skills.

“The Corinna Sewer District is a very progressive district,” said Todd. “Our operators take a lot of pride in their work. We realize that we have one of the more expensive departments to run in town and we want to be efficient … We also have a responsibility to protect the environment. With regulations constantly changing, we feel we have to keep abreast of new techniques.”