16 Sep Lystek and Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District Honored with WEF Water Quality Improvement Award
September 17, 2026 | Fairfield, CA / Cambridge, ON: For immediate release – Attention: Environmental, agricultural, municipal, wastewater, recycling & waste management, reporters/editors.
Lystek International (Lystek) and the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District (FSSD) are pleased to announce that they have been awarded the 2026 Water Quality Improvement Award (Operational Design and Excellence) from the Water Environment Federation (WEF), a non-profit organization of more than 30,000 water quality professionals committed to protecting public health and supporting clean water worldwide.
This prestigious award honors programs that achieve lasting excellence improving or protecting water quality across regions, basins, or water bodies. Lystek International, in its partnership with the FSSD, received this recognition for its Direct Digestate Dilution (D3) Project at Lystek’s Fairfield Organic Material Recovery Center (OMRC), co-located at the FSSD. This project exemplifies their ongoing commitment to protecting the Suisun Marsh and the San Francisco Bay.
James Dunbar, General Manager for Lystek, states, “We appreciate the Water Environmental Federation for this award and its recognition of the importance of securing a cleaner and healthier water environment in our region.”
The Water Quality Improvement Award recognizes Lystek and FSSD for their efforts to improve the water quality of San Francisco Bay by reducing nutrients (primarily nitrogen) to the regional waterways. The San Francisco Bay provides water resources to over eight-million people as well as many commercial and recreational users. In recent years, the Bay Area has experienced increasing algae blooms that degrade water quality and stress the unique eco-system and wildlife of our region. These algal blooms have led the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to implement a nitrogen discharge limit for wastewater treatment plants.
While exploring treatment plant upgrades, FSSD partnered with Lystek to realize measurable improvements to water quality. The D3 Project diverts digestate away from the District’s dewatering process to Lystek’s OMRC facility, reducing the volume of nutrient-dense filtrate generated. The use of the nutrient rich, diverted digestate directly in the Lystek THP® technology immediately reduced the nitrogen-rich filtrate returning to the plant’s influent by more than 10% and instead incorporated this valuable nitrogen into Lystek’s agricultural fertilizer – LysteGro®.
Jordan Damerel, General Manager for FSSD, said, “We are proud of the shared commitment to innovation that allowed FSSD and Lystek to implement this important project to further enhance the quality of FSSD’s treated wastewater while beneficially recovering nitrogen. We are honored to receive this recognition.”
The D3 Project has demonstrated reductions in the concentrations of nitrogen in FSSD’s effluent and subsequent discharge to the adjacent Suisun Marsh (which connects to the San Francisco Bay), improving water quality. James Dunbar adds, “This award recognizes the benefits of using the Lystek technology for its positive environmental results. We have shown that water quality improvements can be made economically and have far reaching impacts to our vital water resources.”
The benefits extend to Lystek’s OMRC operations as well. The additional nitrogen and nutrients enhance the Lystek fertilizer product (sold as LysteGro®). This high-quality product is used as an agriculture soil amendment and is registered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) as a commercial fertilizer. Lystek manages a region-wide program with farmers and ranchers seeking nutrient-rich products to improve soil health and crop yields, including carbon sequestration opportunities. As an additional environmental benefit of this Lystek- FSSD partnership, overall diversion of biosolids by Lystek for land fertilizers has resulted in over 100,000 metric tons of CO2e emissions having been prevented as compared to traditional disposal practices. This on-going practice will continue to provide long-term benefits to improved water quality in the region.
Lystek and FSSD continue to enhance operations to provide future opportunities for better water quality and sustainability. These benefits will be enjoyed by the local and regional public through cleaner water bodies and a healthier environment.
About Lystek
Lystek International, a division of the Tomlinson Group of Companies, is North America’s leading provider of Thermal Hydrolysis solutions for the sustainable management of biosolids and organics, servicing over 60 public and private customers. Lystek THP® converts biosolids and non-hazardous organic residuals into a high-solids liquid, multi-use product for full cycle resource recovery. These products and processes include the LysteMize® process for optimizing anaerobic digestion and biogas production and LysteGro® fertilizer. LysteGro is a Class A quality biosolids product that is regulated as a fertilizer in Canada and the state of California. Lystek offers turnkey solutions including technology supply, design-build and installation services, regional processing solutions, and comprehensive LysteGro product management.
For more information, please contact: Lystek Head Office – 888-501-6508