Hillsborough employee Randall Lloyd received special recognition from a statewide organization today in Raleigh.  

The North Carolina Waterworks Operators Association awarded Lloyd the 2025 A-Surface Operator of the Year for his exceptional efforts to continue to provide clean drinking water for Hillsborough water customers during and after the heavy rainfall unexpectedly brought by Tropical Storm Chantal.

An A-surface operator is a certified professional responsible for operating and maintaining a facility that treats surface water, such as water from a river or lake. The Town of Hillsborough treats water from the Eno River to providing drinking water.

Hillsborough Water Plant Superintendent Nathan Cates nominated Lloyd for the award for his persistent professionalism and his efforts and achievements while working alone overnight at the Water Treatment Plant from the evening of July 6 into the morning of July 7.

“I felt he deserved some recognition for this,” Cates said. “With more than 40 years of experience, that night Randy pulled off the nearly impossible.”

Lloyd, a water plant operator III, worked full time for the town from 2007 until he retired in 2015. He has continued to work several overnight shifts a week as a part-time employee since retiring.

When there is heavy rainfall, the operator of the water treatment plant is very busy, adjusting chemicals to account for the turbidity, or muddiness, in the river water. While the equipment for monitoring the plant and the lab are on the first floor of the plant, the chemical changes are made in the basement, requiring the operator to use the stairs to the basement several times a shift. Periods of heavy rainfall make work at a water treatment plant temporarily hectic, but heavy rainfall typically only comes in short bursts. The heavy rainfall brought by this tropical storm lasted for hours.

“The water from the Eno that night was the worst I have seen,” said Cates, who joined Lloyd at the plant when flooding on roadways subsided in the morning.

For comparison, during past heavy rainfalls, the turbidity of the water has reached as high as 300 nephelometric turbidity units and the color reading has sometimes reached 300 to 400 platinum-cobalt units. However, that night the turbidity measurement was 600 nephelometric turbidity units and the color reading was 4200 platinum-cobalt units.

“At 72 years old, Randy was up and down the steps all night. And he was on an island. The roads were flooded. We couldn't even get there to help him," Cates said. “With all this going on, he was still able to meet drinking water standards. Even after we lost the raw water intake, he pumped [drinking water] out of the clearwell. He ran the plant until the clearwell was flooded. He kept the plant going until there was nothing else to do."

Lloyd said he appreciates the nomination and the recognition. He characterized the July 6 overnight shift as “not fun.”

“My thought was, ‘OK, there’s nothing you can do about it but handle it the best you can,’” Lloyd said.