Living Water Award 2026 Nominee

Spencer Ranich and Kristopher Rippy

Operations Manager and Manager of Engineering, EPCOR USA

Spencer, an Operations Manager, and Kris, the Manager of Engineering with EPCOR USA, are nominated as a team for their extraordinary response and long-term infrastructure recovery following a catastrophic flood. In May 2025, a severe storm dumped 5.5 million gallons of floodwater into the Wishing Well Wastewater Treatment Plant in Arizona in just 40 minutes, submerging critical equipment. Spencer immediately took command of the emergency, coordinating resources to establish a bypass system within 24 hours and stabilizing operations with no service interruptions for customers. Kris then took ownership of the long-term solution, uniting operations and engineering to design and construct a replacement 500,000-gallon-per-day facility. The plant was miraculously built and operational in under five months—a process that normally takes five to seven years—all while maintaining an impeccable safety record of zero incidents.