Daniel Nix Receives Honorary Member Award

Daniel Nix, with the City of Wichita Falls, received the Honorary Member Award at Texas WaterTM 2023, which recognizes an individual whose knowledge and accomplishments in the field of water supply entitle them to special recognition.

Nix’s career in the drinking water field has spanned 36 years, beginning in the distribution field and advancing through laboratory, operations, supervisory and administrative components within the water sector. In the early years of his career, he oversaw the implementation of the first major revisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act since its inception in 1974.

Given Nix’s experience with direct potable reuse, he was instrumental in the creation of AWWA's G485Potable Reuse Program Operation and Management Standard, first participating on the Direct Potable Reuse Standards Committee and then on the Indirect Potable Reuse Standards Committee. He continues to support Standards development by serving on the Reuse Standards Committee and the AWWA Water Reuse Committee.

Nix has worked with the US Environmental Protection Agency on several initiatives, including the EPA 2017 Potable Reuse Compendium, 2020 Reuse Action Plan and the 2015 Framework for Direct Potable Reuse. In 2021, he collaborated with the General Dynamics and the EPA on developing a case study for the EPAs Climate Resilience Evaluation and Awareness Tool (CREAT) Risk Assessment Application for Water Utilities.

At the state government level, he was instrumental in working with the 87th Texas Legislator in passing legislation directing the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to develop Regulatory Guidance for Implementing Direct Potable Reuse for water utilities and engineering firms.

Nix has worked with the AWWA DC Office since 2017 on the implementation of the Farm Bill in Texas. His efforts got TAWWA a seat on the TNRCS State Technical Advisory Committee, re-established the watershed sub-committee within the STAC and got TAWWA a seat within that sub-committee. He participated in creating a ranking rubric and ranking over 8000 Hydrologic Unit Code 12s within Texas and identifying 831 high priority HUC12s for the TNRCS to focus Farm Bill within, and created and hosted a Farm Bill webinar between TAWWA and TNRCS.

Nix served through the Texas Section officers and is now one of two Texas directors on the AWWA Board of Directors. He currently serves as the chair of the Source Water Protection Technical Advisory Group in the AWWA DC Office. He was recently asked to participate in the Water 2050 initiative as a representative on the Sustainability Think Tank to help guide the project.

Nix continues his commitment to water education and is instrumental in developing a new training project called SETH (Science, Engineering, Technology and Health) to train high school students across Texas in entry level water operations and help them successfully test for an entry level water license from the State of Texas. This innovative 20-hour course will be delivered via the Internet by TAWWA to vocational programs across the state for free.