It’s the perfect match – a wastewater treatment plant and a power plant. And two years and five billion gallons of water later, Gulf Power Company and Emerald Coast Utility Authority are proving that by working together a sustainable system of treating wastewater and making electricity can be a thing of beauty.

The electric utility recently surpassed the 5 billion-gallon mark in the amount of treated water used at the Plant Crist electric generating plant north of Pensacola. The plant uses the water as a cooling agent in the steam production process to operate a state-of-the-art scrubber system that reduces air emissions. And, by using the water from the nearby ECUA water treatment plant, the company avoids taking millions of gallons of water out of the Escambia River.

“This shows through teamwork and innovation, two different utilities can work together to benefit all their customers and the environment,” said Natalie Smith, Gulf Power spokesperson. “With our scrubber system we are providing cleaner electricity for our customers in Northwest Florida, and this partnership with ECUA shows that we can provide solutions for sustainable resources and responsible growth. This partnership benefits Northwest Florida with cleaner air — and cleaner water.”

The award-winning Gulf Power-ECUA project started in October 2010, when Emerald Coast Utilities Authority began piping water from its new Central Water Reclamation Facility to Plant Crist, four miles away. Plant Crist uses the treated water in its steam generating process and to operate the scrubber system, which reduces regulated air emissions from Plant Crist by more than 95 percent.

The new advanced ECUA facility was built to replace the Main Street Wastewater plant, which was located downtown across the street from the Community Maritime Park. Since Gulf Power and International Paper are able to use the reclaimed water, the new facility is considered zero-discharge.

“Being good stewards of the environment is part of our mission at Gulf Power and this project is a great example of doing this on a very large scale,” Smith said.

In September, Gulf Power won a national award from the WateReuse Association as Water Reuse Customer of the Year. The partnership with ECUA won the Sustainable Florida Award in 2010. A year later, it won the 2011 Industry Excellence Award from the Southeastern Electric Exchange, which includes 20 major utilities in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic from Texas to Maryland and Virginia. Gulf Power also won the David York Water Reuse Award from the Florida Water Environment Association earlier this year.

Gulf Power Company is an investor-owned electric utility with all of its common stock owned by Atlanta-based Southern Company. Gulf Power serves more than 430,000 customers in eight counties throughout Northwest Florida. The company’s mission is to safely provide exceptional customer value by delivering reliable, affordable and environmentally responsible electricity while strengthening our communities. Visit online at GulfPower.com or on the company’s Facebook page, “Gulf Power Company.”