Suffolk County Water Authority executive wins lifetime achievement award

Joseph Pokorny, the Suffolk County Water Authority’s deputy CEO of operations, won the New York Section AWWA George Warren Fuller Lifetime Achievement Award, a recognition tied to the daily work that keeps taps running for about 1.2 million Suffolk County residents.

SCWA’s board minutes from April 2026 say Chairman James Lefkowitz congratulated Pokorny on receiving the award at the American Water Works Association conference in early April and called it a significant achievement. For water customers, the honor points to the long operational career behind the scenes at the authority, where Pokorny has worked since 1995.

He started in SCWA’s Production Control department, overseeing maintenance operations at the authority’s water production and storage facilities. Two years later, he was promoted to chief engineer, a post that put him in charge of budgeting, planning, design and construction for SCWA’s production, storage and treatment facilities. SCWA’s organizational materials list him as deputy CEO of operations and identify him as a professional engineer.

The Fuller award is presented annually by American Water Works Association sections to members for distinguished service to the water supply field. The honor is named for George Warren Fuller, whose engineering skill, diplomatic talent and leadership helped shape the profession. In Suffolk County, that translates into work customers can measure in stronger system reliability, treatment projects and efforts to extend public water service.

SCWA began operations in 1951 and functions as an independent public-benefit corporation under New York Public Authorities Law, with no taxing power. That structure makes capital planning and state aid critical to major system upgrades, including the $11.7 million in state funding the authority announced in December 2023 for PFAS and 1,4-dioxane treatment projects and water-main extensions to connect homes now served by private wells.

Pokorny’s recognition also follows other attention for SCWA’s management work. In 2019, he accepted the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies’ Sustainable Utility Management Award on behalf of the authority. In 2024, SCWA hosted more than 40 officials at its Education Center in Hauppauge for a forum on emerging contaminants, aging infrastructure, advanced treatment systems, lead service lines and the push to connect more homes to public water.

For Suffolk customers, the award lands on a simple record: a longtime SCWA engineer rose through production control and capital planning into the agency’s top operations post, and the work under his watch has centered on the pipes, plants and treatment systems that determine whether water reaches homes safely and reliably.