Hanover’s superintendent of water distribution was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency last week for helping maintain perfect compliance with the Safe Water Drinking Act for eight consecutive years.

Donald S. Welsh, the EPA’s Mid-Atlantic regional administrator, presented Michael Whitley with the agency’s Professional Operator Excellence Award on Aug. 27.

“You are our partners in protecting the environment,” saidWelsh during a brief ceremony.

Welsh said it was his agency’s job to “catch somebody doing something right,” as well as policing polluters. “You are the heroes we need to laud.”

Welsh praised Whitley being among those who are “the first line of defense against waterborne diseases and contamination that can cause serious, even fatal, illnesses.”

It has been under Whitley’s direction that the Hanover Department of Public Utilities and 14 other public water systems in the Hanover area have maintained perfect compliance.

“Our mission is a good, clean water source,” said Dr. Karen Remley, state health commissioner.

She asked the crowd if they had taken a sip of water from the garden hose on a hot summer’s day. “Providing that water is as important as what doctors do,” she said.

Whitley, 47, has worked for the county for 25 years.

“I think about the grandmother taking her medicine,” Whitley said before the ceremony, adding that he thought of himself as “the guardian of the water system.”

Whitley said the award should go to the entire department, and that he was astonished that the EPA would come from Philadelphia to make the award.

“The county has been good to me for 25 years,” he said. “I just hope I’ve given a little bit back.”