Nitrogen: It's the greatest chemical threat to Buzzards Bay, and one Wareham official is its greatest opponent.

Wareham's waterways were the most polluted in the region regarding the colorless gas. That is, until taxpayers voted to fund $22 million for a wastewater treatment facility in 2005. Now, Wareham boasts the highest performing nitrogen removal system on the bay, clearing out more than 90 percent of nitrogen in town waterways.

Constantly improving the system is the goal of Guy Campinha, the Wareham Water Pollution Control Facility's director. On Thursday, he received the Buzzards Bay Coalition Guardian award.

“What I do on a daily basis, I do because I love,” said Campinha. “I think of the opportunity I had going to the Onset bay, grabbing some of the best fishing in the country, and the purity and cleanliness of the water. I am saddened because my children and grandchildren may not have that same opportunity to eat scallops at will, to eat flounder at will, to swim in it.”

Campinha earned the coalition's highest honor at its annual meeting held Thursday night at the Bay Pointe Club.

This is what kept him driven even in the face of growing concerns regarding sewer rates and sewer expansions when he became the plant's director in 2010.

Last year, Campinha came up with an idea that Buzzards Bay Coalition President Mark Rasmussen described as a, “total game changer in the effort to clean up and protect Buzzards Bay.”

That idea is to “bring together, connect, and treat the entire Buzzards Bay at the wastewater treatment plant,” said Rasmussen. As a result, sewer rates would go down for residents, he said. The Environmental Protection Agency, the same entity that deemed the Agawam River as having the worst water quality of any site on the bay and forced Wareham to upgrade its plant, recently granted $200,000 for the research and testing of Campinha's proposed system.

He will have plenty of help along the way. After receiving the award, Campinha thanked his colleagues for keeping him grounded and reminding him of the reason why he's at the facility.

Campinha quoted Mother Teresa saying: “There's no one great act, there's a lot of little acts done with love... I couldn't do this alone.”