Recently officials announced construction has begun on the Donner Summit Public Utility District Wastewater Facilities.

The wastewater treatment plant is being significantly upgraded to meet requirements of the revised discharge permit issued by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Central Valley Region. The new permit, which goes into effect in April 2014, requires a higher level of treatment before effluent discharge into the Yuba River.

The primary changes to the plant include replacing chlorine gas disinfection with UV (ultraviolet) disinfection and tertiary treatment with membrane bioreactors (MBR). The new process will have a substantial positive effect on the environment by eliminating the presence of chlorine by-products. In addition, 10 acres of land will be added to the existing spray irrigation system to allow for effluent discharge in the spring and summer. Fall and winter discharges go to the Yuba River.

Tertiary MBR treatment allows wastewater plants to be configured to maximize nitrate and ammonia removal. During the winter months, new boilers and recirculation pumps will help keep the influent at a constant temperature. There will also be a 700,000 equalization tank added to existing storage to help manage influent flow into the plant thus keeping it operating at an optimal level.

Syblon Reid Contractors was awarded the $18.6 million construction contract scheduled to be completed at the end of 2014. Funding for the upgrades is provided by the Clean Water Revolving Fund and the USDA.

The Cheshire Wastewater Treatment Plant has been testing a disc filtration method to reduce phosphorus in water released into the Quinnipiac River and is finding the more cost-effective option to be working.

Cheshire is among towns that need to reduce their water’s phosphorus level under a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) directive, and has been testing the disc method since Sept. 27. Town officials in Meriden, Wallingford and Southington are watching the Cheshire tests because all three municipalities have complained that complying with new state requirements for phosphorus is too costly.

The DEEP says the town needs to lower its phosphorus levels from 0.7 milligrams per liter to 0.2 milligrams per liter. So far, tests performed by Kruger Inc., a water treatment company from North Carolina, have been more successful than expected.

"It’s working better than it needs to," wastewater treatment plant supervisor Dennis Dievert said.

The testing, although successful, is not to scale. It’s performed in a trailer provided by Kruger that not only includes a disc filter, but also a makeshift laboratory. It’s hooked into the plant’s water flow, where Dievert can control how many gallons per minute the filter processes.

"This is only 30 gallons a minute," said an engineer and project manager from Kruger. "Dennis is typically flowing 1,500 to 2,000 gallons per minute at the treatment plant."

Water filtration testing has been performed at different flow rates, between 30 and 50 gallons per minute. Dievert is impressed with the numbers the filter is achieving. He said phosphorus levels are as low as 0.05 milligrams per liter after exiting the filtration system — far below state-required levels.

The system will cost Cheshire $7 million, and is part of a $31.3 million upgrade of the town’s treatment plant. Dievert said the system’s price tag is "half of some of the other more sophisticated systems" used for phosphorus filtration.

Meriden, Southington and Wallingford are part of a coalition of municipalities opposing new phosphorus limits, upset with the new directives that will cost millions of dollars in wastewater treatment plant upgrades. The group has been negotiating with the DEEP in an effort to get the agency to ease its requirements. Officials were happy to hear about the success of the tests in Cheshire.

The system works in a two-part process. A chemical is added when the water first enters the plant, which helps reduce initial phosphorus levels. Before water flows through the disc filter, chemical coagulants are added that bind phosphorus molecules into larger particles. The particles are then filtered through tiny, 10-micron pores. The water exits the filter at almost the same clarity as drinking water.

After testing is completed this month results will be presented to the Water Pollution Control Authority in Cheshire. If levels are to the liking of members of the WPAC, as Dievert expects they will be, the town will go ahead with its plan of installing an array of much larger filters at the plant to handle the town’s flow.

But before anything is permanently installed, the $31.3 million wastewater treatment plant upgrade must be approved in a referendum in November.

Bids are due November 8, 2012 for the Edison Wastewater Treatment Facility Upgrade.

For more information go to: http://spengcom000.web708.discountasp.net/Bids.aspx?dnmparams=/AULxgMxSbjPH19THUx3VU-pA78BJ9lzGeokCr5_AfWzrya35evPNTDp1cLloqOY2

Recently, Augusta-Richmond County was awarded a contract for nearly $37 million to provide drinking water and wastewater treatment services to Fort Gordon, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

The contract is to be administered by the U.S. Army Contracting Command with a specified completion date of Sept. 30, 2022.

Various upgrades have been under way since 2008, when a $290 million, 50-year contract was approved to gradually link Fort Gordon to Augusta’s freshwater and wastewater treatment systems.

The improvements, which will include 130 miles of water and sewer pipes, 540 fire hydrants and 1,500 sewage manholes, are funded by the federal government.

The Douglasville-Douglas County Water and Sewer Authority (WSA) may enter into an agreement with PureAir Filtration to tackle odor problems at its south side pump station.

WSA Executive Director Pete Frost informed the board of directors of the plan at a recent work session. He said odor control systems have been added to other WSA facilities with success.

"We had budgeted to add odor control to south side this year. We took several bids on the odor control, the low vendor is PureAir. We will consider this next month."

The proposed contract is worth $62,840.

The Macon Water Authority recently approved rate increases for residential water and sewer service to support its fiscal 2013 budget passed earlier this month.

Key projects funded by the budget include replacing two-thirds of the carbon filters at the Amerson Water Treatment Plant for $2 million, and replacing clarifiers at the Lower Poplar sewage treatment plant for about $90,000, said Tony Rojas, executive director of the authority.

The U.S. EPA has told Granite City officials that the city's wastewater plant discharged treated sewage with excessive levels of a harmful bacteria 15 times over two years.

EPA officials said in a letter dated Sept. 18 that the Granite City Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant discharged treated sanitary and storm sewer water that had high levels of fecal coliform from March 2008 to at least September 2010. Officials received the letter Sept. 24. In 95 other instances from 2006 through 2010, the sewer plant's self-reporting of incidents did not provide enough information on whether there was a violation according to the letter.

Sewer plant superintendent Ron Parente said the plant treats both stormwater and sanitary sewage. He said that workers at the plant have to adjust chlorine levels during and after rainstorms to make sure the plant is adequately treating sewage to control levels of fecal coliform. Because of strict limits on chlorine discharge, plant workers can't just dump it into the stormwater, he said.

The sewer plant discharges into the Chain of Rocks Canal, which flows into the Mississippi River.

City officials have a timeline to offer a written explanation, a detailed plan of action and a final report to avoid further violations over the short and long term. If the EPA and city officials come to an agreement, that timeline may be adjusted. Mayor Ed Hagnauer said city officials plan to ask for such an extension.

The Granite City Council hired Jacobs Engineering Group and the Chicago law firm of Barnes and Thornburg to help officials respond Oct. 2.

City officials will have to come up with a plan to fix the problem, including possible changes to equipment. In addition, the city could face fines from the EPA.

Officials from two rural Delaware County sewer districts say they’re still considering building their own sewage treatment plant to avoid paying increased sewer bills for waste processed by the Muncie Sanitary District.

Officials from the Delaware County Regional Wastewater District and Liberty Regional Wastewater District, which between them serve about 3,600 rural Delaware County customers, told the county commissioners in August that they might mount a $22 million treatment plant project.

Attorney Mark Abrell, who represents the two districts and spoke to the commissioners in August, said the districts are still actively pursuing the project. But the districts’ plans might be sidelined if an agreement can be worked out with the Muncie Sanitary District, Abrell acknowledged. "We’re working with the mayor’s office to see if we can seek some kind of contractual solution," Abrell said.

The uncertainty revolves around the future of the three-member sanitary district board. Mayor Dennis Tyler has replaced one of the board’s members and is likely to replace at least one more on Jan. 1. "But (the new board) may be more amenable," Abrell said. "If we could come to something more reasonable, it would make sense."

Rural sewer customers are expecting monthly rate increases of $10 or more because of increases imposed by the Muncie Sanitary District, Abrell and regional wastewater district officials have said.

The MSD rate increases were implemented to fund a 20-year, $160 million project to separate storm and sanitary sewers.

Abrell and rural district officials have argued that it’s unfair for the MSD to pass along costs for the sewer separation project because it doesn’t include their customers or customer lines.

The rural districts have hired a financial consultant and an engineering consultant to conduct preliminary studies "to look at appropriate areas and how it would be done," Abrell said.

Officials said in August that a plant along White River southeast of Muncie could serve areas covered by both rural districts, north and east of Muncie, as well as areas to the south if sanitary sewers are eventually built there.

Muncie Sanitary District board President Tom Bennington has suggested that the two districts were working with inaccurate numbers, but said if the two took their wastewater elsewhere it wouldn’t have an adverse effect on MSD finances.

The city of Terre Haute has received nine bids from companies hoping to complete the last phase of upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

Those bids, which range from about $115 million to about $125 million, come from companies as far West as Texas and as far East as Vermont, city engineer Chuck Ennis said. Though the lowest bid is still higher than the city’s original estimate of $110, Ennis said city leaders are still reassured that all nine bids fall within $10 million (or 10 percent of the total project cost) of one another.

The final phase of upgrades to the plant will replace and upgrade parts of the plant that date back to its construction in the 1960s and to an earlier upgrade in the 1980s. In all, the phase is expected to last about three years, Ennis said.

City leaders say the entire project will both reduce odors from the plant and improve the quality of treated water that is released into the Wabash River.

Officials say they still need to examine and investigate each of the bids before hiring a company to do the work.

Recently, Linton officials travelled to Indianapolis to accept a $500,000 grant for improvements to Linton’s wastewater treatment plant. A State Revolving Fund Loan of approximately $3.5 million, is expected as early as this fall, could also help fund the project.

"We don't know the total, and we won't until the bids are all in," said Utilities Superintendent Brent Slover. Potential costs, however, could be around $4.5 million.

Following a public hearing later this month, a November bidding will take place for the first phase of five sewer projects to reduce flooding in areas south and west of the lake.

City Manager Jim Patrick explained the project had been split into five contracts, to attract more competitive bids.

Phase One, the project, which will be bid in November with construction potentially beginning in December, includes construction of sanitary sewer and force main along C65.

Phase Two includes construction of sanitary sewer and force main near Casino Road and Frank Starr Park to Milwaukee Avenue.

Phase Three includes construction of sanitary sewer and force main north of Milwaukee Avenue to the 13th Street lift station.

The fifth and final contract includes wastewater treatment plant upgrades.

The second phase will likely be bid in December, Patrick said, with the third through fifth phases bid in January or February. Bid timeframes depend upon DNR approval of plans and specifications, which are currently under review.

Total cost for the five phases is estimated at $17.9 million, with FEMA funding $13.4 million and Iowa Homeland Security $1.8 million. The remaining $2.7 million will be funded by the City through sewer revenue bonds.

City to apply for two cdbg grants in 2013: The City of Storm Lake will be submitting applications in January for two CDBG grants: one for alleviating storm water drainage in the north central portion of the city, near Spooner, Seneca, Erie and East 10th Streets, and one for downtown building facade renovation.

The Northwood City Council has rejected two bids for a new lift station at the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

Bids of $528,000 from Geislinger & Sons of Watkins, MN, and $661,000 from H & W Contracting of Sioux Falls, SD were received.

The city had calculated the lift station cost would be approximately $220,000, according to a July report by City Superintendent Craig Toft.

It had been hoped the project could begin in September.

The council may rebid the lift station and discussion on the project will continue.

The Kansas Attorney General has approved an agreement forming a wastewater treatment district to serve far southeastern Cherokee County.

The Shoal Creek Basin Regional Wastewater Authority includes representatives from the Cherokee County Commission, the cities of Galena and Baxter Springs, and the business committee of the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma. The goal of the group is to establish a mechanical wastewater treatment system that can remove dissolved metals and industrial chemicals, and will perform better than the lagoon systems operating in the communities.

Another very important aspect of this wastewater plan is cleaning up the Spring River.

The next step for the group is to hire an engineer to complete a preliminary engineering report. That report will be used to apply for grants or loans through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development program for planning and construction. No cost estimates or time frames have been established.

The city of Leavenworth is proposing a 25 percent sewer service rate increase to help pay for a $4.6 million project at the city’s wastewater treatment plant. A disinfection system that uses ultraviolet light is being added at the plant.

Mike McDonald, public works director, has said the disinfection system is intended to destroy E. coli before treated water from the plant is discharged into the Missouri River.

Commissioners approved a change order for work related to the disinfection project and approved increasing the amount the city is paying Geotechnology by $4,900 for a total of $19,889. The company is performing materials testing and special inspections for the project.

The main contractor for the project is BRB.

The city has a deadline to complete the project by the end of the year and the KDHE previously denied a request for an extension of the deadline.

The planned wastewater treatment facilities in Easton and Oxford have received endorsements from the Talbot County Planning Commission.

Both Oxford and Easton are in the process of state and federal grants to support proposed wastewater projects. Part of the grant applications requires an endorsement from the county certifying the proposed projects as consistent with the comprehensive water and sewer plan.

County engineer Ray Clarke outlined each of the plans for the commissioners. Easton seeks to build a spray field that would be powered in part by solar energy. The project would be a test program and not intended to handle the entire sewer load.

Oxford is in the process of submitting grant proposals to fund an entirely new plant.

Both plans are still in the early stages and likely tied to whether the municipalities get funding help from state and federal sources.

""They would not pursue these, I believe, without grant financing," Clarke said.

Operations at the Chesapeake Beach Wastewater Treatment plant have been moving forward since the municipality took over operations of the facility from Calvert County Government early last year.

During a recent meeting of the Chesapeake Beach Town Council, Jon Castro, the plant’s superintendent, presented a favorable report to elected officials and residents. According to Castro, the town received the draft of the wastewater permit last month that allows the facility’s continued operation from Nov. 1 to Oct. 31, 2017. Additionally, the plant’s enhanced nutrient removal (ENR) upgrade project has made it through the permit process and design stage.

The three-year project is expected to go out to bid next month and construction should begin in the beginning of 2013.

Kalamazoo Lake Sewer and Water Authority (KLSWA) customers will see fees rise on their November bills.

The increased charges are being collected for KLSWA to repay a $4.765 million state revolving fund loan to rehabilitate its 30-plus-year-old wastewater treatment plant plus aging sewer lift stations serving city customers.

KLSWA, with Allegan County agreeing to act as a backer, closed with the state on the loan Sept 18. The authority board approved debt service fees six days later. The project’s expense was decreased through a $325,000 state grant for preliminary engineering and a $72,000 Green Project principle forgiveness. The latter will reduce the loan amount at the end of construction with proof of installation.

Most of the loan will go toward the $4.017 million construction costs, about 11 percent above the pre-bid estimate by Fleis & VandenBrink Engineering Inc. of $3.642 million. The overage, KLSWA manager Daryl VanDyke said, was in part due to the early July bidding environment. The total project cost also includes construction engineering and management, finance and legal expenses.

KLSWA owns and operates a wastewater treatment plant serving Saugatuck, Douglas, much of Saugatuck Township and a small section of Laketown Township. The communities own the individual collection systems that serve them; the authority operates and maintains 15 lift stations and four grinder stations throughout the collection system.

The utility’s treatment system includes grit removal, aerated lagoon secondary treatment, ferric chloride feed for phosphorus control, secondary clarification and disinfection with sodium hypochlorite, followed by dechlorination time in a polishing/storage pond to meet residual chlorine limits.

Treated effluent is discharged into the Kalamazoo River in batches in accordance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System standards. Biosolids from secondary clarifiers are routed to sludge lagoons for stabilization and long-term storage.

System corrections—including replacement and rehabilitation of equipment, work on the main building and two outbuildings, and rehabbing lift stations—will enable the utility to continue to provide reliable wastewater service with greater efficiency to customers and consistently meet discharge permit standards.

The city of Monticello is planning wastewater treatment plant improvements at an estimated cost range from $15,000 to $6.2 million.

City Engineer Bruce Westby said a project feasibility report will be presented to the public and reviewed by the city council as part of an October public hearing.

If completed, the proposed facility improvements will address pending biosolids management issues and help the city reduce its wastewater treatment costs. Biosolids are nutrient-rich by-products of wastewater treatment that can be used as a fertilizer and soil conditioner or removed to a landfill or incinerated.

"We’re primarily looking at dewatering improvements and energy efficiency," Westby said.

"If approved, those improvements will save us money over time." Westby said if pumps fail at the front of the plant, the city only has about 9 minutes of reaction time until potential sewage backups occur on Mississippi Drive. "It’s an issue we have to address," he said. "We’re also looking at our headworks. Right now, we’re not screening things out of the wastewater until after it’s gone through some of our pumps." Material should be screened before the pumps are used so the pumps don’t get clogged up and wear out, he said.

The low-range cost for the improvements ($15,000) would only address old heat pasteurization equipment removal and open up storage, Westby said. "If you did everything, it would cost $6.2 million," he said. "Staff is recommending dewatering and energy efficiency improvements as part of a Phase I project."

According to Westby, the city wants to reduce its biosolids down to about 16 percent solids, removing enough water to get the sludge to a consistency so it can be moved to a landfill or hauled to a regional drying facility. "If we don’t do the dewatering, the city will have to start buying more land for application," Westby said.

According to Westby, the headworks and miscellaneous site improvements would also provide immediate and long term benefits to the city. However, those two improvements could be deferred until a later date if Monticello council members decide to minimize the cost of the wastewater treatment plant improvements.

Estimated costs for the proposed facility improvements are as follows:

• biosolids dewatering, $1.8 million;
• energy efficiency, $700,000
• headworks, $3.6 million
• miscellaneous site work, $85,000.

City staff has met three times to discuss the wastewater improvements with Cargill Kitchen Solutions, since portions of the wastewater improvement project will be assessed to significant industrial users.

"We’re still talking to Cargill," Westby said. "We’re locked into an existing agreement where they pay for some cost improvements, but those were based on our current treatment process. "If we switch to a new process, the city will be looking at something different, and negotiating with them on how we roll those costs into the new process."

The city’s existing agreement with Cargill calls for the company to pay $464,000 for new storage tank construction. That figure is based upon a 2001 construction estimate. Cargill currently produces about 26 percent of the plants biosolids.

The city of Natchez is making $1 million in improvements to the city's wastewater treatment plant in an effort to save money in the long run.

City Engineer and Natchez Water Works Superintendent David Gardner said, "The city is replacing the large fans in the plant's concrete aeration basins. The fans are energy hogs and will be replaced by tubes that will aerate the waste but use less energy. The tubes will inject fine oxygen bubbles into the waste material to promote the growth of bacteria that will eat away at the solid waste."

With the replacement of the aeration fans, the city is hoping to save approximately 30 percent on energy costs for the plant.

Recently, the city of Kansas City, MO Water Services Department conducted a groundbreaking for the effluent disinfection improvements project at the Blue River Wastewater Treatment Plant, Kansas City's largest wastewater treatment facility. Water Services Director Terry Leeds presided over the groundbreaking. The $48 million project is one component of a $96 million overall investment by Water Services to improve the quality of the water returned to area waterways.

Project plans include the construction of three chemical terminal facilities. Combined, these facilities will store, distribute and move necessary supplies for wastewater treatment at Blue River and at two additional treatment plants in Kansas City. The project will meet heightened state requirements for wastewater disinfection, and is part of Water Services' 25-year federally-mandated Overflow Control Program.

"Water Services is excited to kick off this important project at the Blue River Wastewater Treatment Plant," said Terry Leeds, Water Services director. "This project maximizes the efficiencies of department operations, decreases long-term operational and maintenance costs, and will enhance the quality of water returned to the environment."

The Blue River effluent disinfection improvement project is the last and largest disinfection project underway for the department's six wastewater treatment facilities. Once complete, Water Services will have invested a total of $96 million in effluent disinfection improvements across all six of the City's wastewater treatment plants. The Blue River Wastewater Treatment Plant has served as Kansas City's largest effluent treatment plant since its construction in 1962. On average, the plant manages the flow of 72 MGD of wastewater.

Disinfection is a process that destroys, inactivates or removes micro-organisms, thus making the water useful again. Once the water is disinfected using chemicals such as sodium hypochlorite, the water is no longer considered "wastewater."

Sealed bids will be received by the City Administrator of the city of Bolivar on September 28, 2012 for Wastewater Treatment Plant Disinfection Improvements.

The work to be performed under the provisions of this contract include: Construction of an ultraviolet disinfection facility and effluent pumping station including construction and installation of a UV disinfection facility, effluent parshall flume, effluent pumping station, outfall structure, yard piping, yard work and site grading, associated control and electrical equipment, standby power and all other work appurtenant thereto.

The engineer for the project is Olsson Associates of Springfield, MO.

Olean City lawmakers gave a green light to the beginning stages of a long-overdue project at the Olean’s wastewater treatment plant.

Recently, council members unanimously approved creating a capital improvement project for the facility to bring it up to state and federal regulations. In addition, the council also approved issuing a $125,000 bond to pay for O’Brien and Gere, an engineering firm, to complete preliminary design work and engineering estimates for the project.

Without soon demonstrating to the state Department of Environmental Conservation some movement forward to correct the plant’s overflow problem, the city could be fined $37,500 a day until it becomes compliant with SPDES regulations.

Public Works Director Tom Windus said fines could be made retroactively to 2001, meaning the city could have to pay penalty fees of up to $147 million.

A major study, now under way, will explore new methods of discharging treated wastewater from the Bay Park Sewage Treatment Plant, according to Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano.

The study will lead to recommendations for onsite upgrades and improvements, and help determine the feasibility of constructing an outfall pipe that would extend into the Atlantic Ocean. Treated effluent, is currently released into Reynolds Channel, north of Long Beach and south of the Bay Park plant.

CH2M Hill is conducting the study, which is being funded by county capital improvement funds and a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA grant will provide 55 percent of the project cost, up to a maximum of $275,500. The county funds are contingent on the plant’s compliance with an order by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to make necessary repairs after a spill of treated solids into Reynolds Channel in October 2010. According to Mangano, conditions at the Bay Park plant have dramatically improved, and it has not incurred any environmental violations in nearly 18 months.

The study began this summer, and is expected to continue for about a year.

The Amherst Town Board has agreed to borrow more money to support the town's wastewater treatment plant, and the amount of debt in the town overall is climbing because the repair and replacement needs of the town's aging sewage plant are outstripping the pace at which old debts can be retired.

The board has agreed to borrow an additional $660,000 toward an initial $2.08 million project to upgrade sewage basins at the plant because the town's construction consultant grossly underestimated the cost for the repair. The town subsequently borrowed less money than was required to complete the project, said Jeffrey Angiel, assistant town engineer.

The board subsequently awarded STC Construction a $2.89 million contract on its bid to construct a sludge collection system in the equalization basins at the sewage treatment plant. STC Construction offered the lowest bid of four companies bidding on the project.

The city of Washington Court House has been placed on "significant non-compliance" status by the Ohio EPA for allegedly violating a 2007 consent letter agreement.

According to the Ohio EPA, the city has violated the Clean Water Act on dozens of occasions since June 2011 at their wastewater treatment plant.

In many cases, the violations have resulted in dangerous levels of pollution being pumped into Paint Creek. Paint Creek is a natural flowing stream, winding throughout the city and several adjacent counties. Approximately two-thirds of the city’s water needs are supplied by Paint Creek and the remaining one-third comes from a well field. The City’s public water system uses surface water drawn from Paint Creek, as well as ground water pumped from six water supply wells to supply drinking water to area residents.

In August, Sheree Gossett-Johnson, an Environmental Specialist with the Compliance and Enforcement Unit of the EPA, preformed an inspection at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, where he found the city to be in severe violation of the consent order signed by the city in 2007. The EPA said that the pollution levels were double, and in some cases almost triple, of those allowed by law.

"On August 14, 2012, a Compliance Evaluation Inspection was conducted at the Washington Court House wastewater treatment plant," said Gossett-Johnson. "Present for the inspection were Allen Dawson, and Ralph Fast, representing the City of Washington C.H., and John Owen and myself of the Ohio EPA, Central District Office, Division of Surface Water."

The purpose of the inspection was to evaluate compliance with the terms and conditions of the city’s permit and to evaluate the operation and maintenance of the plant.

"At the time of the inspection, the wastewater treatment plant was operating satisfactorily," said Gossett-Johnson. However, after review of data collected, the city was placed on "Significant Non-Compliance (SNC)" for allegedly pumping toxic levels of pollution out of the treatment plant.

Fremont City Council's utilities committee will meet in October to hear more about the city's $57 million wastewater treatment plant project, as the city moves forward with what the mayor has described as Fremont's largest public project ever.

There was a first reading of the ordinance authorizing the contract with Cleveland-based environmental engineering firm MWH Constructors, Inc.

Funds for the Water Pollution Control Center contract will be appropriated through the city's Sewer Improvement Fund.

The $57 million is an estimate of how much the project will cost the city, and it is hoped that the final number would come in at less than that figure.

The new plant is being built as a joint venture between MWH and Mosser Construction.

The estimated start date for the project is March 1, 2013.

Bids on a sewer lagoon expansion project west of the town of Hennessey came in much higher than the engineer’s $1.53 million estimate, Public Works Director Curtis Turner told board members.

He said seven bid packets were picked up, but there were only two bids opened in a pre-bid meeting a couple of weeks ago. The town board canceled their meeting last week to act on the bids.

Bidders were Reed Dozing and Contracting of Sheldon, MO, $1.78 million and Downey Contracting of Oklahoma City, OK $2.39 million.

"There’s a half-a-million dollar difference just between the two bids," Turner told the board.

The town has a $1.8 million low-interest state loan from the Oklahoma Water Resource Board to pay for the wastewater treatment system.

There were some "vague areas" in the bid information, Turner said, and defended the engineer saying that the DEQ had made the town make four or five or more changes to the plans over the past couple of years.

The board voted to hire Holloway, Updike and Bellen Inc. of Muskogee for $10,000 to review the engineering report, plans and specifications. Turner said that after the second opinion the town could amend the specifications and accept the lowest bid with those amendments, or could go out for bids again.

The town is required to start on the project by January 1, 2013.

An Orleans City Council committee has ordered a fast-track evaluation of a new proposal for cooling treated wastewater before discharging it into the Willamette River.

At a recent meeting, the Urban Services Committee voted to explore a variation on the East TMDL Alternative, a proposal from the Public Works Department for meeting new total maximum daily load (TMDL) limits on pollutants in the city’s wastewater, primarily heat.

The $16 million plan calls for running two pipes under the Willamette from the wastewater treatment plant. One would deliver irrigation water to the Trysting Tree Golf Course, with the other leading to an artificial wetland to be built at the city-owned Orleans Natural Area.

The wetland proposal has drawn widespread criticism and was rebuffed by the city’s parks advisory board, citing a 1994 master plan that designated the 28-acre park for restoration as a forested natural area.

At the meeting, Public Works staff raised another possibility: Instead of building the artificial wetland at the Orleans site, it might be possible to divert all the treated wastewater to Trysting Tree. Besides using some water to irrigate greens and fairways, the Oregon State University (ORU)-owned course might also have room for additional water features and some treatment wetlands.

Course managers and OSU officials appear open to the idea as long as there are no objections from golfers and no impact to wells in the area, but the plan also requires a detailed feasibility study, Utilities Division Manager Tom Penpraze told the committee, and the city is running short of both time and money to get it done.

State environmental regulators have given the city until 2016 to implement a TMDL solution, and whichever one is chosen will take about three years to build, meaning the job needs to go out to bid next spring, Public Works Director Mary Steckel said.

The city has already invested $680,000 in consulting fees on developing the East TMDL Alternative, and consultant Kennedy-Jenks estimates it would cost another $711,000 to fully evaluate the Trysting Tree option, with about $140,000 to reach a "go/no go" decision on whether to proceed.

Penpraze noted that the East Alternative has been extensively studied, would meet the city’s current TMDL obligations and would help meet additional rules for soon-to-be-regulated contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and flame retardants. But a City Council member argued that the golf course option was worth pursuing, especially given the parks board’s opposition to the Orleans site. He outlined a preliminary vetting approach he said could be accomplished quickly for $30,000 to $40,000 from the remaining feasibility study budget. Two other committee members agreed, and the proposal passed unanimously.

Recently, the South Middleton Township Municipal Authority discussed the ramifications of the lowest bids for its wastewater treatment plant upgrade coming in about $6.3 million over estimate.

Calculated together, the total from the three apparent low bidders — mechanical, electrical and general — came in at $20,649,844 compared to the total project cost estimate of $14.3 million.

The largest bid by far was $18,295,000 for general construction submitted by Lobar, Inc. of Dillsburg, said Lance Hoover, operations manager with Glace Associates, consulting engineer to the authority.

Hoover added Robert P. Lepley Electrical Construction submitted a low bid of $1,878,544 for that contract compared to the estimate of $1.6 million.

The low bid for the mechanical work was the only one to come under the projected estimate, Hoover said. Edwin L Heim Co. of Harrisburg submitted a bid of $476,300 compared to the $700,000 estimate.

Bob Kissinger, operations manager for the authority, explained how the plant upgrade is necessary to meet requirements under the Chesapeake Bay Initiative to remove nitrogen and phosphorous from wastewater. The township authority was required under law to open project bids by Sept. 30, 2012, and must be in compliance of the new treatment requirements by Sept. 30, 2014, Kissinger said.

The township authority has 60 days from when the bids were opened to accept or reject the low bids, Hoover said. This time frame could be extended under certain conditions.

By the Nov. 12 authority meeting, Kissinger hopes to have more detailed information on how the upgrade could be financed in order to make a recommendation to the board on a proposed sewer rate hike.

Much of the discussion focused on the Lobar bid. Hoover explained how the contractor is in the process of preparing a detailed breakdown of the line-items under its bid to show the authority board justification.

Lobar has also offered to conduct value engineering of what it included in its bid to identify possible cost savings that could help reduce the bottom line, Hoover said. He was confident that information could be presented to the authority board at its November meeting.

The Frackville Area Municipal Authority (FAMA) will increase its efforts in finding ways to reduce the amount of clean water entering the sewage treatment plant.

The FAMA board, plant operator Douglas Cleary and the Entech Engineering project manager discussed the matter at a recent FAMA meeting. Infiltration of rainwater and groundwater into the collection system has become a serious problem resulting in unnecessary excessive usage of the plant capacity.

The sewage treatment plant is permitted by the state Department of Environmental Protection to treat up to 1.4 MGD and is capable of handling a peak flow of 3.73 MGD. There have been recent occasions when the flow was in excess of 7.3 MGD. The plant capacity was exceeded nine out of the 12 months of the year.

Two primary sources of inflow and infiltration have been identified: the pump station serving the Laurel Ridge Development and a recently-discovered problem on East Pine Street, both in the Altamont section of West Mahanoy Township served by FAMA.

Other ionized sources such as aging laterals, broken clean outs and basement sump pumps and rain gutters illegally connected into FAMA's sanitary system are contributing greatly to the problem which has been increasing over time.

The excessive water problem also prevents additional customers from being added. Mahanoy Township officials have inquired about adding the villages of Morea and New Boston to the FAMA system as part of the township's planned sewage treatment construction plan, but the proposal is on hold for the time being.

The Mahanoy Township proposal would add about 60,000 gallons per day. If FAMA can prove to DEP that it has removed 100,000 gallons per day from the treatment plant, then it would be easier to get the approval to serve the township.

The area of east of College Station has long had an odor problem coming from a nearby wastewater treatment plant. This month $1.6 million in improvements are starting including updating old equipment at the Carter Creek plant. Ten percent of the funding is being spent on odor control, including an overhaul to the spraying system.

Kerry Maxwell is the Lead Operator for the Carter Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant and says while they won't be able to completely eliminate the sewage smells, this plan will help.

The project is being financed not only through bonds but from a five percent utility rate increase now in effect.

The project is expected to be completed by October 2013.

The Carter Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant is currently treating about 5.6 MGD.

A multi-million dollar infrastructure project will soon be bringing wastewater treatment lines into the town of Bland.

Currently, the closest wastewater treatment plant is in Bastian, approximately five miles away. Right now, everyone in the Bland community is on septic, package plans or disposing of their wastewater themselves.

The goal of the project is to extend wastewater treatment lines across Brushy Mountain and connect Bland to the wastewater treatment plant.

"With this project, we will be able to expand our treatment area," County Administrator Eric Workman said. "Our public service district has applied and received a U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development grant to build a force main to pump wastewater across Brushy Mountain to Bastian. In addition to the force main, there will be construction of a gravity wastewater line. The entire project is just line work, not the construction of a new wastewater facility."

The project is being financed through a mix of grant funds and low-interest loans.

"We were approved of a grant totaling $1,340,000 from the USDA’s Rural Development grant program," he said. "We have also received a low-interest government loan totaling $6,590,000 to be paid back at 2 percent interest over the next 40 years. We are hoping to spend less than the amount we have taken out."

Officials are hoping to break ground on the project as soon as possible.

"At the current time, we are bidding out for engineers," Workman said. "The bids are due Nov. 1 and then we will begin interviews. We hope to award the contract by Dec. 1 and start construction as soon as the design is complete."

Pierce County’s Public Works and Utilities department applied for and received a $13 million low-interest state loan for the Chambers Creek Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion project.

Pierce County will receive the loan money in 2014 after state legislative approval.

"This loan will save the county and our sewer rate payers nearly $7 million just in interest payments," said Brian Ziegler, Pierce County’s public works director.

Pierce County’s Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion was one of 277 projects funded in the 2014 funding cycle and received the maximum amount allowed through the program. A total 335 applications were received by the Public Works Trust Fund Board.

Pierce County’s Public Works and Utilities department will continue to apply for Public Works Trust Fund loans for the 2015 and 2016 funding cycles to augment future bond sales and help finance the $350 million project. The county is expanding and upgrading the plant to make room for future growth in the region, replace aging infrastructure and stay ahead of changing environmental regulations.

A public hearing for a $2 million bond issue has been scheduled for Martinsburg City Council's regularly scheduled monthly meeting in October.

Recently, council members unanimously approved the third and final reading of an ordinance to float $2 million worth of bonds to pay for the design stage of the city's new wastewater treatment plant.

While the city's existing sewer treatment plant meets the requirements of its current permit, the improved facility is needed to comply with strict new pollution controls imposed by the U.S. EPA’s Chesapeake Bay restoration program.

The EPA is mandating reductions in nutrients, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus from getting into the bay via its tributaries. Martinsburg and the rest of the greater, eight-county Eastern Panhandle are in the Potomac River watershed. The Potomac is one of the bay's major tributaries.

The total estimated cost of the new treatment plant is approximately $47 million.

Following the public hearing, council members are expected to vote on authorizing the bond issue.

Bids are due October 17, 2012 for work at the Franklin Water and Wastewater Facilities.

For more information go to: http://www.boltonmenk.com/bids/projectdetail.php?id=1341

The governments of Canada and Ontario each are contributing one third of the cost of a new $43 million wastewater treatment plant for Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The funding ($14.4 million from Ottawa and the same from Queen’s Park) was announced during a recent press conference.

Officials say the new treatment facility will be built roughly 800 metres west of the existing plant. The new, more efficient plant will help protect the environment and will ensure sufficient treatment capacity to meet the needs of the community for the next 20 years or more.

Veolia Water North America chose the Water Environment Federation's annual WEFTEC Conference in Chicago to release a study showing successful removal of pharmaceuticals and phosphorus from wastewater using its Actiflo^® Carb technology.

The presence of pharmaceuticals and personal-care products (PPCPs) is of particular concern to utilities reusing wastewater, and California, for instance, is currently considering legislation requiring monitoring of reuse schemes for constituents of emerging concern (CECs), which include PPCPs. So far, there are few data on any health and environmental threats.

To date, no one process has been found to be successful in removing all these contaminants, though they can be considerably reduced with a combination of technologies, usually involving reverse osmosis, which a recent Water Reuse Research Foundation project found removed 95 percent of CECs.

As part of a multi-year partnership with a team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), the Actiflo Carb study was conducted by process engineers from Veolia Water and its subsidiary Kruger Inc, with the support of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and the Water Environment Research Foundation.

Over the course of an eight-week study, the presence of phosphorus and a variety of PPCPs, ranging from ointments to medications, was monitored after adding Actiflo Carb to the traditional wastewater treatment process. With the use of Actiflo Carb, 75 percent of the selected PPCPs were removed from the wastewater. Additionally, phosphorus was reduced to a concentration of 0.05 mg/L or less, well below the U.S. EPA's regulatory limit of 1.0 mg/L.

Developed and patented by Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies, Actiflo Carb is a high-rate clarification technology that relies on powdered activated carbon, which is known for its ability to remove pesticides, taste-and-odor-causing compounds, natural organic matter and many types of trace organic compounds from water and wastewater.

"There is mounting concern across the U.S. about the impact of trace organics, such as hormones and pharmaceuticals, in our water systems and the potential threats they pose on human health, wildlife and the environment," said Dr Rebecca Klaper, the lead scientist from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, who worked on the study. "This research showed that when Actiflo Carb is added to a wastewater treatment process, it removes a significant portion of the pharmaceuticals tested."

Aqua America, Inc. has announced that its Pennsylvania subsidiary, Aqua Pennsylvania, Inc., has acquired the wastewater system assets of Kidder Township, which serves approximately 3,000 people for $11.3 million. Aqua has operated the former municipally owned system since 2006.

The acquisition is the latest for the company, which has completed more than 200 acquisitions and growth ventures over the last decade. It after the company's recent $1.5 million acquisition of the water and wastewater systems which serve approximately 2,300 people in the Beech Mountain Lakes Resort Community located in portions of Butler and Dennison townships, Luzerne County.

Aqua America continues with its growth-through-acquisition strategy as part of its business growth model. With 80 percent of the water and wastewater systems still in government control, the purchase of municipally owned systems such as Kidder Township is an area of great growth potential.

Aqua America is one of the largest U.S.-based publicly-traded water utilities serving almost 3 million residents in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia.

GE has installed a new aeration control system at the Bird Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Buffalo, NY, that is projected to save the city more than $350,000 a year in energy costs.

GE delivered a Roots Aeration Control System for the plant’s 32 aeration basins, replacing an older system. The new system has significantly improved the stability of the plant’s aeration process and also is capable of handling fluctuations in loading, which has allowed the plant to operate some of its aeration basins at dissolved oxygen (DO) set points well below the norm. This is providing additional energy savings.

"The system offers a logical approach that makes decisions like a plant operator would when controlling DO levels in the activated sludge basin," said James Keller, treatment plant superintendent for the Buffalo Sewer Authority at Bird Island.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) completed a measurement and verification review of the Bird Island plant at the end of February. This review showed higher than expected energy savings, with projected annual savings of $357,000.

"NYSERDA and National Grid both found the system attractive and offered incentives to fund the project," said Keller. "The system will pay for itself in about 14 months and from there the savings will continue."

The Roots control system supplied by GE features a flow-based strategy where each individual DO probe is used to calculate the air requirement for each control zone. As data is collected, the system calculates the total air flow requirement for all of the 32 zones, and the change in air flow requirement is communicated to the blower control panel. The "DO-to-flow" concept also enables the use of "true" most-open-valve logic, where at least one valve is in the fully open position at all times. As the General Electric Company reported, this reduces the system header pressure, which in turn reduces the load on the blowers and reduces the amount of energy needed to move the required amount of air.

"The GE system is based on a control algorithm specifically designed for the wastewater aeration process. Our main focus is to deliver a cost-effective system that provides a stable, reliable and energy efficient way to deliver the required amount of process air, while keeping the system intuitive and user friendly," said John Parrish, North American sales leader, Roots blowers, compressors and controls—GE Measurement & Control for GE Oil & Gas.

You can track all the water chemical bids in the new database in the report at:

https://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/TofC.htm

Here are the titles added since the last update.

Highland Sewer & Water Authority - Johnstown, PA

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=2084

Huntingdon, PA

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=2087

Lackawanna River Basin Sewer Authority - Throop, PA

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=2085

Lancaster County, PA

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=2097

Portage County - Ravenna, OH

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=2082

Saratoga County Water Authority - Spa, NY

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=2090

Upper Trinity Regional Water District - Lewisville, TX

http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=2089

E-mail: editor@mcilvainecompany.com