Recently, the Prescott City Council approved a $35.3 million contract with PCL Construction/Fann Environmental for the expansion and improvement of the wastewater treatment plant located near the Prescott Airport.

The project, which should be complete by fall 2014, will increase the capacity of the plant from its current 1.2 MGD capacity to 3.75 MGD.

While the airport plant was designed to treat about 2.2 MGD, Engineering Services Director Mark Nietupski said a combination of conditions have served to reduce the current capacity to 1.2 MGD. In recent years, Nietupski said, the sewage going into the plant has become about three times more concentrated. He attributed that to a number of factors, including less water use by city residents because of conservation efforts, and more widespread use of garbage disposals. The concentration of the material going in has made the city's plants less effective, and has reduced the daily capacity, say city officials.

It is estimated that about 60 percent of the cost of the $35.3 million project would go toward "fixing the plant and making it work," while the remainder would go toward capacity expansion.

The City Council first heard about the need for major improvements in its wastewater treatment system in late-December 2009, when a wastewater master plan determined that about $88 million worth of work would be necessary over the next six years or so. At that time, the two engineering firms that conducted the master plan noted that the city's two treatment plants were getting close to their capacity.

A number of presentations to the City Council came after that, and in February 2011, the council agreed to a use a "construction manager at risk" approach in preparing for and constructing the project's first phase, which was then estimated at $41.6 million.

Bids are due November 6, 2012 for cake hopper equipment at the San Mateo Wastewater Treatment Plant.

For more information go to:

http://www.cityofsanmateo.org/bids.aspx?bidID=204

Recently, the Novato Sanitary District and North Marin Water District (NMWD) celebrated their continued partnership with a dedication ceremony for the recently completed Recycled Water Treatment Facility and NMWD’s distribution system.

The new facility will treat a portion of the community’s wastewater to a level that meets or exceeds California’s strict Title 22 recycled water standards. The highly-treated water will be delivered to NMWD where it will be used for landscape irrigation and other approved applications in the area of North Novato.

Beverly James, NSD General Manager, said, "Reusing treated wastewater from homes and businesses makes good sense because it saves Novato's fresh drinking water for other important purposes and reduces the need for additional wastewater storage." Using recycled water from the new facility is an important part of NMWD's long-term solution to water supply issues and an example of excellent local government cooperation between neighboring public agencies, according to James.

Novato Sanitary District was established in 1929 and since 1949 has collected wastewater from its mostly residential customer base in the Novato valley and treats it to either secondary or recycled water standards.

The new solar project at the Olivehurst Wastewater Treatment Facility came online in July.

The five-acre facility produces about 840 kilowatts of electricity or about 1,800 megawatt hours per year, according to a statement from the Olivehurst Public Utility District (OPUD).

OPUD estimates it will save $2.8 million in electricity costs during the next 20 years of solar array operation.

The city of Holtville is moving one step closer to completing its wastewater treatment plant rehabilitation project as the Imperial County Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for the project during the City Council’s special meeting.

The city’s 60-year-old plant has been struggling for many months, with upgrades needed throughout the plant to bring it up to standards.

With the approved permit the plant can move closer to removing a cease and desist order from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, who will begin fining the city if improvements are not met. Currently the city’s water does not meet all state requirements for clean water. In an effort to renovate the plant and meet state standards, the permit approval will help bring the design process forward.

The city is now looking at working on the design portion of the project which will take four to five months to complete with the plant’s full completion expected at the end of 2014.

Longmont is planning a new water treatment plant. Some of the equipment at the plant is over twenty years old including the dewatering press.

"We have two," said public works operations manager Bob Allen. "I believe the other one goes back to the '70s or '80s."

The city is looking at a sewer rate hike to pay for the project The Longmont City Council will vote on whether to raise rates about 62 percent over five years to cover needed work at the plant and tighter state rules on discharging ammonia.

All together, the plant needs roughly $41.3 million of work, although that total includes a methane reuse project that could lower the plant's power needs.

The biggest piece, $19.5 million, is due to the new ammonia rules. At most, the city is currently allowed to discharge 30 milligrams of ammonia per liter, depending on the time of year. New standards from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment lower that to 20 mg/l, and in some months, to 5 mg/l.

Longmont has until December 2016 to meet those limits.

Another $11.2 million goes to replace biosolid and odor control equipment that's wearing out. Also, pipes at the plant are corroded. The city plans to replace the presses with a centrifuge, which separates the water from the sludge by spinning instead of squeezing. Roughly $7 million would go to other needed improvements around the plant, including electrical upgrades and roof work.

Littleton residents will likely face sewer-rate increases over the next three years so the city can pay to implement regulations imposed by the state without incurring new debt.

The Littleton/Englewood Wastewater Treatment Plant is subject to stricter nutrient removal standards as of 2022. In order to accomplish that, city staff says design and permitting for the project needs to begin in 2017, with construction set to begin in 2019.

The total cost of the project is estimated at $15 million, and Littleton splits that evenly with Englewood. However, adding on $5.75 million for required reserves, the city needs at least $13 million in the bank by the end of 2017.

"I can't think of any other way to do it that's responsible," said Charlie Blosten, director of public works.

Council will have to approve the 2013 increase as part of approving the budget. That vote is scheduled for Oct. 16, and will include a public hearing.

The same night, council will take a final vote on raising the storm-water utility fee by 25 percent to help fund improvements to the system. This would be the first time since the utility was created in 1986 that rates have been raised.

The town of Erie is located north of Denver. Recent population growth has put a strain on the towns existing 1.6 MGD South Water Reclamation Facility. As a result, Erie has developed a comprehensive capital improvement plan which includes a recently completed Erie North Water Reclamation Facility (NWRF).

The plant is using some of the most advanced process equipment available, according to Andrew Waddoups, the design manager for Burns & McDonnell. Specialized equipment includes vertical perforated plate band-screens, grit settling and separation, high-speed turbo blowers, tertiary disk filtration, UV light disinfection and a heated screw press that produces dewatered, Class A. Biosolids. Wastewater is treated using an integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) process, which uses approximately 86 million carrier elements and achieves nitrogen and phosphorus reduction in order for the effluent to meet numerous water-quality needs.

The Class A biosolids produced by the plant have numerous beneficial uses such as a soil amendment, said Darin Brickman, project director for Burns & McDonnell.

The facility uses less energy than typical facilities and capacity can be more than doubled from 1.5 MGD to 3.6 MGD. In the first phase of construction, core infrastructure was installed enabling additional equipment to be added to increase capacity as needed.

The project’s design-build team includes Burns & McDonnell and Jennison Construction Company is the general contractor.

The state could decide within the next several weeks whether it will contribute millions to a new wastewater treatment system the town Montville has proposed.

The town is seeking a state grant of up to $5 million to fund part of the new $6.5 million system proposed on the grounds of Rand-Whitney Containerboard. If the entire grant request comes through, the paper and packaging company is expected to cover the remaining $1.5 million and the daily operation and maintenance costs.

Benjamin Barnes, secretary of the state Office of Policy and Management, said the state is still reviewing the project, and it has yet to determine how much funding the town will receive.

The town and Rand-Whitney signed an agreement in June 2011 that requires the town to help seek ways to improve the current wastewater system at the company's facility. It was determined a new $6.5 million anaerobic digestion system would better suit both sides in processing the plant's highly chemical wastewater.

The new system would be owned by the town, but it would be Rand-Whitney's responsibility to run and maintain it. The deal hinges upon how much money the state provides.

Town officials who have worked on the project said it is vital for future development, and it would eliminate sizeable costs the town expects to incur in the next 17 years to improve the old plant.

An independent engineering firm determined that without the plant, the town would have to spend about $32 million by 2029 to upgrade its wastewater treatment operations to keep in line with state and federal regulations. Roughly $20 million of that estimate would be spent to acquire land and build three additional sequencing batch reactors at the town's current wastewater treatment plant. Those reactors handle biological oxygen demand, the main pollutant in Rand-Whitney's wastewater. The anaerobic digestion system would alleviate the need for these additions and would help the town drastically reduce what it pays for sludge treatment and removal. Instead of sludge, the new system would produce gas that would be burned by Rand-Whitney.

Sewage treatment plants around the world are beginning to put value on waste, turning it into a marketable resource. Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington is the largest facility of its kind in the world and is among the leaders in the effort.

On an average day, 1.4 billion liters of raw sewage flow into the plant, delivered from around the city through 2,000 kilometers of underground sewer pipes and pumping stations. The waste is loaded with nitrogen and other nutrients.

General Manager George Hawkins makes sure the discharge does not pollute the river on which two million people in the region depend for their drinking water. By law, Blue Plains can dump only a small percentage of those nutrients into the Potomac River.

"We know that people buy nutrients all the time," Hawkins says. "So the question is how can we take things out of the water that we’re treating here and re-use it for the resource that it is?"

A massive $4 billion environmental program is under way at Blue Plains. Among the three projects, two are mandated by the government, including one that will cut in half the amount of nitrogen and other waste nutrients discharged into the Potomac River. The other is an underground tunnel to prevent accidental sewage overflow from its network of ageing pipes.

Engineer Chris Peot heads the solid waste program at Blue Plains, which is working on making better use of the mud-like sludge components of the wastewater stream. He says by 2012 the four huge digesters now under construction will cook the sludge. "The microbes in the digesters are methanogens and they help break down the organic matter and convert it into methane which can be collected and burned in a turbine which turns and creates electricity." The process will make enough methane gas to supply about one-third of the treatment plant’s electric power needs, a great savings given that Blue Plains is the city’s biggest electricity user.

The other half of the digested wastewater biosolids will be sold as a nutrient-rich soil additive.

Other sewage treatment plants in the United States and other developed countries have adopted this by-product technology, or are considering doing so. The idea is also generating interest in developing countries.

George Hawkins said he and other wastewater managers in the U.S are faced with many challenges to put such new green factories in place. First, he says, their current system of pipes and pumping stations is old and requires on-going maintenance. "In most cities the system was put in at the turn of the century of the last century when cities were being formed. And, he adds, the fact is that we need a lot of revenue from our rate-payers to bring it back up to date." Hawkins predicts those rates will increase by double-digits annually for years to come.

Forty years ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act. But four decades later, hundreds of towns across the Northwest are failing to meet clean water standards for their wastewater treatment plants. For most, that means costly upgrades and higher fees for households and businesses.

One Idaho town is facing an especially big challenge -- thanks in part to an industrial wastewater plant it took over when a prominent potato company left town. The J. R. Simplot Company gave the city of Burly its industrial wastewater plant nearly a decade ago when it closed. The plant helped Burley attract hundreds of new jobs after Simplot closed. By 2005 the city had several large companies up and running. The two biggest are in the food industry: Gossners Food and High Desert Milk.

Mary Lou Herbert manages the plant now. She points to a wall that splits the large wastewater pond in half. The wall is supposed to keep the microbes that treat the waste on the side with oxygen to keep them alive. "The water has punched a hole through that wall and I have my microbes now going to the other side of the wall and I have no control to keep them over here," explains Herbert. Microbes need oxygen to live and when they creep to the stagnant side of the pond they die. But even on the oxygen enriched side, there is a section where the air pipes are broken. It causes the air to rush to the top of the pond too quickly. It looks like a pot of boiling water, only this is brown industrial waste.

Once treated, water from the plant is fed directly into the Snake River. The discharge regulations are enforced by the EPA. In past years despite its age the plant met EPA standards, but when the EPA issued a new permit in 2009, the plant failed to meet them.

Burly also has a new $30 million municipal wastewater treatment plant. It went online in 2007 and operates under its own permit. Burley built the new plant to bring the city into compliance. The cost was shared among its many users.

Currently, Burley has two plants, the new municipal plant that easily met the EPA permit requirements, but the old industrial plant did not.

The plants were hooked together and tried to balance the loads to stay within the permits and sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not. Now industrial waste is piped a quarter mile to the new municipal plant. But when the industrial users operate at peak capacity, the waste overwhelms both plants. During these times both facilities fail to meet EPA requirements.

To elevate this problem Burly is preparing to renovate the industrial plant. The $6 million project will be paid for by the companies that use it.

But Mary Lou Herbert who manages both plants says the upgrades might not fix the bigger problem, capacity, so increasing the size of the industrial plant is something they are exploring.

Gov. Pat Quinn launched a $1 billion initiative to upgrade sewer lines, water mains and water treatment plants across Illinois, some of them badly eroded after more than 100 years of service.

Quinn described his administration's Clean Water Initiative as a jobs-creating effort to pull Illinois up from the nation's lower rungs in terms of water safety. The expanded effort would create 9,700 construction jobs, plus thousands more indirect jobs.

A recent federal EPA assessment found that Illinois has the fourth-highest need in the country for drinking water infrastructure improvements. The state ranked sixth-highest in the need for wastewater infrastructure improvements, the assessment said.

State officials said the initiative expands an existing program that offers low-interest loans to local governments seeking to avoid environmental hazards brought on by an aging infrastructure. Recently, those hazards surfaced in south suburban Crestwood, where village officials accused of neglecting leaking water mains now face federal charges alleging they allowed water from a contaminated well to enter the village's drinking water supply for two decades.

In Sauk Village, high levels of vinyl chloride were found recently in a village well, prompting municipal officials to offer residents free bottled water while that problem is addressed.

The existing loan program made $300 million available annually through the Illinois EPA to improve municipal water safety, officials said. The state's finance authority is now leveraging a surplus built up in that program to issue $1 billion in bonds for the latest initiative.

State officials said more than 350 local governments have expressed interest in participating in the loan program. Roughly $930 million in proposed projects are awaiting review, though the application process is still open, officials said.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently announced plans to overhaul the city's massive water and sewer system, an initiative that would be paid for by higher water and sewer rates for residents. In 2009 the city received a $12.1 million loan from the state to replace deteriorating water mains.

In order to keep ahead of a deteriorating infrastructure, Illinois must invest $32 billion in improvements over the next 20 years, EPA officials said.

Frederick’s Board of Aldermen have approved a project to design a new wastewater treatment plant, though funding for the design project has yet to be determined.

The design, which will cost $2.67 million, is part of a $44 million project to upgrade the city’s wastewater treatment plant.

Upgrades to the plant have already begun, though the project includes several phases and components. City officials will sign off on a loan to borrow $4 million to pay for an already-approved portion of the project.

The city’s plant must be upgraded by January 2017 to comply with new state and federal standards for cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, according to Stona Cosner, the city’s superintendent of wastewater treatment.

The state will pay for or about $20 million of the project.

The Orleans Water Alliance is considering using activated carbon for odor control at their Cape Cod area wastewater treatment plants. The OWA presented a six point plan it believes will meet the area’s future wastewater needs.

To read the full report click here:

http://www.orleanswateralliance.org/planning/

Mansfield Selectmen voted to move forward with the purchase of a 51-acre parcel of land to expand its wastewater treatment facility. In February, the board signed off on a location, deeming it suitable for treated sewer discharge from a regional sewer plant.

The towns of Norton, Mansfield and Foxborough say future industrial and business growth depends on the ability to increase wastewater treatment capacity. The land is valued at $1.1 million.

Mansfield entered into an inter-municipal sewer district with Norton and Foxboro in 2010, requiring it to expand the treatment facility. The plant currently treats 3.14 MGD, and each community is allowed a share of that capacity.

The city of Grandview is expecting to raise water and sewer rates for the fourth year in a row to help pay for improvements at the wastewater treatment plant and continue to make up for an industrial fire four years ago.

Starting at the end of this year, the city is preparing to spend $2 million to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant, including new pumps and clarifier equipment, financed with a federal loan.

Start-up of the $13.8 million Johnson Creek Wastewater Treatment plant in western DeSoto County is scheduled for early 2013, DeSoto County Regional Utility Authority engineering consultant Tracy Huffman said.

Huffman said equipment will be tested before the plant goes online. A date for actual online activity has not been set. According to Huffman, all of the plant's in-ground concrete infrastructure is complete, and the plant itself is more than 75 percent complete.

The plant is designed to serve the needs of western DeSoto County for the next 20 years.

An expansion at the Short Fork Wastewater Treatment Plant near Hernando is only about 20 percent complete, with the expansion geared toward serving a growing area in south-central DeSoto County. A grinder at the Short Fork Creek site is in need of repair, with the cost estimated at approximately $65,000.

In other matters, the DRCUA board authorized negotiations with Southwest Water Association officials to provide wastewater service to approximately 100 College Hill area residents. The College Hill wastewater system is located only 1,000 feet from DCRUA's Camp Creek line. Southwest Water Association is ceasing its Mississippi operations.

It will be 2017 before the city of Hattiesburg must start up its wastewater treatment system to meet new federal guidelines regarding ammonia nitrate removal. But, as Hattiesburg Resource Group engineer Shea McNease explained at a meeting of the Hattiesburg City Council, now is a good time to start making some headway in the direction the council wants to go.

For example, council members have expressed interest in a 200-acre land application option that ends discharge into the Leaf River. But that will take some research into feasible land, and then a decision as to whether the city needs to lease or buy the land.

HRG is a conglomerate of local engineers that Hattiesburg is contracting with in this project. Through the course of the summer, the group came up with two options.

The first is land application and the second is a mechanical treatment plant, which would scrap the lagoon system but still have discharge into the Leaf River.

The timeline for initial designs of a new system is summer 2013.

The city of Chaffee will be improving its aging water and sewer system infrastructure through low-interest loans funded by the U. S. Department of Agriculture's Office of Rural Development.

The loans, together worth $9 million, will be used to replace existing water mains in the Chaffee water district and for building an up-to-date water treatment facility. The money will also be used for repairing and treating the city's sewer collection lines and improving the lift station.

Chaffee city administrator Lee Horton said the projects couldn't have come at a better time.

"The water lines we use now haven't been replaced in over 30 years," said Chaffee city administrator Lee Horton said. The water treatment plant isn't modern by any means. It was built in 1978, and the filtering system it houses is around 30 years old. The sewer lines also have been in need of repair. It's time for something more efficient."

Horton added that plans for the city's water system total $6.2 million from the USDA, with another $2.8 million coming for the sewer lines and lift station. The water system money was awarded last year, while the announcement on the sewer loan was made last month.

"The money we'll receive for the sewers is in addition to what we received in 2011 for the water system project," he said. "The water project has a head start, but if we're able to get plans for the sewers drawn and have funding in place, we'll want to work concurrently on both projects if we can."

Schultz Surveying and Engineering of Poplar Bluff, MO, is in charge of engineering for both projects. Chief engineer Tim Southards said he is wrapping up construction plans for the water system but designs for the sewers and lift station are in the conceptual-design stage.

"The water-system project is the primary focus," Southard said. "But once we're comfortable with what we put together for the sewers and lift station, we'll commit to them accordingly. Plans for either the water or sewer systems have to be approved by rural development and the Department of Natural Resources, and so far there haven't been any red flags. I'm hopeful they and DNR will give their final approval to the water plans by December."

A groundbreaking for the water system project is anticipated for the spring of 2013. Once started, it is estimated to be completed within 18 months.

New, stricter state standards mean the city of Kirksville is going to have to make major, expensive upgrades at its wastewater treatment plant.

The upgrades will include expansion, remodeling and adding new state-of-the-art equipment to the current wastewater treatment plant.

Right now, the estimated cost for the project is $18 million.

"We anticipate that this will have to be paid for through bonds, and the bonds will have to be repaid through user fees, which means an increase in sewer rates," John Buckwalter, Kirksville public works director, said. Changes will have to be made both inside and outside the plant, and improvements will include a lot of new construction."

The facility plans still have to be approved by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. After that, city officials will then begin the design phase with construction beginning in about one year.

The city of Crawford will receive $350,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds to replace its wastewater treatment plant, which has been in service since the 1930s.

The new, 200’ by 400’ plant will tie into the existing outfall main. The city will also receive a $2,761,937 loan from the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality’s (NDEQ) Drinking Water State Revolving Loan Fund to complete the project.

Crawford was one of eight communities to receive funds for projects in public works and water/wastewater categories. A total of $2.7 million was awarded.

Local residents are calling for additional odor control measures at the Cedar Creek Water Pollution Control Plant in Wantagh after neighborhoods around the facility experienced odorous conditions in recent months.

Officials from the Nassau County Department of Public Works (DPW), which operates the plant, said during a recent Cedar Creek Oversight Committee meeting they received "an unprecedented" number of complaints about odor during the summer including 42 complaints in August alone.

A report delivered during the meeting stated that many scrubbers at the sewage treatment facility needed to be offline in the summer during an installation of storage tanks, which is required every five years. The installation work took place during the summer in consideration of the plant being located near two schools DPW officials said.

But residents complained that odor problems have continued on certain days into the fall.

After a lengthy application process, the village of Marcellus has been awarded $600,000 in grant money, which they plan to use for wastewater treatment plant improvements. Marcellus officials say improvements to the plant are critical to the village and the people it serves. The plant right now, one of only a handful in the county, is overcapacity. The money will help the village reduce inflow with necessary improvements.

"It’s mostly all residential. We don’t have any big business here to offset the costs of any big improvements, so we’re always looking for these grants," said Plant Supervisor Greg Crysler.

Marcellus was one of 21 municipalities in New York State to share in the $4 million of local government efficiency grant money.

The N.C. Division of Water Quality announced that 32 wastewater and stormwater projects in 24 counties will receive more than $114 million through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.

This round of awards includes zero-interest loans for $5.9 million to the Orange Water and Sewer Authority. The loan will be used to replace outdated aeration equipment at its 14 MGD Mason Farm Wastewater Treatment Plant with new and more efficient aeration equipment that will require less energy to operate. The award to the Orange Water and Sewer Authority is an example of the revolving fund’s usage on projects that save energy.

During this round of funding, nine communities received principal forgiveness totaling more than $4 million as part of their loan awards. Twenty-three projects, totaling about $38 million, are receiving zero percent interest loans.

For a list of projects funded in this cycle, go to the N.C. Division of Water Quality’s website at http://ifs.nc.gov .

The cities of Lenoir in Caldwell County and Conover in Catawba County are each getting more than $1 million in loans from the state’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund.

And the city of Lenoir is getting $3.850 million in a zero-interest loan for its Gunpowder Creek wastewater treatment plant improvements, according to information from the state. Gunpowder Creek treatment plant is located in Hudson.

The money will be spent on a new 900,000 gallon basin that will provide for equalization of flow and allows the ability to store and process excess flow, said Radford Thomas, public utilities director for the city of Lenoir. The money also will update some instruments and electrical panels and other improvements at the plant, he said.

The city also is receiving $578,500 no-interest Clean Water State Revolving Fund loan. The money will be used to rehabilitate more than a mile of clay pipe sewer lines. The sewer lines are more than 40 years old and, along with the brick manholes, are in poor condition.

It will probably be a year before Lenoir starts on the projects, Thomas said, due to securing designs, state permits and getting engineering designs approved.

The city of Conover also received notice that it was awarded a state Clean Water State Revolving Fund loan for $1,528,720. The low-interest loan will be used to rehab some of the city’s sewer system.

Jimmy Clark, director of public works for Conover, said the money will be used to rehabilitate the city’s sewer system in the southwest area of Conover. He said the lines in that area are more than 40 years old.

Clark said the southwest area of the city is one of the older sections of the city system and it serves about 3,000 customers. He said the loan will help the city bring the system up to a high level of service for its customers.

Hennessey town officials are looking for ways to reduce the cost of a new wastewater treatment system, required to replace a system that does not meet state environmental standards.

Oklahoma Water Resources Board (OWRB) announced last month Hennessey would receive a $1.8 million low-interest state loan to expand its wastewater treatment system, needed to comply with current standards set by Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

Hennessey obtained an engineer’s estimate for the project, which put the price at more than $1.5 million. When bids came back this month, town officials found the contractors’ costs were considerably higher than the engineer’s estimate. Only two companies entered bids on the project: Reed Dozing and Contracting, for $1,784,400; and Downey Contracting for $2,397,355.

Hennessey town administrator Tiffany Tillman said the town board determined not to award a contract on the job, but to instead look for ways to reduce the project cost and go back out for new bids.

Hennessey public works director Curtis Turner said part of the issue with the first round of bids was there weren’t enough contractors willing to submit proposals. He said seven or eight qualified contractors picked up bid packets, but only two submitted bids. "We were a little disappointed in only getting two bidders," Turner said. "We think with some revisions in there we might have more bidders, so we’re going to make some changes and then we’ll go back out for bids again."

Turner said the town hopes to cut about $200,000 off the cost of the project, advertise for new bids and open bids again in November. Turner said the town is working with the project engineer to find areas where costs could be cut.

According to an OWRB press release, Hennessey’s current sanitary sewer system serves 835 customers, and the sewage treatment operation was last upgraded eight years ago.

The town routes its sewage to a four-cell, flow-through lagoon system on the west side of town. The facility can treat 228,000 gallons of wastewater each day, according to OWRB, and the treated effluent is discharged into Narragansett Creek, a tributary of Turkey Creek. When the city’s Pollutant Discharge Elimination permit limit was modified five years ago, it contained limits that are stricter than the sewage lagoons are capable of providing, OWRB reported. Hennessey was ordered by DEQ to comply with the more stringent effluent discharge limits. The engineering plan for the new system proposes to convert the current flow-through lagoon system into a total-retention lagoon system with land application of the treated waste.

According to OWRB records, the project will feature construction of two new sewage treatment lagoons adjacent to the existing cells. Each of the new lagoons will have a surface area of 7.16 acres and a maximum volume of 21.3 million gallons, project engineers reported to OWRB. An irrigation system will be installed to spray treated effluent onto 116 acres of land.

An OWRB press release indicated the improvements are "expected to provide Hennessey with adequate sewage treatment capacity for several more years," and to "eliminate the non-compliant effluent discharges into Narragansett Creek."

Governor Tom Corbett announced the investment of $79 million in 27 non-point source, drinking water, and wastewater projects in 16 counties through the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST).

The awards range from a $100,287 loan to construct waste handling facilities that will reduce nutrient runoff into a stream in Chester County, to a $12.8 million loan/grant combination for a project in Blair County that will both reduce nutrient discharges to the Chesapeake Bay as well as eliminate the use of malfunctioning on-lot septic systems that are contaminating local drinking water wells.

PENNVEST wastewater projects include:

• Adams County Littlestown Borough Authority received an $8,500,000 loan to upgrade the authority's existing treatment plant to reduce nutrient discharges to Alloway Creek, which is a warm water fishery and a tributary to the Chesapeake Bay.

• Allegheny County West Homestead Borough received a $3,100,000 loan to upgrade more than two miles of sanitary and combined sewers in order eliminate the wet weather discharge of inadequately treated waste into the Monongahela River.

• Blair County Williamsburg Municipal Authority received an $11,189,406 loan and a $1,622,088 grant to upgrade the authority's treatment plant and install six miles of new sewage collection lines, all of which will reduce the discharge of nutrients into the Chesapeake Bay and eliminate the use of malfunctioning on-lot septic systems that are contaminating local drinking water wells.

• Clarion County Washington Township Municipal Authority received a $1,780,634 loan and a $419,366 grant to construct a new wastewater treatment plant in order to eliminate raw sewage discharges into East Sandy Creek during wet weather.

• Fayette County Uniontown City received a $500,000 loan to rehabilitate the City's wastewater collection and treatment system in order to eliminate overloading of the Greater Uniontown treatment plant and the wet weather bypasses of partially treated sewage into Redstone Creek during wet weather.

• Lackawanna County Abington Regional Waste Water Authority received a $9,735,970 loan to upgrade and expand the authority's treatment plant and collection system to eliminate the discharge of untreated wastewater into Leggett's Creek during wet weather.

• Luzerne County West Pittston Borough received a $1,650,000 loan to construct facilities to separate the borough's storm sewers from its sanitary sewer system, eliminating the wet weather discharges of raw sewage into basements, streets and the Susquehanna River.

• Wayne County South Wayne County Water and Sewer Authority received a $10 million loan to install almost twenty miles of new sewage collection lines in order to eliminate the discharge of inadequately treated waste into publicly accessible areas during wet weather.

• Westmoreland County Manor Borough received a $2,660,000 loan to replace both sanitary and storm sewer lines to eliminate the wet weather discharge of inadequately treated sewage into Brush Creek.

For more information go to: www.pennvest.state.pa.us