A project designed to meet higher water treatment standards by reducing the level of phosphates going back into the Coosa River is under way at Gadsden’s two wastewater treatment facilities.

The first phase of the project cost $ 3.4 million and should be completed the first quarter of next year. Plans are being prepared for a second phase of wastewater treatment upgrades. That project will be bid this spring.

Officials in Bayou La Batre are working to ensure a $20 million project to overhaul their aging wastewater treatment facility is completed by next September. The project was prompted by an environmental review that found the plant was in violation of water quality laws. The plant routinely discharges wastewater and poses a significant threat to local residents.

As a result, officials allocated financing for work on the new wastewater treatment facility, which includes a phosphorous removal system and other innovative technologies. However, state lawmakers have fought legal battles pertaining to land use rights, and they fear that additional legal battles could prevent crews from completing work by September of 2012, breaking a deadline previously agreed upon with state and federal lawmakers.

The Bayou La Batre Utilities Board attorney asserted a local resident has challenged the proposed placement of the wastewater treatment plant's effluent line. He said the resident claims he is the rightful owner to the sea floor area where officials hope to place the pipeline.

The pipeline is one of the final components in the city's plan to construct its new plant. Bayou La Batre's proposed plans had called for crews to extend the pipeline nearly a mile offshore. The wastewater treatment plant would use the line to discharge treated sewage water into the Mississippi Sound.

This latest legal problem could forestall those plans, however, and now city officials are mulling whether they could potentially reroute the pipeline elsewhere. Nonetheless, the local resident has not formally filed a lawsuit, and the attorney asserted the city hopes to reach an agreement outside of court.

Bids are due January 19, 2012. See next article for more information.

For more information go to: http://ncsd.ca.gov/Library/Master%20Plans/Southland%20WWTF/signed%20Final%20MP%20Amendment%201_080610.pdf

Work could begin by June on Nipomo’s project to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant, improve groundwater quality and set the stage for using treated water for irrigation.

After certifying the environmental impact report for the project last month, Nipomo Community Services District directors were to consider approving the first phase of the project. Directors also planned to consider adopting a statement of overriding consideration and a project mitigation monitoring plan.

"If all goes swimmingly, they will approve the project and authorize staff to file a notice of determination," NCSD General Manager Michael LeBrun said. "That will start the 30-day clock to appeal the processes used in the environmental determination."

If the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board then approves updated discharge requirements for the plant in February, as anticipated, the district could go out to bid on the project by May. Construction could then begin around the end of May and be completed in about 18 months, LeBrun said.

Improvements to the Southland Wastewater Treatment Plant are planned in three phases, and all the funding is in place for the project.

The first phase, at an estimated $9 million cost, will improve the facility’s ability to treat wastewater but will not increase its current 900,000-gallon-per-day capacity.

"We’re really raising the level of treatment," LeBrun said, adding the upgrade will provide a secondary level of treatment resulting in cleaner water being discharged into the settling ponds. It will also prepare the plant for improving treatment to a tertiary level at some point in the future. "It’s improving the front end of the plant, so when the community is ready, we can go to using recycled water," he said. "That would involve direct use on crops and recreational lands.

In the second phase, estimated to cost $2.3 million, the plant’s capacity will be expanded to about 1.2 MGD. Phase 3, estimated at about $2.8 million, will further expand capacity to about 1.8 MGD.

The city of St. John's will go to court to recover some of the money it will have to spend to fix problems at its wastewater treatment plant.

Deputy Mayor Shannie Duff says fixing a tank at the Riverhead sewage treatment plant will not be cheap. "The cost will be multi-millions of dollars," said Deputy Mayor Duff. "We don't know ourselves yet exactly how many (millions) because we're getting estimates done, again by experts on this process."

The city expects it will take months to fix the recently completed plant, which cost about $150 million to build.

City staff had to shut down one of its two treatment tanks after the problem was discovered. The lining is made of a latex-like material and large strips of the lining have peeled away. The repairs will start in January and may not be complete until the fall. In the meantime, waste will be channeled into the only other digester tank. However, the city expects that tank will also have to be repaired.

Duff said it's too early to estimate how much the repairs will cost or which companies are at fault.

Meanwhile, the city insists that recurring odor problems at the plant are not related to issues with the linings in the tanks. But officials say that could add to odor problems in the coming months.

The Ventura City Council voted recently to settle a lawsuit with the Wishtoyo Foundation and its Ventura Coastkeeper Program, as well as an administrative challenge filed by Heal the Bay, alleging the city’s sewage treatment plant releases an excessive amount of tertiary treated water into the Santa Clara River Estuary, harming the sensitive habitat.

The agreement calls for up to $55 million in renovations to the sewage treatment plant by 2025, and for the city to reuse 50 to 100 percent of its treated wastewater. Currently, the city recycles only 3 percent of its treated wastewater, while releasing 9 million gallons into the estuary, an amount that the lawsuit alleges is damaging to the river’s ecosystem. The cost of the new infrastructure will come from an estimated $3.50 increase in Ventura residents’ monthly sewer bills, beginning in a few years, but the sale of reclaimed water can generate revenue and eventually offset that cost.

Bids are due February 2, 2012 for the Southwest Water Reclamation Facility headworks and screen modifications project.

For more information go to: http://www.stpete.org/purchase/docs/Solicitations/bid7212.pdf

Bids are due February 7, 2012 for nitrification basin improvements at the Sarasota Wastewater Treatment Plant.

For more information go to: http://www.h2bid.com/procurement-notice-147201.html

DeKalb County’s water and sewer rates will increase by 11 percent for each of the next three years to help finance more than $1 billion in improvements to the county’s water and sewer system. The increases mean customers with county water and sewer services currently using 6,000 gallons per month would see their rates increase from $59.52 in 2010 to $94.41 in 2014.

"This gives us the necessary revenue to support the long-term payment of the bonds," said Joe Basista, director of the county’s watershed management department.

In December, the Board of Commissioners approved a $381 million water and sewer bond. Of the $1.345 billion in capital improvement projects, approximately $1 billion will be funded by the bonds and the rest will be financed by the watershed department’s cash reserves, Basista said.

In 2012, the county will begin approximately $400 million of capital improvement projects. Of that amount, approximately $250 million will go to rebuild, upgrade and expand the Snapfinger Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Bid requests for the first phase of the Snapfinger project, which will entail clearing and grading the site where the new structure will be built, will go out in January. The actual construction phase is expected to be bid out in the second or third quarter of 2012.

Approximately $150 million will be used for the design and construction of 20-25 other projects.

"We will see actual construction in 2012," Basista said. "You won’t see massive construction in 2012, but we will be at a pretty good pace."

The county’s water and sewer system, which serves more than 730,000 people and 20,000 businesses, has about 5,200 miles of water and sewer lines, one treatment facility for drinking water and two for wastewater. The system is plagued with pipe breaks and sewer spills. As of Dec. 20, there have been 187 county sewer spills, many caused by grease blockages in pipes.

According to county officials, approximately $20 million-$30 million will be allocated to address requirements of a proposed consent decree in which the county would agree to pay a $453,000 penalty from the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for excessive sewage spills. The county also agreed to implement a $600,000 stream cleanup project, focusing on debris removal from parts of the South River, South Fork Peachtree Creek and Snapfinger Creek.

Basista said the watershed department has already begun addressing some of the issues that brought about the proposed consent decree. The county is in the process of physically surveying the entire sewer system, with 70 percent of the mapping already complete. Workers are also in the process of building a computerized hydrological model of the system.

Some limited system rehabilitation and closed-circuit monitoring is also under way, Basista said.

The mayor of Teton City says with wastewater treatment costs on the rise, the city of Teton is contemplating establishing its own treatment plant.

The Mayor said, "We are working with an engineer." City officials have located land where a system may be located. Right now the focus is on what type of system might be the best for the city of less than 800 people.

Currently, the city pays Rexburg $50,000 a year for the privilege of sending wastewater to Rexburg’s plant. When the city first put in the collection system the rates were about $13,000 to $14,000 a year.

A meeting is being planned with Newdale officials to discuss combining efforts with them on a wastewater study, one of the steps required in securing funding for a system.

Rexburg’s treatment plant, with a capacity of 5.5 MGD operates at about 3 MGD, providing wastewater treatment for Rexburg, Sugar City and Teton.

It was most recently upgraded in 2010. The upgrade focused on the facility’s headworks and included a new bio tower, bio tower pump station and two new splitter boxes.

Instead of proceeding to the Idaho Supreme Court, a lawsuit over the city of Wendell’s attempt to expand its wastewater system has been settled. The case was brought by residents who appealed Gooding County’s granting Wendell the special-use permit needed to bring the city’s sewer treatment system into compliance.

In June 2010, the city purchased 235 acres for $1.8 million for its wastewater project, which calls for land application of treated waste. Residents near the site contended that their three acres, essentially surrounded by the land application site and nearby storage lagoons, would decrease in value. Under the settlement, the resident will receive $50,000.

Mayor Christopherson said settling was the right decision for many reasons — chief among them the need to begin work on the wastewater facility and to curb further spending on related legal fees, which have totaled $30,000 since October 2010. Christopherson noted that the lawsuit had already delayed work by more than a year, and the Idaho Supreme Court would have taken another six months to a year to hear the case.

"We’re under a consent order with (the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality) stipulating no new development in the city that would add to the sewer system until we bring it into compliance," the mayor said. "Now we can move forward with the project and focus on economic development."

Work on the lagoon system should be complete by December 2012.

The Marengo City Council should be ready soon after the holiday season to resume with the rebidding process to expand the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The city council is scheduled to meet and to make final decisions on Jan. 9, 2012.

"We’ll still probably go out for bid in late January," said Tim Bronn, project manager and vice president of engineering firm McMahon Associates, an engineering firm hired by the city.

The expansion project will modernize the wastewater treatment plant’s operation by enhancing the pumping capacity from 900,000 gallons of water a day to 2.25 MGD. The plant operates at its maximum capacity with equipment and infrastructure that is more than 30 years old and the Illinois EPA is requiring the city to act soon or it will place a moratorium on the city’s future building permits.

State and local officials say the large-scale project is essential for future development and would extend the plant’s life by at least 20 years.

The project is estimated to cost $12 million.

The city advertised a request for proposal in early July, and officials planned on selecting a contractor in early September. However, all seven bids that came in exceeded the city’s figure. The lowest bidder went over the city’s budget by $3.5 million.

Engineering contractors explained that sensitive water and environmental concerns tied to the area’s Kishwaukee River drove up the base bid costs.

City officials agreed to scale back the scope of the project and rebid the project to keep the cost under $12 million. To do so, the city will have to modify the expansion’s plan and its specifications by removing certain costly items.

"We’re still reworking the document," Bronn said. McMahon Associates is not receiving additional pay for rebidding the project.

At a city council meeting in October, Mayor Don Lockhart noted that although the revision could bring the project under budget, forgoing some of the items from the original plan would end up costing the city more years from now.

The Bloomington City Council voted in December in favor of a sewer rate increase that will pay for repairs to the wastewater treatment plant, and will cover the rising costs of water treatment. In recent years rates have not gone up enough to manage costs and capital improvements the facility will undergo are long overdue for the aging plant.

Iowa City is gearing up for one of the most expensive municipal projects in its history, with construction set to begin in the summer of 2012 on the consolidation of its wastewater treatment operations, a key component in the city’s flood recovery efforts.

The city is awaiting the final site approval from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and preparing for a March bid on the $49 million construction project, which will decommission the flood-prone northern plant along the Iowa River and expand operations at its southern plant.

The north plant, which was built in 1936, flooded in 2003 and again in 2008, when operations were limited for about two months. The city intends to keep the plant up and running until at least the summer of 2014, just a couple of months after expansion work is slated to be completed at the south site.

The city estimates the cost of demolishing the north plant to be an additional $5.8 million, though plans call for the administration building and large sand filter building to be preserved and repurposed. Public Works Director Rick Fosse said it’s too early to say what those facilities will be used for, but the remainder of the site is slated to become a large public park along the river and the centerpiece in the city’s Riverfront Crossings revitalization plans.

Although the city invested $358,295 in repairs to the north plant after the flood, Fosse said the facility is showing its age.

The expansion of the south plant, which will roughly double the size of the facilities, is being funded through several sources: a $22 million Economic Development Administration grant, $12.6 million from local-option sales tax revenue, up to $6 million in grants from the I-JOBS program and the remainder from municipal wastewater revenues.

"First and most importantly, it’s going to allow us to decommission that north wastewater plant, which is flood prone and very old," Fosse said. "Secondly, it’s going to build some capacity for growth. And third, it’s going to position us for any future wastewater requirements."

The new project is expected to cost approximately $50 million and meet the city’s wastewater needs for about the next 15 years.

The $4.2 million sewer line installation by Basham Construction of Louisville is one of more than two dozen projects under construction for the Metropolitan Sewer District, as part of MSD’s $850 million sewer renovation

The plan was the heart of an MSD agreement with the state and U.S. EPA to greatly curtail raw sewage flowing into waterways when Louisville’s sewer system is overwhelmed during even light rains.

The Commissioners are looking for contractors for a $2,000,000 project.

The Richland County Commissioners are seeking bids for a project that will result in the Country Meadows and Lust wastewater treatment plants being bypassed, and sewage sent straight to the Shelby wastewater treatment plant.

Country Meadows is a subdivision of 18 homes on State Route 96 east of Shelby.

Lust is a neighborhood of 16 homes off Myers Road south of Shelby.

Financing for the $2,000,000 project includes a grant and a zero-percent interest loan of $250,000 each, from the Ohio Public Works Commission.

Some of the money will be borrowed, and the rest will come from the county's wastewater fund.

The installation of new sewer lines and lift stations should start in April and be completed in October.

The redeveloped of the Ames Shovel Shop property in Easton will include a wastewater treatment plant and a sewer district that will cover some neighborhoods and the village business district. The area has a high water table, which creates septic problems. Officials say the sewer system will not bring new construction, but will allow new uses of existing spaces.

When the street is opened for the sewer project, Easton is hoping to put existing utilities underground and install historically-appropriate lighting.

Earlier reports had projected that the development would start this fall, but the closing is now scheduled for January. Construction is tentatively scheduled to begin Feb 1.

The project involves private financing, money from the town including a $4 million loan through the Community Preservation Act Fund, and state money including a $1.5 million grant for the treatment plant. Most of the money has been appropriated, although the town will need to foot half the bill - about a million dollars - to bury the utilities. The rest of the money is coming from a state grant.

The sewer plan will be done in phases, said Planning Director Brad Washburn. Eventually, the town would like to sewer two major areas - one extending south from the Shovel Shop project, and the other at Five Corners. Part of the first area will be connected to the plant at the Shovel Shop, but the town may connect to existing sewer systems in Brockton and West Bridgewater for the rest, Washburn said. The entire project is a long term one, projected to take years and several phases to complete, he said.

Officials continue to look for funding to support what is expected to be a multi-million dollar expansion of sewer service to parts of Salem and Gloucester counties that continue to rely on septic systems.

In Salem County, six of the 15 municipalities have their own wastewater treatment facilities, while the others rely on residential or commercial septic systems.

The Gloucester County Utilities Authority treats the wastewater for most of Gloucester County, but Franklin, Newfield, South Harrison, Harrison, Swedesboro, Woolwich, Logan, and Greenwich — as well as parts of Elk, East Greenwich and Monroe — do not use the county’s facility.

Locally, the Salem County Improvement Authority (SCIA) has been the lead on this project. SCIA Executive Director Debby Turner-Fox said they are currently in the process of negotiating a reservation capacity agreement with DuPont Chambers Works in Deepwater. Originally, erecting a completely new building was suggested to sustain this project, but the cost of such a project would have been too cumbersome, which brought county officials to DuPont.

"Over the last two years, Gloucester and Salem counties have engaged DuPont in discussions to explore the technical and commercial feasibility of utilizing a portion of DuPont Chambers Works’ commercial wastewater treatment plant as a regional municipal waste treatment facility," said a DuPont spokesperson. The existing plant, which works to manufacture chemicals, has 25 million gallons of unused treatment capacity — more than Gloucester and Salem counties combined would need.

Currently, the wastewater management plan has been completed and is currently being reviewed by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, and a capacity reserve agreement with DuPont is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter of 2012. A deal with DuPont has been touted as the most effective way to complete this project, due to its central location and its ability to take on the load, but finding the funds for such a project continues to be an issue.

Turner-Fox also said both Gloucester and Salem counties filed a request for a new funding through the Army Corps of Engineers. The project is expected to cost about $100 million in total.

"The first step is acquiring funding and we hope 100 percent funding," she said. Turner-Fox said the most critical piece of this project is the inter-local agreement between Gloucester and Salem counties. She also said DuPont needs to be an active player.

DuPont remains committed to continuing the discussions with Gloucester and Salem counties to establish a "Public-Private Initiative," as the project is potentially a "win-win" for the communities, as well as DuPont.

With more than $38 million in water and wastewater infrastructure improvements planned over the next five years, the new general manager of the Holland Board of Public Works says double-digit rate increases are needed to make the projects possible and maintain adequate cash reserves for the utility.

David Koster, who was hired recently to take over the city-owned utility, says BPW needs additional revenue increases of 10-13 percent annually in its water department and 8-10 percent in its wastewater department.

Koster outlined the fiscal situation and proposed projects for water and wastewater, saying that net income in the water utility is projected to drop 75 percent, from nearly $900,000 in 2012-13 to slightly more than $219,000 by 2017, and that wastewater is operating with losses that could approach $750,000 within five years if no rate increases are approved.

Koster proposed water utility improvements of more than $18.6 million between now and 2017, including $12.4 million in watermain replacement projects. "That would about double (our current) level of replacement," BPW utility services director John Van Uffelen said.

For the 2012-13 fiscal year Koster proposed nearly $2.6 million in watermain replacement projects, as well replacement of filters and new equipment at its water treatment plant.

In wastewater, BPW is projected to show a loss of more than $58,000 in 2012-13, with losses expected to grow to nearly $738,000 by 2016-17 if the utility does not approve any increases in rates.

The utility is proposing nearly $19.8 million in capital improvements over the next five years, including sewer main replacement and lining projects totaling more than $13.3 million. That includes $2.28 million of sewer main projects and nearly $1.6 million in improvements to the Holland Area Wastewater Treatment Plant during the 2012-13 fiscal year.

No specific proposals for rate increases were presented, but could be offered soon as the utility and city prepare for budget discussions this spring. BPW board President Tim Hemingway says the utility cannot afford to skimp on its infrastructure.

Bids are due January 24, 2012 for a wastewater project in Clarksdale.

For more information go to: http://www,h2bid.com/procurement-notice-147160.html

Per an agreement that was unanimously approved by Hattiesburg City Council this month, the city must invest approximately $5 million into the USA Yeast plant's construction of a pre-treatment facility.

The on-site system is expected to significantly decrease the amount of waste being introduced into the city's south lagoon. The upgrade also should reduce odors and improve the lagoon's treatment effectiveness, officials said.

The city recently was fined more than $30,000 from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality over a string of violations related to its wastewater treatment at its north and south lagoons.

USA Yeast is expected to begin the construction upgrade immediately.

According to court documents, the city cited USA Yeast's untreated wastewaters as a large contributing factor to the problems at the south lagoon.

City officials say they intend to apply for grant funding through the Mississippi Development Authority to finance the city's portion of the pre-treatment facility at USA Yeast.

For the past 10 years, the city was responsible for USA Yeast’s wastewater. This agreement takes Hattiesburg out of that position and puts it back on USA Yeast.

The Maryville City Council has approved a staff recommendation to hire HDR Inc., an international architecture/engineering firm headquartered in Omaha, NE, to serve as its engineer during a mandated overhaul of Maryville's wastewater treatment system.

Just over a month ago the council fired the city's original engineer for the project, Universal Asset Management of Harrisonville. UAM had failed to provide timely documentation to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, and the delays had slowed the city's effort to move forward with permit approval and plant design and construction.

Hiring a replacement engineer was a matter of some urgency for the council since new wastewater requirements, the primary reason behind the $9 million upgrade, go into effect in March 2012. It remains uncertain if the city will be able to meet the March compliance deadline, but municipal officials hope moving forward with the engineering portion of the project will at least demonstrate Maryville is making progress and acting in good faith.

People Service Inc. is the company hired to run the wastewater and water treatment operations.

According to the terms of the tentatively approved HDR contract, which must still be reviewed by the city attorney Maryville will pay $863,000 for services related to regulatory support, plan review and design. That figure does not include additional costs associated with bidding and construction, which will likely push the total engineering fee to more than $1 million.

Actual implementation of the new system will consist of installing moving bed biofilm reactor technology in one of the city's lagoons.

Two ordinances on the Cape Girardeau City Council agenda involve acquiring easements for the construction of a new wastewater treatment plant and a redesigned Broadway corridor.

City officials said recently that both projects are close to being let out for bid and construction should begin on the wastewater treatment plant in June. Voters in April approved $72 million in bonds for the construction of the new sewer plant, the biggest capital improvements project in the city's history.

Public Works Director Tim Gramling said plans are being completed for the wastewater treatment project and will be sent to the Department of Natural Resources in December for approval. While it's uncertain, Gramling is hoping to receive the permit within 60 days.

The city is building the new facility by 2014 to come into compliance with state regulations that no longer allow untreated wastewater to be bypassed into the Mississippi River, which happens with the existing plant about 30 to 40 times a year.

The most recent estimate for construction of the plant came in at $63 million, Gramling said, about $3 million less than a previous estimate. Because of the poor economy, competitive bids may come in even lower than that, he said.

While official request for construction bids have yet to go out, the city recently advertised the project and asked for companies interested in building the plant to submit "pre-qualification" information, Gramling said, which drew submissions from 19 contractors.

The information received included lists of projects the contractors had worked for and other pertinent information. Only these companies will be allowed to bid on the project.

A Bozeman sewer lagoon may be leaking as much as seven million gallons of wastewater a year.

That's what a recent inspection from a Montana Department of environmental quality engineer determined when she looked at the Riverside sewer lagoon in north Bozeman.

The Riverside wastewater treatment facility was built back in 1975. It was originally meant to take wastewater from the Riverside Country Club and surrounding homes, treat the water and then use it to provide irrigation for the Riverside golf course.

"The lagoons system consists of one cell that's aerated and then a second big cell into which the water is stored through the months of the year until you can spray irrigate during the warmer weather of the summer," says Department of Environmental Quality Environmental Engineer Michele Marsh.

However, a recent inspection determined it may have never fulfilled its purpose.

"As far as we can tell, there's never been any water going into that holding cell so, somehow it's infiltrating too quickly once it reaches that cell. We're not sure," says Marsh.

Marsh says the drinking water is safe since it's upgradient from the lagoon. Yet, the same can't be said for the East Gallatin River.

"If the water isn't being stored then it's going somewhere, which would be groundwater and groundwater in that area is shallow and the river is in close proximity so, the concern would be that untreated wastewater is making it into the groundwater and migrating toward the river," says Marsh.

Gallatin City-County Health Officer Matt Kelley says, in any river, wastewater contamination can have serious consequences.

"If it's moving into the Gallatin River, what it can have is ecological effects. Its increased nutrient levels in the river can change the ecology of the river and have an impact on the wildlife and on the people that are in the river," says Kelley.

The Department of Environmental Quality has given the Riverside Water and Sewer District 60 days from the release of their report to respond.

Facility Operator David King says they are cooperating fully with the state to find the best possible remedy.

He says their next steps are putting together an action plan, devising a preliminary engineering report and applying for grants.

In late December the Frenchtown Borough Council will select a company to construct a new sewage treatment plant.

A total of 10 companies responded earlier in December to a request for bids to demolish the current plant that was built in the 1960s and construct the new plant plus new buildings and facilities for the Department of Public Works, a garage for the DPW.

The plant is expected to incorporate advanced biological treatment and an ultraviolet disinfection system. The wastewater pumping building and the public works garage will have roofs with a southern exposure to accommodate solar panels.

Council will likely choose Tomar Construction of East Brunswick, which is the lowest bidder at a total price of about $9.35 million. Council will vote on a selection at its next meeting on Dec. 28.

The second-lowest bidder came in at $9.72 million, while the highest bid was $14.28 million.

Last summer Borough Council agreed to authorize about $14.5 million in borrowing to construct the new plant. About $10 million of the total would be loaned by the state Environmental Infrastructure Trust, with the remainder from a federal Department of Agriculture Rural Development program.

The Williston City Commission has authorized advertising for bids on the wastewater treatment plants influent transfer and pump project. The project is aimed at replacing existing influent pumps with larger ones.

At this time, the facility is operating past capacity. Flooding destroyed a 2011 capacity expansion project, and a new plan was presented to the City Commission in November.

The project consists of four phases, with the first requiring tertiary side stream improvements. The cost of this phase is estimated at $5-6 million and should be completed in 2012.

The new influent pumps will help with the current strain on water.

After the first phase is complete, semi-permanent mechanical treatment improvements will be made through 2014. The third phase includes a mechanical treatment expansion. The entire project is set to end in 2016 after the completion of a new facility.

As a whole, the project could amount to a cost of $63-$110 million.

The Richland County commissioners are seeking bids for a project that will result in the Country Meadows and Lust Wastewater Treatment Plants being bypassed, and sewage sent straight to the Shelby Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Country Meadows is a subdivision of 18 homes in east Shelby and Lust is a neighborhood of 16 homes in south Shelby.

The project is estimated to cost $2 million and consists of new sewer lines and lift stations. The project will begin in April and be completed in October.

A planned wastewater treatment plant is coming closer to construction phase. The Courier reports bids for the Bascom facility will be opened on January 31st. The project is expected to cost around $4.6 million, and will be part of the Seneca County Sewer District along with New Riegel. The USDA is providing a $2.8 million loan for the construction as well as a $2.2 million grant.

The city of Snohomish has approved a biological filtering system to make wastewater going into the Snohomish River cleaner.

Recently, the City Council approved giving Bellingham-based BOSS Construction Inc. the contract to build the biological filtering system for the wastewater treatment plant. The devices produce more bacteria which feeds on sewage. This reduces pollutants and decreases the levels of nitrogen in the river. This method has not been tried before in the state and the city hopes the devices will help Snohomish comply with state and federal guidelines.

Construction is scheduled to start in late January and work should be finished by the end of November, City Manager Larry Bauman said.

BOSS' $4.75 million bid was the lowest of eight bids received by the city. Around 75 percent of the costs are being paid for by the state, Bauman said. The city could pay up to $1.3 million from its utility fund.

If the devices are successful, the city can get an extension from the state Department of Ecology on the deadline to comply with environmental regulations. This can help lower costs and avoid sewer rates increases, Bauman said.

In June, the city finished adding three half-mile sections of pipeline from the historic downtown area to reduce sewage from spilling into the river. The last project is the building of a pipeline to Everett's wastewater plant. This is scheduled to start in 2016.

The city of Reading is getting a major upgrade to its Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The plan includes upgrades to Fritz Island's flow meter piping and the 6th and Canal streets pumping station. New piping will also be installed along the Schuylkill River.

Once the first project is complete, City Managing Director, Carl Geffken said, they will be working on replacing the 60-year-old force main piping which ruptured three times between September and October and leaked raw sewage into the Schuylkill River.

The total cost of these projects is about $226 million, down from the $400 million plus that was projected just over two years ago.

Funds for the projects came from the city's sewer fund, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, as well as other state grants worth over $6 million.

The projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2017.

Aberdeen has been working to correct trouble spots in its aging wastewater system. Sometimes, there's more water passing through the wastewater treatment plant than it can handle.

Aberdeen’s aging sanitary sewer pipes have developed leaks over time and plans are in the works to replace them. The city has been sending cameras through the aging pipes and is still reviewing video from that and using other methods as well.

The city is trying to prioritize problem spots because it can only afford a couple million dollars of repairs per year. They are seeking state and federal funding.

Union City is planning to upgrade its wastewater treatment plant and pay for it with the expected savings.

The proposed project includes: replacing one of the three enclosed screw pumps at the influent headworks with a new four MGD enclosed screw pump; replacing the existing jet aeration system in the existing aeration basins with a new, more efficient fine bubble diffused aeration system; replacing the three existing 75 hp multi-stage centrifugal blowers in the existing blower building with three new 75 hp high speed, high efficiency turbine-type blowers; and modifying the grit removal system at the influent headworks by replacing the existing aerated grit removal system with a new 12 MGD vortex-style grit removal system.

He added the changes being made will save $60,000-$65,000 a year in electrical costs, saying it will be a more efficient plant.

Mayor Crowell said bids should be let May 2012, construction should begin July 2012 and the project should be finished by January 2013.

The Agua Special Utility District will be able to acquire land for and design more of the Palmview wastewater treatment project thanks to a state grant.

The district received a $2.4 million grant from the Texas Water Development Board. The $2,426,000 came from the Water Development Board’s Economically Distressed Areas Program.

Agua’s General Manager Francisco Flores and the project’s engineer Dario Guerra, with S & B Infrastructure addressed the Water Development Board before members voted to approve the funding.

Agua is installing first-time sewer service to Sullivan City. The utility provider received a $24 million grant for the $26 million project from the Texas Water Development Board.

The Palmview sewer project has been years in the making, but district officials had to scale it down to make it more affordable. The current plans mostly cover Palmview’s city limits, but Agua officials hope to expand when more money is available.

The special utility district received a $500,000 grant from the Border Environment Cooperation Commission in October for the Palmview sewer project.

People in the area of Pleasant Grove’s Timpanogos Wastewater Treatment Plant are complaining about the odor problem at the plant.

The odor comes from composting green waste and by-products at the sewer treatment plant. A spokesperson at the facility assures the aroma isn't toxic, but people who work at the new Grove business district say it keeps clients away. "I know it does serve an important purpose, but it does affect businesses and their ability to attract customers," said a resident of the area.

The plant is spending close to $6 million for an expansion project, which includes odor control. "The odor incidences are less, the intensity is less, and the duration is less," commented a spokesperson for the plant.

The plant is working closely with the city to see how much of the stench actually comes from composting? The plant management said the smell comes from other sources too.

The plant has received suggestions to move their composting activities to another site, but moving everything comes at a cost. Mayor Call is forming a committee to resolve the problem. For now, the smell will linger.

The expansion project at the plant should be completed by the end of 2012.

Albemarle County and Charlottesville’s representatives on the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority (RWSA) board are disagreeing over the location for a replacement for the Rivanna regional pump station.

Recently, the RWSA board voted to choose an option that would build a new facility at the site of the Moores Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. This alternative, known as Option E, would include drilling a 2,000-foot tunnel to extend an existing sewer pipe that runs along the Rivanna River. The firm Hazen & Sawyer estimated this option would cost between $38 million and $40 million.

The county’s representatives on the board argued that replacing the station at its existing location adjacent to the city’s Riverview Park would be more affordable. Hazen & Sawyer estimated that Option A would cost between $25 million and $27 million.

"The direction I’ve gotten from our board is that there’s a more cost-effective alternative that is $13 million cheaper," said Gary O’Connell, executive director of the Albemarle County Service Authority.

However, members of the Woolen Mills neighborhood have adamantly opposed this option at several public meetings over the past year, but the city council has decided to move forward with option E.

The board authorized the RWSA’s executive director, Thomas L. Frederick Jr., to enter into a $2.9 million contract with Hazen & Sawyer for design services. This will cover the entire final design phase of the project.

The pump station is being upgraded to handle a peak capacity of 53 MGD. Existing infrastructure cannot handle large volumes of stormwater that infiltrates the station, leading to sewage spills into Moores Creek and the Rivanna River.

A consent decree between the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and the RWSA required a selection of a single alternative to be made before Dec. 31.

Monthly bills for sewer service in the Hampton Roads Sanitation District already have doubled in the past five years, and now are expected to triple over the next 20 years, the result of a massive infrastructure upgrade program estimated to cost at least $1.2 billion.

Starting this fiscal year, sewer rates are projected to increase every year by between 4 and 8 percent through 2031.

About half of the upgrade work by the district is required under new government rules and orders intended to curb sewage spills from leaky old pipes and to curtail nutrient pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. Most of the rest is aimed at modernizing an immense web of pipelines, pumping stations and other industrial hardware in the 17 cities and counties served by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District - projects that agency officials say should have been tackled years ago but were put off in part to keep rates low.

Ted Henifin, general manager of the district, says the public agency that handles wastewater for 1.6 million customers is caught in "a perfect storm" of tougher environmental regulations, federal and state enforcement actions for past problems, and too many years without a serious maintenance plan.

The board approved the $1.2 billion infrastructure plan this past summer after months of debate about the size and scope of the upgrade program.

The district was created in 1940 after sewage pollution got so bad in tidal waters that the Virginia Department of Health condemned huge areas of oyster grounds because of unsafe levels of bacteria from unchecked human waste. The action woke up voters, who that year overwhelmingly approved a sewage management agency to clean up the mess.

Today, the district can treat up to 249 MGD, churning the wastewater through nine major treatment plants and four smaller ones on the Middle Peninsula. It needs 500 miles of pipes to handle the job.

Under an agreement, the district has until 2018 to complete 33 overhaul projects, costing an estimated $140 million, and that does not include what the affected cities must pay.

The other mandate is directed at the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that sewage treatment plants release into waters that feed the Chesapeake Bay. These nutrients are the biggest pollution sources in the Bay today, causing algae blooms and dead zones that are slowly choking the air out of North America's largest estuary.

Regulations aimed at reducing nutrients in wastewater have led the district to undertake seven plant upgrades, including facilities in Norfolk, Suffolk and Virginia Beach, costing a combined $432 million, according to agency data.

The Keyser City Council voted to continue to investigate the option of an annexation of property in anticipation of a new wastewater treatment plant.

The grounds and the lagoons for the new wastewater treatment plant are outside city limits, according to Mayor Randy Amtower. In order to annex the new wastewater treatment plant, the adjoining road would need to be annexed first.

If the council decides to use a loop system at the new wastewater treatment plant, a second tank may not be needed at the top of A and B streets while the original tank is being refurbished, according to Amtower. Instead, a small tank could be placed at the top of Airport Addition and would solve water pressure issues.

Work will proceed soon on upgrading the Iroquois' sewage treatment plant after South Dundas council hired J.C. Sulpher Construction Ltd. of Ottawa for a $12.3 million upgrade for the plant.

The upgrade is needed because the current plant does not have secondary treatment. Currently run-off from precipitation can tax the sewage plant, resulting in more effluent polluting the St. Lawrence River opposite Iroquois.

The Cornwall plant is also scheduled to be upgraded with secondary treatment in a few years.

The impending construction is the last step in a three-year process that began with an application for stimulus funding in 2009. The federal and provincial governments allocated $18 million, $9 million apiece, toward the new Iroquois plant.

The township has already spent about $1.5 million: $300,000 on a project manager, the Ontario Clean Water Agency, and $1.2 million to have Aecon design the project.

The new plant should be completed by spring 2014.

There was healthy interest in acquiring the construction tender, with six other firms offering bids.

The second lowest bid, by Peak Engineering was only $176,792 less than J.C. Sulpher's. Sulpher was also the contractor for the $14 million Morrisburg sewage treatment plant. The mayor said some elements of Sulpher's work in Morrisburg will be incorporated into the new Iroquois plant.

It would cost $29 million — about one-tenth the price of Winnipeg's new state-of-the-art water treatment plant — to provide running water and flush toilets to thousands of northern Manitobans living in Third World conditions.

A just-completed community assessment by the Island Lake Tribal Council reports there are about 950 homes on the region's four remote reserves where residents have no indoor plumbing.

The figure is starker than the original estimate, which pegged the number at about 800.

More than 1,000 homes need renovations to rough-in plumbing and install taps and toilets in rudimentary washrooms. Or, the houses need new additions built to accommodate sinks, tubs and toilets. Most of those homes also need electrical upgrades to run a hot water tank.

The study is the most refined, up-to-date inventory of the water, sewer and renovation needs in Island Lake, the region with the biggest cluster of homes without modern sanitation.

Until now, cost estimates to fix the problem varied widely.

The tribal council's study puts the price at $29 million for the quickest, cheapest solution — installing huge, plastic water and sewage tanks beside each home that can be hooked up to indoor toilets and taps. The price does not include the cost of new trucks needed to deliver water from each reserve's treatment plant or pump out sewage.

Recently, Ottawa committed $5.5 million to renovate 100 homes next spring, buy nine more water and sewage trucks and build garage facilities for the trucks. Trucks and tanks are seen as a less-than-ideal solution to Island Lake's sanitation woes because the service is not as reliable, and the water tanks can get slimy without proper cleaning. But blasting through bedrock to extend underground, city-style pipes are widely seen as too expensive and too slow. At one point, according to documents released under access to information legislation, Ottawa estimated it would cost $113 million to pipe water to those homes where it is feasible.

Ottawa and the province recently agreed to work on a joint program to retrofit homes in Island Lake and train reserve residents. No dollar figure or timeline has been attached yet to that deal.

Aqua-Aerobic Systems Inc. is building a research laboratory at Rock River Water Reclamation District’s wastewater treatment plant to test its future products.

The sewer district approved the partnership several months ago and in November took out a permit to start construction at the plant. The district will lease the 4,800-square-foot building to the company for free for 10 years. After that, the building reverts to the district. Aqua-Aerobic will equip the lab with utilities, including the special piping that will bring several different kinds of treated and untreated waste to the lab from a plant that handles about 32 MGD of wastewater.

Aqua-Aerobic designs and builds wastewater treatment and reuse systems that are used throughout the U.S. The company does $50 million to $100 million a year in sales and employs about 150 people at its Loves Park headquarters and design/assembly plant. The new lab will replace a smaller one in Belvidere. For Aqua-Aerobic, the new Rockford lab provides an opportunity to test its products in development on a greater scale.

Rock River Water Reclamation will benefit from "information sharing," director Steve Graceffa said.

Construction of the building will cost about $500,000; the equipment, including the piping, will cost up to $500,000.

Honeywell has been awarded a 15-year, $88.6 million contract to completely overhaul the technology controlling the massive wastewater treatment system in Los Angeles, the second largest city in the U.S.

The project will allow the city's Bureau of Sanitation to replace the current control systems, some of which have been in place for two decades and are vastly outdated. It will also enable the city to realize its vision for a city- and network-wide integrated operation, simplifying how it operates and maintains the wastewater system, and reducing environmental risks from the aging infrastructure. The system capacity is 550 MGD, and controls 6,700 miles of sewer lines that serve more than 4 million residential and commercial customers in Los Angeles and 29 other cities.

Honeywell Process Solutions was awarded the contract by Los Angeles with a recommendation by the Board of Public Works and final approval by the City Council. Honeywell ranked first in all of the city's evaluation criteria, was found to have exhibited the most advanced product technology, offered the lowest price of ownership (i.e. lifecycle cost), offered relevant experience with distributed control systems and demonstrated the project management team's expertise.

The Honeywell technology will allow the city to link its four main treatment plants with geographically dispersed pumping stations to give operators the ability to control the entire system from a central location, if needed. The project will enable the city to more effectively and efficiently monitor operations at the city's pumping stations and collection facilities that are scattered throughout more than 500 square miles of the city's service area.

The project is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2012 and will take approximately seven years to complete. Honeywell will provide support services for eight years after completion to ensure the system is appropriately maintained.

"This overhaul will give us better effectiveness and efficiency to meet the city's needs and improve its overall infrastructure for decades to come," said Varouj Abkian, assistant director, Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation. "In addition, over the next decade we expect the project to save us tens of millions of dollars and generate much-needed high-paying jobs for our community. We are delighted that this project was approved by the City Council which will address our water quality objectives, serving our core mission."

Besides streamlining the wastewater system's operations, Honeywell Process Solutions' Experion® Process Knowledge System (PKS) platform – used by a wide range of municipalities and industrial manufacturers across the globe – will reduce training requirements for department employees who previously had to learn to operate and maintain multiple systems. Honeywell's single-platform approach means operators only need to learn one system.

Metso has developed a new technology with which municipal and industrial wastewater plants are able to improve their performance and reduce the amount of chemicals used in the sludge drying process by up to one third. The potential users of this innovation include all large wastewater treatment plants.

The new technology features an advanced online measurement system for processing sludge. Thanks to a measurement system based on LED and laser technologies, it is now possible to separate dry solids and water from each other more accurately and efficiently than before. In this way, the amount of water treated at a plant can be significantly increased and the amount of chemicals used in the sludge drying process can be decreased by 30 percent.

In addition to higher capacity and lower chemical costs, savings are gained as the transportation costs of the dry solids separated from sludge decrease. The further use of the dewatered sludge in energy production is also significantly more efficient, as dewatered sludge contains less water than before.

"The new technology developed by Metso offers the world's water treatment plants an opportunity to improve their performance and thus gain major cost savings. A large North American wastewater treatment plant has calculated that it saves up to 30 percent in its annual US$2.5 million chemical costs," says Timo Rantala, Product Manager, Metso's Automation business line.

"In the first phase, the new technology will most probably interest especially large wastewater plants in Western Europe and North America, where the level of automation is already high. It is these plants that often have major capacity issues and are under pressure to save costs.

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.

Medford Lakes

https://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=1940

Estevan, Canada

https://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=1939

Sarasota, FL

https://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=1941

Camden, NJ

https://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=1937

Braddock, NJ

https://www.mcilvainecompany.com/Universal_Water_Chemical/Subscriber/uwcDB/totentry.asp?ref=1938

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