Goodyear and developers of Estrella Mountain Ranch will spend $1.6 million to upgrade an aging city-owned wastewater treatment plant.

Sharing the cost with the city will mean residents will have access to better-quality irrigation water for landscaping and common areas. The higher-grade water from the plant will help to supply water to the two large lakes in the master-planned community. Despite holding the rights to it, the developer has not been able to use the effluent because of its poor quality.

Goodyear, meanwhile, will spend less to bring the plant into compliance with state regulations.

The Goodyear City Council recently agreed to contribute $950,000 toward work at the Corgett Water Reclamation Plant. Newland Communities, developer of Estrella, will pay $694,000 of the $1.6 million needed for design and construction.

The plant, one of three in the city, was built by developers in 1988 and given to the city in 2006. It serves more than 2,200 homes in Estrella and treats 800,000 gallons per day.

Construction for the upgrades began in November and will take about seven months to finish.

Currently the plant is producing what is known as B+ effluent, water that is dumped in a wash and not reused, Jerry Postema, Goodyear environmental services manager said. The plant upgrades will improve the effluent to A+, which allows it to be reused for irrigation and other purposes.

All 10 voters who returned ballots from the Community Facilities District voted yes on the special tax and bond issuance, known as Measure W, which needed two-thirds of the vote to pass. The special tax will fund the design of the first phase of the Malibu Civic Center Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The city voted to form the Community Facilities District in August in order to finance the design of the sewer. The $6.5 million bond will be used to fund the final design, an environmental impact report, construction documents and permits. The bond will likely be issued in early February.

Under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Regional Water Quality Board, the city is required to meet strict timelines to ensure that progress is being made on the design and construction of the sewer. The MOU requires commercial properties in the Civic Center Prohibition Area be connected to a centralized wastewater treatment facility by Nov. 15, 2015.

Once the design and environmental impact report are complete, the city will look to form an assessment district to pay for the construction costs.

The city is currently looking at placing the treatment plant on the same property as the Colony Plaza Shopping Center's wastewater treatment plant, but other locations are also being considered.

In December, the council will adopt a second reading of the ordinance authorizing the special tax on the group of commercial land owners in the Civic Center.

Water board officials have fined the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District more than a $250,000, saying the district violated conditions of its permit to discharge chloride into the Santa Clara River.

The district had to choose between two plans for reducing chloride and it failed, according to the water board, to tell the board in writing which plan it would use.

If it is collected, the fine would have to be paid by the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District, which would turn to ratepayers for the money. However, local sanitation officials are confident they can convince the water board by February they are pursuing a legitimate and effective plan for reducing chloride in the river.

The complaint seeks a total penalty of $280,250 for failure to complete "Wastewater Facilities Plans and Programmatic Environmental Impact Reports" by the required due date in 2011.

The local district was expected to produce paperwork on its plan to reduce chloride by May 2011.

The first plan, called the Alternative Water Resources Management strategy, is the cheaper of the two and calls for a smaller reverse osmosis plant run in accordance with better management of water resources. The other option calls for a full-blown, more expensive, reverse osmosis plant.

Both plans call for rate increases — something the residents of the Santa Clarita Valley rejected in the summer 2010.

The Upper Santa Clara River Total Maximum Daily Load for chloride was adopted in 2005 and updated in 2010 to protect the beneficial uses of the Santa Clara River, which includes agricultural supply, groundwater recharge, and rare and endangered species habitats.

The public has until Dec. 26, 2012, to comment on the water board’s complaint. The complaints are available for public review on the Los Angeles water board’s website.

The Boulder Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facility will begin using a new ultraviolet light disinfection system that will be more efficient and safer than the chlorine and sulfur dioxide system that had previously been in place, according to officials.

The new system uses UV light to disinfect the wastewater of harmful bacteria, viruses and protozoa. The old system—which had been in place since 1990—required storing chlorine and sulfur dioxide, both potentially explosive gases.

The wastewater facility is also getting mechanical and electrical upgrades to the wastewater digester complex and headworks facility. The improvements, which are scheduled to be completed in March, are funded by a $9.2 million revenue bond and are expected to reduce long-term operating costs.

State officials said recently that it may cost towns $250 million over the next decade to comply with new federal rules requiring reductions in phosphorus discharges from sewage treatment plants.

Local officials have been talking with state environmental officials for months about treatment methods and compliance and have questioned the cost-to-benefit ratio of removing more phosphorus from wastewater. Environmental officials want to reduce phosphorus emissions, which cause algae blooms that choke waterways and deplete oxygen.

State officials said they are aware of the enormous costs of compliance and are doing what they can to reduce costs, either by seeking grants or finding ways to reduce phosphorus levels by means other than expensive renovations to water treatment plants.

"We understand this is a lot of money," said DEEP official Betsey Wingfield, who has been meeting regularly for months with officials from Danbury, Plainville, Southington, Meriden and Wallingford, the communities that will first have to comply with the new standards because their wastewater discharge permits will soon come up for renewal.

Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback said the meeting was encouraging, as the state stressed that it will work with municipalities to tailor requirements to fit specific treatment conditions. One contributing factor that needs study is the presence of dams that slow the flow of many rivers, which Brumback said should be removed. He said towns and cities aren't convinced that spending the money to reduce phosphorus will result in appreciable benefits.

Southington, one of several towns that discharges treated wastewater into the Quinnipiac River, has estimated its cost of compliance to be $18 million.

Forty-three wastewater treatment plants will have to comply with the new rules to receive new discharge permits in the next few years, according to state records.

DEEP officials said the agency is seeking $1.5 billion for the 2014-15 Clean Water Fund capital budget, including nearly $700 million for water pollution control plants.

The city of Norwich’s portion of a proposed $96 million wastewater treatment plant upgrade would be at least $24 million, but could be made more affordable if surrounding towns seek to tie into the larger system, consultants told the city’s public utilities commissioners.

The city needs to update the Norwich Public Utilities wastewater treatment plant to meet increasingly strict state mandates for clean water emissions. The facility has had no major upgrades in 40 years — about double the expected lifespan of the equipment, said Tim Dupuis, a senior vice president with Massachusetts-based engineering firm CDM Smith. The upgrades would nearly double the existing flow capacity, from 17 mgd to 33 mgd, and bring in modern technology.

The funding of the upgrade comes from four sources. Grants and low-interest loans from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s clean water programs are expected to provide $22 million. Sewer rate increases that generate about $2 million annually have been in place since 2010 and are expected to cover $30 million.

The third part, $24 million, will come from the city and could be done through a mix of additional sewer rate increases and bonding, paid for through property tax rate increases.

The final $20 million of funding depends on neighboring towns’ wanting to tie into Norwich’s sewer system and purchase a percentage of an allotted 2 million gallon daily flow capacity. If outside towns do not seek to tie in and cover some of the cost, Norwich would have to cover the rest, in addition to the $24 million it is already paying.

"We’ve had significant interest from Franklin and Bozrah. Franklin is desperate to tie in; there is potential for a large commercial development that cannot happen without this in place," NPU General Manager John Bilda said. "We have huge potential with Preston and the (former Norwich) state hospital, where this is the most cost-effective way to deal with potential discharge from any project.

Work will begin soon on the mega-sized re-plumbing of St. Petersburg's wastewater treatment system.

The project will cost $30 million. When it is finished in about a year and half, the Albert Whitted Wastewater Treatment Plant will be closed, saving the city several million dollars a year in operating costs.

Recently, the Hall County Board of Commissioners voted to move ahead with its plan to build a wastewater treatment plant in North Hall.

The county agreed to provide sewer service to the 518-acre industrial park within 36 months after Georgia Poultry closed on its property there in October. It’s expected to cost $3.2 million for the county to build a 3,500-foot gravity sewer and 5,000-gallons-per-day treatment plant.

The county is also waiting for a final permit from the state Environmental Protection Division for the facility, which is expected by March 2013, said Ken Rearden, county director of public works and utilities. He said the county has already spent $393,500 toward its own system.

Rearden said it will take about eight months to design the project and a year to construct, with the ability to operate by January 2015.

Buchanan officials are staring at more costly upgrades at the city's aging wastewater treatment plant.

At a workshop of the Buchanan commissioners recently, plant operator Jason Williams outlined a $1.038 million plan that would replace the original 1938 portion of the plant that is still being used. A new 3,000-square-foot building containing all new wastewater treatment equipment would be erected.

Williams said the new facility would work in unison with part of the plant built in the early 1970s, allowing the original section of the operation to be shut down. Despite the changes, the entire plan would retain is daily capacity of more than three mgd.

Williams said the original plant has far exceeded its projected 50-year life expectancy and that the city would save money from lower maintenance costs. The new plant would filter 80 percent of the solids out of the water during the pre-treatment phase or about twice the amount presently removed from incoming flows, reducing the wear and tear on the remainder of the system, he noted.

Buchanan City Manager William Marx also revealed plans to reduce the mechanical size of the plant in 10 years. The 1972 portion of the plant that now treats waste in its final stages, would be phased out and replaced with an oxidation ditch. The new building, after filtering out the solids, would release the effluent into the ditch, where parasites that feed off waste would be released and finish cleansing the water before released into the St. Joseph River.

Many areas of the entire plant have undergone major renovations, costing upwards of $3 million since 2009.

Williams said another short-term option is to patch areas of the deteriorating concrete in the original plant. The cost would be about $500,000, he said, and that's without replacing the current equipment in the original plant.

The cost of the more expensive plan would be funded with $600,000 from the water-sewer fund and just over $400,000 from the city's general fund. Those monies at 3 percent interest would be paid back to the city over a 10-year period, possibly with an increase in sewer rates.

The matter was taken under advisement for a possible decision later.

Leavenworth city officials have a plan for reducing inflow and infiltration into the sanitary sewer system.

The city contracted with George Butler Associates to study the issue and the architectural and engineering firm developed a plan for addressing the problem.

The plan of action developed by GBA focuses on making improvements in the Three Mile Creek watershed area. The area has been divided into several mini-basins.

The plan focuses initial efforts within two basins, Nos. 3 and 4 that have been deemed as priorities. A third basin, No. 2, will be used as a control basin for evaluating the effectiveness of the work.

The work initially will focus on publicly-owned infrastructure. The estimated cost for the initial public sector work for Basins 3 and 4 is $1.8 million. The work will be a long-term project.

Mike McDonald, director of public works, said the initial phase probably will take two to three years.

The city of Lawrence and the Environmental Protection Agency have been involved in a quiet four-year debate about the adequacy of the city’s lone sewage treatment plant.

City leaders are pointing to their dispute with the EPA as a reason city commissioners should seriously consider a five-year plan to raise water and sewer rates by about 28 percent.

At issue is a dispute regarding the city’s sewage treatment plant that technically does not have a current operating permit from the state of Kansas. Since 2008, the EPA has objected to the renewal of the city’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination Permit on the grounds that the plant has illegal sewage discharges during heavy rainstorms.

The city is confident that is not the case. It treats the excess stormwater that infiltrates the city’s sewer pipes with a product called Actiflo.

"It does an excellent job of treating it," said city utility director Dave Wagner, who stressed the city has seen no evidence that raw sewage is being allowed to bypass the plant and flow directly into the Kansas River during storm conditions.

The city, however, is not so confident that the EPA ultimately will see it that way. In a report to city commissioners, city staff members said there are "no clear answers or direction" about how the EPA may resolve the long-standing dispute.

"We think that is a possibility, but we don’t think it is a likelihood," Corliss said of the city eventually being ordered to make improvements by the EPA. "We believe that’s the case because we’re recommending steps to prevent that type of action."

At the center of the plan is a new sewage treatment plant that would be built on city-owned property, near the eastern edge of the city. The plant and its piping system is expected to cost about $65 million.

City officials long have been discussing plans for a new plant, but they mainly have focused on the need for the city to have a second sewage treatment plant to keep up with future growth.

As the city’s population growth has slowed, city commissioners have delayed starting the expensive project. But now city staff members are highlighting the critical role the new plant will play to help alleviate the wet weather problems at the existing plant.

Wagner said the city will reroute much of its existing sewer system to the new plant, which will reduce the size of the wet weather overflows. Currently, there are times that the city’s plant will take on 81 MGD of stormwater and sewage during a storm, even though the plant has a design capacity of just 65 MGD.

The city’s plan to reduce wet weather problems also calls for about $14 million worth of work to better seal existing sewer pipes in order to reduce the amount of stormwater that seeps into the pipes.

The town of Bucksport has agreed to build a new wastewater treatment facility in an effort to resolve discharge violations.

For 27 years, Bucksport operated under a federal waiver which allowed its wastewater treatment plant to operate under lower standards than most in the country. The waiver was granted under a provision of the Clean Water Act that allowed small polluters that discharge into marine waters to adhere only to "primary treatment standards." Most other polluters must adhere to "secondary" standards nearly three times as strict.

That waiver was renewed every five years until the last renewal cycle, when the Penobscot River was deemed too dirty to allow Bucksport to continue discharging into it at the lower standard. In April, the DEP granted Bucksport a discharge permit without the waiver, despite the fact that the town’s wastewater facility was incapable of the now-required secondary treatment. As was expected, the town was found in violation of its new permit in April, May and June, releasing twice the monthly average amount of certain pollutants than are now allowed.

In October Bucksport entered into an agreement with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to upgrade its facility. The agreement essentially allows the town to continue operating in violation of discharge standards as long as it follows an agreed-upon timetable for upgraded wastewater treatment practices. As part of the agreement, no fines are being assessed on the discharge violations cited since April.

Bucksport has 18 months to submit a preliminary design for an upgraded treatment facility, or a replacement. The town is working with a design team to come in long before that deadline, and hopes to have an expanded, secondary treatment facility up and running before the final 2018 deadline.

"We hope to have it as soon as possible," he said.

While the Upper Blackstone Water Pollution Abatement District fights federal orders to wring more phosphorus from treated wastewater, four smaller treatment plants stretching from Westboro to Maynard are successfully meeting similar requirements with the water they send to the Assabet River.

Facilities in Westboro, Marlboro, Hudson and Maynard have spent millions of dollars on different technologies, and their experience offers a glimpse into what it takes to reduce pollutants flowing into troubled rivers.

As recently as September, the Upper Blackstone’s treated water contained 0.2 to 0.8 milligrams of phosphorus per liter of water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered the Upper Blackstone to bring phosphorus levels down to 0.1 milligrams per liter of water.

Wastewater treatment plants on the Assabet River are attaining that level by adding chemicals and thickeners to treated water. The agents bind to phosphorus, creating flocculation particles, or floc, big enough to settle out or skim away.

In Westboro near the Assabet River’s headwaters, the Westboro Wastewater Treatment Facility started operating an ActiFlo system from Veolia Environnement SA’s water division in March as part of a $50 million plant upgrade.

Plant operators add an iron salt known as ferric chloride to wastewater that has already gone through screening, settling and biological treatment. Then the system injects ultrafine sand that binds to floc and drags it to the bottom of a tube-lined tank. The sand then wrests away from the particles and gets reused, while the system removes the floc as sludge.

The Marlboro Westerly Waste Treatment Works uses a Blue PRO system that was installed as part of a $32 million upgrade. The system from Blue Water Technologies Inc. uses cone-shaped sand filters to remove floc from water. Pumps then wash the floc off the sand.

"Since we started it up in January, we’re below our 0.1 milligram per liter average," said Harry P. Butland Jr., chief operator of the plant.

Hudson’s wastewater plant installed an AquaDAF system by Suez Environnement’s Degrémont business in 2009 as part of a $16 million upgrade. The AquaDAF process allows floc to float to the surface of a tank of water, where a long piece of metal skims the fluffy brown material into a trough for removal as sludge.

"There are electrical costs, but the advantage of it is I’m using about the same number of chemicals I was before the permit changed," said Mark L. Concheri, the plant’s chief operator.

Maynard’s Wastewater Treatment Facility uses a CoMag system from Cambridge Water Technology, now part of Siemens AG, that was installed as part of an $11.4 million upgrade in March 2011. The system mixes treated wastewater with poly-aluminum chloride, which binds to phosphorus, and then adds a heavy form of iron called magnetite. Particles settle as sludge to the bottom of a tank. The sludge goes to a magnetic drum that draws off the magnetite for reuse.

"My rolling average this year, I believe, is 0.07 (milligrams of phosphorus per liter of treated water), but I’ve had results show 0.05," said David A. Simmons, project manager with engineering company Weston & Sampson Inc., the contractor that runs the facility. "I’m researching what can be used to give me less than 0.05."

Assabet River plants are not a perfect model for the much bigger Upper Blackstone facility. They handle smaller volumes of wastewater, and some do not treat stormwater. The Assabet River is also shorter than the Blackstone River and flows through a less urbanized area.

Study of the Assabet River has shown "the main source of phosphorus is from the wastewater treatment plants, and that phosphorus is the main cause of the problem," said Ms. Field-Juma of OARS. "What isn’t clear is when you lower the phosphorus concentration, at what point is it no longer a cause?"

Marlborough Mayor Arthur Vigeant said he would have no choice but to cut off sewage treatment service to Northborough unless the federal government allows the city to dump more into the Assabet River.

"Unless they give us the higher level discharge, my position hasn’t changed," Vigeant said in reference to a letter he sent to Northborough Town Administrator John Coderre in March announcing his intention.

The March 5 letter is marked for hand delivery, and says in its opening paragraph that it was sent because Northborough had not responded to an email on the subject sent by Public Works Commissioner Ron LaFreniere on Jan. 19.

"I hereby inform you that the city does not intend to enter into another long-term (agreement) with the town, but is willing to negotiate a short-term agreement to provide the town an opportunity to plan, design, permit and construct wastewater treatment facilities of its own," Vigeant wrote.

The mayor asked for a meeting with Northborough officials to discuss the topic by March 9.

"If I have not heard from you (by then), I will be forced to conclude that the town has decided to terminate its receipt of the Westerly facility’s services, and I will take the steps necessary to carry out that termination, effective immediately," Vigeant wrote.

Vigeant said that Northborough’s town council called the city on March 8 to schedule a meeting, but that no short-term agreement to transition Northborough out of the system was implemented.

It will cost Harwich residents between $180 million and $230 million in capital costs over the next 40 years to address wastewater issues that are already impairing the town’s five watersheds.

The plan cites the need for two plants, including the use and possible expansion of the Chatham wastewater plant, and the construction of a new $31 million treatment plant. The majority of recharge would take place in the Herring River Watershed.

The plan will focus on East Harwich in phase one, proposing to seek $2.55 million in next spring’s town meeting to fund several initiatives, including the town’s share of the Muddy Creek culvert project, allowing for greater flushing to restore the ecological habitat.

No increases in rates for water or wastewater are scheduled for 2013 in Kalamazoo, where officials are planning about $5.6 million in upgrades to the systems.

Bruce Merchant, director of public services for the city, said officials are looking to upgrade existing water facilities and improve water quality using $2.5 million in water funds in the city's proposed $144-million budget for 2013.

Notably, officials are looking to improve a well-field in the Milwood neighborhood by adding iron removal and installing a new well there to increase production. A well-field near the intersection of Burdick Street and Crosstown Parkway also is scheduled for improvements. Officials also plan to install water mains at various locations.

About $3.1 million in wastewater funds are budgeted for improvements, including the demolition of an old incinerator building and a pump station at the city's wastewater treatment plant. Other wastewater capital improvement plans in the proposed budget include improvements to lift stations, new and replacement sewers and hardware and software upgrades.

The city of Hattiesburg is planning an expansion of the city’s wastewater treatment system.

One of two options considered to alleviate the strain on the overburdened wastewater facility is land application. The city issued a request for proposals earlier this year for vendors and landowners interested in having their property considered for land application.

Before being approved, prospective land will be subject to soil and geological testing, as well as a cost-analysis, to study its suitability for use in the program, City Engineer Burt Kuyrkendall said.

The Jackson City Council approved a consent decree with the EPA to spend around $400 million to rebuild its sewage system over the coming years and to pay a fine.

The EPA has been negotiating the decree with the city of Jackson for two years. The city was allegedly bypassing sewage treatment at its Savannah Street plant, dumping much of it into the Pearl River with only rudimentary chlorine treatment.

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality fined the city $240,000 in 2010 for similar violations.

Recently, representatives from Olsson Associates and Black and Veatch spoke to the Sedalia city council about the ongoing updates to the city’s Central and Southeast wastewater treatment plants. The city has until July 2016 to comply with the DNR order and as part of that must improve the disinfecting system at both plants.

"We were specifically looking at the local limits allowed by the DNR and the Missouri EPA regarding metals in our wastewater," said Senior Wastewater Process Engineer Gary Hunter. "There are specific permit numbers that (the city) cannot exceed for things like zinc, silver, copper and lead, among others, and we struggled with going over the limits allowable. After meeting with the DNR we were able to conduct a new hardness study to see where our levels really should be."

The new study established higher hardness levels, he said.

"Basically those allowable levels have pretty much doubled, so we’re not having problems exceeding them anymore," Hunter said. "Without that adjustment, Sedalia industries would be impacted and the city would be forced to pay for more work to be done at the plants, on top of the $30 million already allocated.

"These new levels equal out to significant savings and it is very good news for us."

The Southeast plant improvements are expected to be finished by April and the Central plant improvements are slated for completion in June 2014.

The village of Sunrise Beach took another step on its path toward a wastewater treatment system.

The board of trustees held a legally required public hearing Nov. 19 on issues related to the sewer, including alternative engineering solutions, the estimated user charge rate and the environmental impact of the proposed system.

SSE engineer Jared Wheaton, P.E., presented more detailed information of what Phase 1 of the system will entail. With many failing or poorly operating small systems or onsite septic tanks near the lake, this wastewater treatment system will help safeguard water quality, according to Wheaton, by funneling sewage to a centralized collection facility operated by certified staff.

Sewer and drinking water utilities are also a catalyst for business development, Wheaton said, which is something that has been lacking in Sunrise Beach for the last several years. Lack of infrastructure is one of the common hindrances to development, he said.

Construction is estimated to begin in early spring if not before and be finished by the end of 2013.

MDNR has extended Sunrise Beach a $6 million line of credit through the SRF for the wastewater treatment system. The village's 1/2-cent capital improvement sales tax can also be utilized to pay on the loan to help keep user rates down.

Phase 1 will include:

• The collection system will run along Hwy. 5 from Lake Rd. 5-39 to the Hurricane Deck Bridge.

• A force main will carry sewage to a treatment facility at Captain Ron's Bar & Grill.

• A pressurized main line was chosen rather than gravity feed due to the varying terrain of the Ozark hills.

• An old treatment plant at the collection site — which will be under an acre of land — will be taken out and replaced with an extended aeration plant.

• The system will be designed and licensed to meet the environmental requirements to discharge into a nearby losing stream.

Seven clearance requests from state and federal agencies — outside the Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources, which does the actual licensing — are needed and have been acquired.

The Hampton Board of Selectmen have approved over $1 million in bids for work on the wastewater treatment plant, while bids will soon be available for the Church Street pumping station replacement project.

The board voted unanimously to approve a $142,750 contract with Wright-Pierce Engineers for engineering services on the plant dewatering project, a $1,037,677 contract from Waterline Industries Corp. of Seabrook for the construction of modifications to the treatment facility and the purchase of a rotary press, and a $39,600 contract from Kevin W. Smith and Son, Inc., for the replacement of the plant's roof.

Hampton Public Works Director Keith Noyes said that he will also come before the board soon with bids on the Church Street pumping station project, which was approved at the 2012 town meeting. Noyes said the long-awaited project — a "dire" one he has said is more urgent than the wastewater treatment facility work —is "finally hopefully coming to fruition," and that he hopes to open the bidding window the week before Christmas.

Plans for a new wastewater treatment plant in Cimarron have been drafted, and now the village is seeking funding for the multi-million dollar project.

They have applied for a $4 million loan from the Water Trust Board (WTB).The WTB is part of the Office of the State Engineer and is responsible for water use and ensuring drinking water is safe. The WTB also manages water resources in the state and works to ensure wastewater is treated properly. The village has also applied for $500,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding.

The wastewater treatment plant is just one item on a long list of upgrades that need to be completed on the village’s water system. The village also has to replace cast-iron pipes that run beneath its streets and are known for failing from fatigue and costing the village thousands of dollars a year in water loss.

There are plans to build a third wastewater lagoon partly because the two currently being used by the village are in need of repair. The current wastewater lagoons have a major buildup of silt and sludge. And in order to clean them, they have to be taken offline. But the village can’t have both lagoons down while they are being cleaned. Having a third lagoon would alleviate that problem.

Plans for the wastewater treatment plant have been drawn by Forsgren Associates from Albuquerque. The village paid slightly more than $43,000 for the design phase of the wastewater treatment plant.

The Harriman Wastewater Treatment Plant is rapidly reaching capacity and the Orange County Legislature has begun to explore spending $1 million to retain a consultant to develop an engineering plan for expanded volume.

The committee also approved $865,000 for equipment replacement for the Orange County Sewer District.

Recently, Knox County Commissioners met to hear opening bids for a chlorination/de-chlorination project for Pleasant View Acres wastewater treatment. No bids were offered that were within acceptable range of the engineer’s $41,180 estimate and new plans will be considered.

Commissioners met with Harry Winfrey of Richland Engineering Limited and the sole bidder, Jim Finnegan of Finnegan Construction in Shelby. Finnegan offered a bid of $60,000 and attended the meeting knowing his bid was high and explained his concern.

Winfrey informed the commissioners that he spoke with representatives of Terra Valley Excavating of Bellville and reported that they did not offer a bid because they would not be within the 10 percent required by the Ohio Revised Code.

The city of Gold Hill must replace its failing sewer treatment plant to avoid possible catastrophic contamination of the Rogue River or face steep fines, environmental officials warn.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality sent a pre-enforcement notice to city officials Oct. 31, giving them until mid-December to come up with a plan for bringing its sewer treatment into compliance.

The DEQ noted 15 water quality violations since March, including four Class 1 — the most serious under state law. Most violations had to do with the amount of suspended solids in treated wastewater. In the most egregious violation, which occurred in August, the city's suspended solids exceeded federal standards by 440 percent.

Bringing the sewer treatment system into compliance will mean replacing the 30-year-old facility, officials say, as the plant already has exceeded its recommended lifespan by 10 years.

The City Council voted Nov. 19 to work with the DEQ in developing a plan for short- and long-term solutions by the mid-December deadline.

The plant was built in 1982 with grant dollars in a two-part "redundant" system — meaning two sides of the plant are identical to allow use of just one side during lower-flow months so maintenance can be performed on the other, said a DEQ senior engineer. "Back when they changed the rules and required more treatment of sludge, the city took half of the plant and turned it into sludge treatment, which I think was supposed to just be a temporary solution until they could build more areas for sludge treatment, but it became a permanent solution." It is unlikely the side used for sludge treatment could be made functional again for wastewater treatment, he said.

The water-quality violations indicate some level of failure in plant operation.

The cost of repairs and rebuilding of the plant have been estimated at between $5 million and $12 million.

Interim City Manager Dale Shaddox said the city would evaluate all potential methods of financing the project, possibly spreading out collection of the expenses from residents over a five-year period.

It could take up to four years of planning and securing funding before construction of a new plant could begin, city officials say.

The South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development has announced that the town of Alpena will receive a $515,000 Community Development Block Grant to make improvements to its wastewater treatment plant. Along with the CDBG grant, the town of Alpena will receive a Department of Environment and Natural Resources low-interest federal loan for approximately $1.5 million.

The Alpena wastewater treatment facility has been operating at capacity and is in need of upgrades to accommodate any future growth for the greater Alpena area. The increased capacity of the upgraded wastewater system will also allow for the expansion of Link Snacks Inc. (LSI), makers of Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, the largest employer in Jerauld County.

LSI "will invest $7.1 million in costs associated with improvements to the pre-treatment facility," according to a news release. Total cost estimates for the entire wastewater treatment project are estimated at $9.1 million.

Simultaneously, and in addition to the wastewater treatment facility upgrade, LSI is undergoing an expansion project at its Alpena-based production facility. The overall expansion is slated to create approximately 57 project-based pre-development and construction jobs.

The upgraded, Alpena-based, pre-treatment facility will reduce the byproducts treated from LSI’s production facility to that of minimum household strength. This will relieve the municipal system and prevent the town of Alpena from incurring any additional costs in treating LSI’s waste. Additionally, methane produced from the upgraded system is slated to be used to generate electrical power. The overall project will improve water quality and meet new, more stringent, EPA requirements, as well as all state, county and municipal regulations. The upgrade will eventually include the addition of a 15-acre wastewater treatment pond to be located approximately two miles south of Alpena.

Construction on the wastewater treatment facility upgrade has begun and is expected to be completed by fall 2013. Gil Haugan Construction has been named general contractor, with Banner Associates Inc. designated as the primary engineering firm and Biothane as provider of the equipment.

Clarksville is currently requesting bids for an improvement project at the Clarksville Wastewater Treatment Plant.

The project includes demolition of the headworks building and primary splitter box and construction of a new headworks building; demolition of the septage receiving station and construction of septage receiving and vector truck stations, demolition and construction of four new circular clarifiers, and demolition of the sludge conditioning building and construction of a new solids load-out station.

The project is expected to be completed by January 2015 and is valued at $55 million.

Othello is increasing the sewer rate by 10 percent each year for three years to raise money for a new wastewater treatment plant. The city council approved the rate increases during a recent meeting.

The city is facing a Department of Ecology mandate to build a mechanical wastewater treatment plant within three years.

"We have saved about $4 million (during the past four years) and that's against an estimated cost of $20 to $25 million to build the plant," said city administrator, Ehman Sheldon. We took a look at sewer rates across the state and we're very close to the bottom. If we're not in the middle of the pack, we lose points on grants."

The city presently has an anaerobic plant, which uses a series of lagoons to treat its wastewater, Sheldon said. The water released from the plant meets standards.

Staff is hoping to have $7 million to $8 million saved by the time it needs to start applying for grants in a few years, Sheldon said.

Work at the Port Angeles combined sewer overflow wastewater treatment plant improvement project has begun.

IMCO General Construction has started Phase I of the project which includes building a new pump station, slip-lining new HDPE force mains, rehabilitating a five million gallon storage tank, constructing a new gravity outfall pipeline, and building a 105-ft. long footbridge over Ennis Creek.

The Phase I project is valued at $16.3 million.

A $29.6-million upgrade to the Central Kitsap Wastewater Treatment Plant is scheduled to begin early next year, following the award of a construction contract by the Kitsap County commissioners.

McClure & Sons of Mill Creek was the low bidder among five contractors bidding on the project. The winning bid of $29.6 million came in more than $3 million less than engineering estimates.

The project was originally planned simply to replace outdated equipment and to increase capacity at the aging treatment plant, built in 1977. During preliminary design, the county commissioners decided that the plant should be upgraded to treat the effluent to a higher quality for use as irrigation in the Silverdale area.

Upgrades at the CK plant include sand filters for purifying the effluent and two aeration tanks for reducing nitrogen, said Barbara Zaroff of Kitsap County's Wastewater Division. The resulting water will be clean enough to irrigate lawns and ball fields throughout Central Kitsap — and the Silverdale Water District has already installed the first phase of "purple pipe" to carry the high-quality effluent from the plant.

The higher-quality treatment was not mandated by state or federal regulations, Zaroff said, "but we've been told that it is a foregone conclusion that we would have been required (to upgrade) in the next permit issued by the state."

Another major improvement was to capture methane gas, which had been flared off into the atmosphere, she said. When the project is done, the methane will power new generators to produce electricity for the plant, and the resulting heat will warm the plant's digesters, which break down the solids.

Puget Sound Energy has provided a grant for the generators, Zaroff said. Energy savings as a result of the project is expected to be more than $7 million over the life of the equipment.

Zaroff said McClure and Sons will be given the go-ahead for construction early next month. Mobilization could take about two months before clearing and excavation begins.

The commissioners also approved a $2.2 million contract with BHC Consultants for design and engineering services to upgrade four pump stations and a connecting pipe network in the Central Kitsap area. Most of the equipment is as old at the treatment plant and is no longer working reliably.

Overall design work includes surveys, environmental assessments, traffic studies and permitting, along with geotechnical, mechanical and electrical engineering.

These sewer projects and others were the result of a yearlong planning effort ending in November 2010, when the county commissioners worked closely with wastewater staff and a variety of consultants. They ultimately approved a six-year construction program to be funded with $52 million in bonds, with the possibility of selling additional bonds in 2014. The county is expected to receive about $3.1 million in federal subsidies for interest payments.

A 20-year plan developed by Brown and Caldwell engineers anticipates replacing and adding a total of $131 million in equipment in the treatment system before 2030. Other work is planned for Kingston, Suquamish and Manchester.

DataBid.com is currently reporting on the Toronto Humber Wastewater Treatment Plant Sodium Hypochlorite System Upgrades. Tender are due December 18th, 2012.

For more information go to: http://www.ourmidland.com/prweb/article_64f02303-6ca9-5e39-9a00-8e57ca40c2f9.html

After hours of debate and staff presentations, Victoria Capital Regional District (CRD) directors rejected a motion to delay a $783 million wastewater treatment project, keeping the plant on track for a 2018 start-up.

The CRD is an amalgamation of Victoria-area local governments that has been charged with developing secondary sewage treatment to end the discharge of raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca from two outfalls.

The project currently includes construction of a wastewater treatment plant at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt, upgrades to existing sewage pipes and a biosolids energy center.

The British Columbia and Canadian federal governments will contribute up to $501 million, while any cost overruns will fall on CRD taxpayers.

Medications, pesticides and hormones are emptying into the St. Lawrence River from Montreal’s wastewater treatment plant, but a new disinfection system that would remove significant amounts of those substances will not be up and running until 2015.

A team of researchers at the Université de Montréal has for years been tracking the presence of antibiotics, chemotherapy and epilepsy drugs, hormones and other chemicals in the plume of water that leaves the east-end wastewater treatment plant.

Sébastien Sauvé, the environmental-chemistry professor who leads the team, says about a tonne of antibiotics enter the river each year in treated water from the Jean-R. Marcotte wastewater treatment plant in Rivière-des-Prairies.

His team also tested Montreal tap water and found extremely low levels of medication.

While the levels of pharmaceuticals, pesticides and hormones found in the treated water emptied into the St. Lawrence don’t pose a risk to human health, they could cause problems in the river’s ecosystem, Sauvé said.

They are endocrine disrupters, which means they can have an impact on the endocrine system. Endocrine disruption is linked to early puberty in girls and a drop in male fertility, Sauvé said. They have been found to cause the presence of both male and female characteristics in fish, abnormal thyroids in fish-eating birds and reproductive problems in alligators.

Montreal’s water-treatment plant does a good job removing suspended substances and phosphates from treated water, Sauvé said. An ozonation system, which uses ozone to remove bacteria, viruses, pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals from wastewater, could remove the majority of environmental contaminants, he said.

Montreal plans to install a $200-million ozonation system at the wastewater treatment plant. A funding agreement between Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa was reached in 2009, but the system is not expected to be operational until 2015, city spokesperson Philippe Sabourin said. The city is preparing to go to tender on the project in 2013, Sabourin said.

The wastewater treatment plant is one of the five largest in the world, with the capacity to treat the equivalent of three Olympic stadiums worth of wastewater per day, Sabourin said.

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.

Greenwood, AR

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Wareham Water Pollution Facility, MA

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Brookville, PA

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Mahoney Township Authority – Mahoney, PA

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Red Lion Municipal Authority, Red Lion, PA

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Lynden, WA

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