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New process saves village money | West Alexandria Water Treatment Plant | Galien Sewer Authority Wastewater Treatment Plant

New process saves village money
Government day in Carey

BY DAN REINHART

Carey's wastewater treatment facility was one of the village operations that was open to the public on Carey's Government Day Monday. The event was part of Carey's sesquicentennial celebration.

Doug Keller, director of the plant, said that Carey's facility is similar to a home aerated septic tank. "All it takes to treat waste is air and time," he said.

Standing on top of the $140,000 sludge press that was purchased in 2006, Keller pointed out that recent improvements at the plant have done more than just bring it up to state standards, they are saving the village a lot of money as well. Keller said that in 2004 the village paid $40,000 to have bio solids removed from the plant. Since the new sludge press was installed, the cost to remove bio solids has dwindled to $8,000 a year. At that rate the press will pay for itself in a little over four years.

Keller stressed that the treatment process in Carey is almost completely natural. He explained that sewage comes into the plant and is transferred from one process to another with nothing more than water and air being added.

Just before the finished product, which is clear water, flows into County Ditch 22, a small amount of chlorine and sodium thiosulphate are added to the water. Chlorine kills bacteria while sodium thiosulphate removes the chlorine. The two chemicals combine to make common salt. Keller said the amount of salt that comes out of the Carey plant is comparable to a dash of salt in a bucket of water.

Village offices including the police department, income tax, utilities and administrative offices located in the municipal building at 127 N. Vance Street, were open from 1-4 p.m. for public viewing Monday.

The public was also invited to visit the Carey electric shop located at Waterworks Park and the fire department.

Council held its regular session at the Waterworks Park Pavilion Monday evening.

For more information contact Dan Miller.

West Alexandria Water Treatment Plant

Project Profile

Jones & Henry Engineers worked with Village officials to develop a Water Treatment Facility to serve the community of West Alexandria, Preble County, Ohio through the planning period 2050. The plant consists of a 600 gpm iron removal filtration unit, 100,000 gallon two cell clear well, 1500 gpm high service/fire pump works, PLC based Automation, and 205 kw generator station. The building plan incorporated provisions for increased capacity and additional treatment processes to enable its use for the indefinite future.

Architectural Features

The plant setting adjacent to the Village Park, resulted in the Village council setting a priority of preserving the Community’s history. The original plant was constructed in 1898 drawing water from an artesian aquifer and delivering it to the community by a steam piston pump driven by a coal fired boiler. While the piston pump and boiler were replaced with electrical power in the 1930’s, the original building was preserved and converted for use for laboratory, chemical feed room, operator’s office, records room and archives, restroom, breakroom, and locker facilities. One unique design problem for the J&H structural engineers was tying the new roof system into the iron truss-wood frame structure which used wood pegs in forming corner braces. The J&H architectural design preserved brick arches at windows and doors while replacing the closure units and insulating the building to comply with current energy codes.

The Village open house on Sunday June 30 provided the opportunity of more than 80 community residents to tour the facility and observe the clarity of water to its 12 foot depth in the clearwell. The Mayor and Village Assistant Administrator complimented  J&H Engineers for having designed the facility to produce a first quality water while preserving the Village landmark as a critical asset for the community’s growth.

Plant Process

Raw water is pumped from one or more of three wells to the top of the aerator. In the aerator, water flows down over several rows of PVC slats while air is drawn upward from the bottom. This aeration process removes carbon dioxide gas and oxidizes dissolved iron and manganese. The oxidization process converts dissolved iron and manganese into insoluble particles.

Water flows downward from the aerator into the detention tank. The tank serves to provide at least 45 minutes detention time to allow the oxidization chemical reaction to come to completion and to allow iron and manganese particles to agglomerate together. Sodium hypochlorite (bleach) and potassium permanganate can be added to enhance the oxidization process if required.

Water from the detention tank flows downward into the top of one of four filter cells. In each filter cell, water flows downward through 6 inches of anthracite, 18 inches filter sand and grated support gravel. Filters remove fine suspended particles consisting mostly of iron and manganese. Upon leaving the filters, sodium hypochlorite is added for disinfection and a phosphate compound is added for corrosion control.

Finished water flows downward into one of two clearwells cells located beneath the operating room floor. Piping and valves are included to allow water to flow through either a single cell clearwell or both cells in series. High service pumps convey water to the distribution system to customers.

The total construction costs for the project was $1,771,499.

Galien River Sewer Authority Wastewater Treatment Plant

On October 4, 2006, the GRSD Sewer Authority in Berrien County, Michigan, held an open house at their recently-improved wastewater treatment plant. Although the rainy weather undoubtedly was responsible for keeping some people from attending the open house, those willing to dodge the raindrops enjoyed group tours of the plant as well as refreshments served in the newly renovated Operations Building.

The open house was the culmination of a long project which has been in the planning stages since the mid-1990s with engineering design services for the improvements starting in February 2002. The Sewer Authority is managed by a Board whose members are selected by the principal governmental entities which comprise the service area. The City of New Buffalo, New Buffalo Township, the City of Bridgman, Chikaming Township, and Lake Charter Township, along with small areas of the Townships of Weesaw, Baroda, and Lincoln, are served by the treatment plant and associated interceptor system. The improvements and expansion of the facility were driven by the anticipated development within the sewer service area. In October 2002, the design was reviewed by an independent value engineering team comprised of five multi-disciplinary experts in the field. In January 2003, it was decided to decrease the capacity of the expanded plant from 3.7 million gallons per day (mgd) to 3.0 mgd in recognition of reduced anticipated area development and population increases and of the need for reduced construction costs. In addition to the normal MDEQ construction permit and building permits, the project required permits to fill a small area of the floodplain and to discharge storm water from the construction site. The construction was permitted to impact three small wetlands on the plant grounds but was forbidden to impact a large wetlands area that bordered one side of the plant site. Bids were received in August 2003, with Bowen Engineering Corporation submitting the low bid of $8,649,000.

The improvements consisted of new fine screens, vortex grit removal, primary tank mechanisms, scum handling system, two aeration tanks along with rehabilitation of four existing aeration tanks, a blower building, three final clarifiers, secondary sludge pump building, chlorine contact tank with post-aeration, gravity thickener, thickened sludge pump building, and sludge heating building. A PLC-based process monitoring and control system was added. The building which formerly housed the blowers and return sludge pumps was converted to the Operations Building containing locker rooms, training room, the plant control room, and sodium hypochlorite feed system. Most of the existing pumps, which had been in service since the original plant was started in 1977, were replaced.

Final payment was made to the contractor in June of 2006. The final construction cost was 3.2 percent or $279,000 higher than the bid price. Most of the increase ($179,000) was due to encountering very soft soil conditions that were not evident from the soil borings taken during the design stages of the project. In addition, the Sewer Authority agreed to credit $59,000 of cost savings to the contractor because of the unprecedented increase in reinforcing steel prices which occurred after the award of the construction contract.

The plant is performing very well. The average flow rate is about 1.75 million gallons per day. Effluent concentrations of carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand, total suspended solids, ammonia, and phosphorus average 3.2 mg/L, 0.8 mg/L, 0.2 mg/L, and 0.4 mg/L, respectively.