Management Guide to Retrofitting Wastewater Treatment Plants

FROM THE PREFACE Since Federal funding is scarce for massive upgrades, and/or complete new Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) construction, treatment plant operators, superintendents, managers, city councils, boards, etc. must get more creative on funding and coordinating process equipment replacements. Contained herein you will find hints, tactics and procedures aimed at getting the "biggest bang for your public buck." During the 1970s and 1980s, through grants, the Federal Government paid 80% of costs to build new or expanded wastewater treatment plants, pumping stations and collection system renovations. The majority of the grants were to upgrade primary treatment facilities to secondary, and secondary to tertiary treatment status based on Clean Water Act regulations. If your facility was fortunate enough to receive grants, you were in good shape for approximately 20 to 30 years (depending on community growth rates). Since most wastewater treatment facilities are designed to last 20 years, many of the new or expanded facilities in the 70's and 80's are reaching the end of their service life. Some may have reached it sooner due to growth beyond the expected rate, inadequate preventive maintenance, or design inadequacies when built. Now you have identified problems with insufficient aeration capacity, equipment mechanical failure, insufficient pump station capacity, infrastructure deterioration, etc. and need to do something about it before you violate your NPDES permit (if you have not already). This equipment seems very costly to replace because you now must pay 100% opposed to 20% with the grants. Many WWTP are in need of replacement and/or upgraded equipment. The equipment itself is typically about 25% to 50% of the total project cost. This cannot be changed much. However, the remaining 50% to 75% (engineering, installation labor costs and project management) may be whittled down dependent on how active and creative the project coordinator (yourself) wants to b