Open for business : Workers adjust to West Side plant’s presence in system
Posted on Friday, June 13, 2008
Having Fayetteville’s new 10 million-gallon-per-day wastewater treatment plant on line makes a difference, but it’s probably not obvious to most residents despite the $ 60 million price tag.
“ It’s working, ” said David Jurgens, water and wastewater director. “ It’s really pretty cool. It has been less dramatic and less difficult than I had anticipated. ”
Where it is expected to make a noticeable difference is in cleaner water downstream, a lack of “ formal enforcement actions” to the city from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, an increased potential for growth and far fewer sewer overflows.
Flushing remains the same, and residents shouldn’t notice any difference even though what they’re flushing may be going in a completely different direction — to the city’s west side — instead of the Paul R. Noland Wastewater Treatment Plant on the east side.
“ The new plant provides improved wastewater treatment, resulting in a cleaner effluent being discharged …, ” Doug Szenher, an ADEQ spokesman, wrote in an e-mail to the Northwest Arkansas Times. “ The ADEQ is always pleased to see efforts to improve wastewater treatment, which, in turn, leads to improvements in the water quality of the receiving stream for the wastewater discharge. ”
The new West Side Wastewater Treatment Plant increases the city’s wastewater treatment capacity from 12. 6 million gallons per day to 21. 2 million gallons per day.
Miles of larger and newer pipes leading to it are expected to last more than 100 years.
Before the new plant came on line, the city was serving about 70, 000 customers in Fayetteville, Farmington, Greenland and Elkins. With the new plant, that capacity can nearly double. “ We can now treat wastewater for 115, 000 people. Where we had sewer overflows during big storms on the north and west part of town, it won’t happen anymore. So we are already making the environment better; we’re already improving the water quality, ” Jurgens said two days after the first treated wastewater flowed into Goose Creek at 12: 21 p. m. June 1.
Growth More sewer capacity means more room for growth in the city and the areas served by the plant, too.
Szenher said the increased treatment capacity allows for new growth and development in the city without threatening to overload the system’s treatment capabilities.
When what Jurgens described as the delicately choreographed changeover process of rerouting pipes, plugging and unplugging manholes, and putting new lift stations into action are all complete, and the plant is fully operational, both treatment plants — Noland and the West Side plant — will be running at about 50-60 percent of capacity, leaving plenty of room for growth.
“ Fayetteville’s potential, with respect to the sewer system, is enor mously increased, ” Jurgens said.
He said if a new 2 million-gallon-per-day industry wants to enter the city, it could hook on, he said.
“ We can almost double our population; we have room to grow without having to invest into the treatment capacity, ” he said, adding that there is physical room to grow around the new plant as well.
Still, at some point, after reaching a population of 115, 000, there could be the need to expand capacity again.
“ Someday, assuming that Fayetteville and Northwest Arkansas don’t stop growing, ” Jurgens said. “ That day is much further off. Had we not been under way on the plant, then we may not have had the capacity to grow in the short term. ”
Water quality The new plant, located at 5 S. Broyles Ave., has to follow strict guidelines determined by a stream study of what Goose Creek can biologically and physically handle in terms of volume of water and substances in the water, such as ammonia. The study determines, among other factors, how clear the water is, temperature, which species of fish live in the creek and how much oxygen is needed for those fish. “ The bottom line is that the ADEQ sets permit limits based on its calculations, using the best data available, designed to protect the designated stream uses, ” Szenher said.
The city has to meet basic limits each month, and it treats the wastewater to meet those limits.
“ Our numbers are pretty darned low, ” Jurgens said. “ They’re the most strict in the state, and we’ve been meeting them. ”
The plant treats for phosphorous, ammonia, biological oxygen demand and suspended solids through biological means, although the city can supplement with chemicals as needed to meet the permit.
Szenher explained, “ It’s not feasible to have a onesize-fits-all permit for wastewater treatment plants. ” He said the effluent limits are based on a number of factors, the most important of which is that the designated uses of the stream that receives the wastewater discharge must be protected. “ Streams in Northwest Arkansas generally have better water quality than many other parts of the state, ” Szenher said. “ Consequently, effluent limits for wastewater discharges in the northwest tend to be more stringent than average because of the statutory and regulatory requirements to protect the existing water quality. ”
Moving in Although treated wastewater is flowing and a ribbon-cutting was held, there is still work to do.
“ The plant is substantially complete. It’s treating wastewater, but it’s still a construction project, ” Jurgens explained.
Biological processes will take six to eight more weeks to be functioning at full efficiency.
“ We can’t test the sludgeprocessing hardware until we have sludge, ” Jurgens said. “ We won’t know how it’s working until we start producing sludge. ”
He compared moving in to the new plant to buying a house.
“ This is not like you walk into a fully furnished house, ” he said. “ We’ve walked into the empty house. The bedroom’s set up and the kitchen’s partially equipped, but other parts of the house don’t have any furniture yet. We’re still working toward that, and it’s because of the biological process taking time. ”
About 20 contracts are still under way or still need to be let, and the punch list identifying work that needs attention still has to be closed out. Some lift stations and pipelines still need to be bid and constructed. Those remaining were delayed until after construction of the plan to allow timing so that warranted work did not pass its timeline before the equipment could be used and tested.
“ We still have quite a bit of work to do, ” Jurgens said.
By the time the first treated wastewater had left the plant, most of the lines and pipes for homes and businesses on the city’s west side were already switched toward the new plant, including the area south of Mount Comfort, Markham Hill and along Gregg Avenue.
“ None of those people even noticed it, ” Jurgens said.
The new plant is situated so that wastewater “ can flow by gravity and follow the gravity rules, ” said Jurgens, who described it as changing 85 years of history to stop pumping “ over the hill. ”
One aspect of the change should be fewer overflows during rainstorms because the amount of water, sewage and rainwater going through the areas where the overflows happen has been reduced.
“ We’re eliminating those overflows, ” Jurgens said.
Getting into the new plant also means jobs have been deferred, like replacing the Mount Sequoyah water storage tank, lift station alternatives for Owl Creek and Goose Creek, a 36-inch water line by Crossover Road and redoing a master plan for the wastewater system.
“ I’ve had such a small staff working on this that there have been other jobs that have been deferred, ” Jurgens said. “ We’ve done that all along. Water and sewer things that we really, really wanted to do, we just flat out didn’t have time to get done. ”
A full grand opening for the new plant will be scheduled for sometime in August.
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