The Onondaga County (NY) Department of Drainage and Sanitation has awarded USFilter an $11.9 million direct purchase contract for a space-saving system to upgrade treatment at the Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The installation will include advanced technology for removing ammonia and phosphorus, as well as a comprehensive control and monitoring system including instrumentation, control panels, and SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) that will be integrated into the current plant-wide SCADA system.
The system will be designed to treat 84 million gallons of wastewater a day (mgd), with a maximum wet weather flow of 126 mgd. USFilter will provide its biologically aerated filtration technology and its ballasted flocculation process. It will be the largest installation of this technology in the United States.
The Metropolitan plant is located adjacent to Onondaga Lake, and the length of pilings required to reach bedrock dictated that the new facilities be as small in size as possible, explained USFilter’s Terry Mah. "The selected process has the smallest footprint of any commercially available alternatives and will provide the lowest operational costs possible for the high level of treatment required."
"The project will also save money through an alternative purchasing process consisting of up-front process evaluation, direct equipment purchase, followed by installation and construction bids."
Under a federal court order, the county’s metropolitan plant is required to have an effluent ammonia content of less than one milligram per liter (summer) and 2 mg/l (winter). Phosphorus must be reduced to a level of less than .02 mg/l by the year 2012.
USFilter’s partners on this project include the design team of Environmental Engineering Associates, Inc.; a joint venture between Stearns & Wheeler, LLC; O‚Brien & Gere Engineers, Inc.; and Blasland, Bouck & Lee, Inc., all of the Syracuse area. USFilter’s representative is Koester Associates, Canastota, NY.
Following the design phase, the project schedule includes contract award in the second quarter 2001, completion of construction by mid-2003, and full operations by June 2004.
