The City of Bedford, Ohio, is moving forward with a $25.6 million upgrade to its wastewater treatment plant designed to improve treatment efficiency and reduce wet-weather bypasses.

The Ohio EPA issued a Limited Environmental Review and Finding of No Significant Impact for the project, allowing funding to proceed through the Water Pollution Control Loan Fund. Construction is scheduled to begin in fall 2026 and take approximately 24 months. Bedford expects to receive up to $4 million in principal forgiveness and plans to borrow the remaining $21.6 million through the program.

The project is the first phase of a roughly 20-year program developed in response to the city's No Feasible Alternatives analysis for its NPDES permit. Wet-weather inflow and infiltration currently push flows beyond the plant's treatment and equalization capacity, resulting in bypasses of untreated wastewater.

Work includes a new headworks building and south interceptor pump station, improvements to the equalization basin, grit channels, sludge digesters, filters and settling tanks, as well as new utility lines and structural repairs. The project also is intended to improve wastewater handling and storage and reduce sanitary sewer overflows.

The existing plant treats an average of 2.4 million gallons per day, with a design average flow of 3.2 MGD and peak design flow of 6.4 MGD.