Wastewater Treatment Plant Reduces Energy Consumption, Noise With Turbo Blower Technology

By Beth Brindle, Water Online

Built in 1974, the Blue River Wastewater Treatment Plant in Silverthorne, Colorado, provides wastewater services to the communities of Silverthorne, Dillon, Dillon Valley, Buffalo Mountain, and Mesa Cortina. Faced with rising energy costs and aging equipment, the Silverthorne-Dillon Joint Sewer Authority (JSA) identified a need to replace the plant’s original multistage centrifugal blowers with new technology that would reduce energy consumption and provide steady and reliable operation.

Old Multistage Blowers Lead To Over-Aeration
The Blue River Wastewater Treatment Plant is a conventional activated sludge plant with extended aeration capabilities and a design capacity of 4 million gallons per day. But while average demand is well below that capacity, ranging from approximately 1.5 million to 2 million gallons per day, the plant serves resort communities with high variation in usage, both seasonally and between midweek and weekend during the peak season.

“The week of Christmas, we can double or triple flow rates from the week before,” said Jim McLaughlin of McLaughlin Water Engineers in Denver, a consultant to the Silverthorne-Dillon JSA. “It’s really hard for a biological plant to accommodate that. But seasonally, in spring and summer, we have infiltration and not much sewage.”