Bowling Green Municipal Utilities (BGMU) Uses One Of The Country's Largest SBR Systems To Meet Current And Future Permit Limits And Environmental Goals

Bowling Green Municipal Utilities (BGMU) provides commercial water and wastewater treatment and electrical power services to a population of more than 60,000 in the community of Bowling Green, KY. In 2010, the BGMU wastewater treatment plant was approaching the end of its useful life, just as the utility’s operating permit was up for renewal. Built in 1963 and expanded in 1974 and 1993, the plant was approaching its capacity limit and would not be able to meet the city’s future wastewater needs. The existing treatment process also could not meet the seasonal limits for ammonia nitrogen that the renewed permit would require. With that in mind, BGMU began to look at treatment designs that would handle population growth and provide flexibility into the foreseeable future. The new system also would need to handle growth, but also remove nutrients such as ammonia nitrogen (Ammonia-N), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) in a small footprint.