Cities Across The U.S. Invest In Water Treatment Plan Upgrades
Although the headlines often highlight the slow pace of progress at water/wastewater utilities, numerous cities throughout the U.S. are investing in water projects.
A New York town aptly named “Watertown,” is considering a $9.4 million project to overhaul its wastewater treatment plant and turn its sludge into methane gas. The town is committed to making this improvement, even if it cannot obtain a state grant that would pay for much of it, according to an article in the Watertown Daily Times.
A $9 million bond was recently approved to pay for the first two phases of the project, and a grant application has been submitted that would fund 25 percent of the cost. If the city doesn’t obtain the funding, it will then be up to the council to use the bonding and proceed with the project, reports the Times.
Council members support the project because of its estimated savings of about $250,000 annually in electricity costs.
“It’s going to have a dramatic reduction on our carbon footprint. It’s essentially going to create a savings that will pay for the debt,” Mayor Joseph Butler Jr. said in the Times article.
The first two phases of the projected are expected to be completed in about 24 months.
The city of Kingston, New York may also invest heavily in an improvement project for their utility. The city is considering applying for $2.35 million in state grants from the Department of Environmental Conservation/Environmental Facilities Corporation Water Quality Improvement Program to fund improvements at its wastewater treatment plant, according to the Daily Freeman News.
Improvements would include a larger generator to provide power to the entire facility during electrical outages, roof repairs, and new blowers.
The blowers are a particularly pressing need, as they are tied to the facility receiving a new draft State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. The draft permit includes a new requirement that the city treat its wastewater for nitrogen. The new process will require more air capacity, leading to the need for newer blowers, according the Daily Freeman News.
The blowers also need a new control panel. The current control panel no longer works and the staff has to manually set the blowers’ speed. This means when the facility is not manned there is no controller to increase or decrease speed depending on demand.
City Engineer Ralph Swenson is spearheading the initiative and has asked the city’s Common Council’s Finance and Audit Committee to move forward a request allowing the city to apply for the grant. As part of that application, he asked the committee to also support borrowing $2.35 million to cover the cost of the project. The grant would be used to reimburse the city, reports the Daily Freeman News.
The city of Grand Rapids, MI, which also recently invested in wastewater treatment upgrades, is already benefiting financially from that investment. The city recently installed energy efficient aeration blowers as well as other energy efficient technologies at its Water Resource Recovery Facility, and as a result is now being awarded a $214,434 incentive payment from Consumers Energy, according to an article in RealEstateRama, a government and real estate news site.
“The city of Grand Rapids has been a leader across our great state in saving energy and money for its residents with our energy efficiency programs,” said Dan Malone, Consumers Energy’s senior vice president of energy resources in an interview with RealEastateRama. “With this project, the city has reduced its annual electrical use by more than 18 million kilowatt hours. That’s enough electricity to power more than 2,300 typical homes for a year.”
The city has previously been rewarded for energy efficiency, receiving nearly $740,000 in incentive payments since 2009.