Overview

Timmons Group optimized the existing wastewater treatment plant in order to meet more stringent future discharge limits. The existing plant, an oxidation ditch configuration, was designed and constructed prior to the nutrient removal regulations in regards to the Chesapeake Bay environmental degradation. The existing plant configuration and operation was studied in order to determine the most cost effective method to modify the existing operation to allow BNR capability. The study yielded recommendations that mostly involve operational alterations and very little capital additions. At the end of the study period, the plant began true BNR operation within it’s newly, more stringent discharge permit. In addition to the BNR goal being achieved, recommended operational changes to the plant saved large quantities of expensive chemical addition as well and cutting down short and long term electrical costs.