NewsDedication ceremony held for $23.6 million WWTP
Johnson City, TN | June 2, 2011
Gary Gray, Johnson City Press
Johnson City's Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant near Gray first came online in September and began processing water for an area projected for healthy growth when the economy finally rebounds.
Nearly seven years in the making, the $23.6 million addition and renovation of the plant that was first constructed in the mid 1970s now can handle about three times more water and has been consistently testing well above state quality levels.
Johnson City's Water and Sewer Director Tom Witherspoon said the plant benefits the long-term protection of the water quality in Boone Lake. And, when the economy comes back, this will be the city's biggest service area.
"No question about it, if you're providing service to customers, you have to continually make improvements," Witherspoon said Wednesday. "Capital projects like this take a long time. But it certainly will provide capacity for future growth."
If city officials had not chosen to make the investment at the renovated plant, homes and businesses would need to use septic tanks and the expansion and continued interest the Gray area may not have been the same.
"We also have another project separate from the plant," he said. "The $10.5 million project includes installing new sewer line along the Tennessee Highway 36 corridor, and it should be completed by early fall."
Witherspoon has said about 90 percent of this service area drains into the lake. The state dictates what a "receiving" stream or lake can take. And as of August, the plant was removing 99 percent to 99.5 percent of all sewage, including suspended solids and organic material that would have a negative effect on the lake.
The regional plant is the city's third wastewater facility. It first went online in 1977, and was built with a "design life" of about 20-30 years. The design process began in 2004, with Nashville's Smith Seckman and Reid contracting with the city for about $1 million for these services. Lexington, Ky.-based W. Rogers Co. was awarded a $23.6 million construction contract, and the plant is being paid for with city issued bonds that went into the water-sewer fund.
No money from stormwater fees have been applied to the project.
Construction began in February 2007, and in July the new clarifier and filtering units started operating. Though the plant is functioning, there is still a lot of work going on.
This is a technologically complicated plant that utilizes very sensitive equipment that will allow engineers to monitor this facility at the main plant at Brush Creek. The plant will be staffed by five employees 24/7, not counting those working in the laboratory or maintenance.
When it first opened, the plant could process about 1.5 million gallons of water a day and about 4 million gallons during peak periods. In the 1990s, renovations were made to allow just over 2.2 million gallons a day and about 5 million during peak periods. The latest edition now treats 6 million gallons per day and a peak flow of 15 million gallons per day.
The "headworks" is where raw waste enters the system and is screened. Waste also is recovered in the biological unit and a set of filters and exposure to ultraviolet light finishes off the process before the water is returned to the lake.
Witherspoon said that UV lamps have replaced chlorine, which used to be used to kill bacteria. The problem with chlorine, however, is that it too had to be removed before the water could be reintroduced. The new method cuts costs and time. Currently, the monthly electric bill is $3,000 less per month lower than it was without the renovations.
Monitoring from Brush Creek will allow city workers to respond quicker should there be a problem at any of the pumping stations or at the plant. The old plant had no backup emergency power supply, but it now sports a diesel-powered backup system. And in the event of a serious weather-generated event, it still will be able to successfully meet permit requirements.
Johnson City Water and Sewer Services Department operates both water and sewer infrastructure inside the corporate limits of Johnson City and in portions of four counties outside the city limits. Each year, the department treats over 5 billion gallons of potable water and processes over 4 billion gallons of wastewater.