Wastewater Facility Near Cleveland Gets Makeover Expected to Save It Big Bucks

The Liverpool Wastewater Treatment Plant in Ohio is getting a makeover that is projected to save it $1.5 million annually in plant operating expenditures, the facility says. As a result, these savings will allow the water utility to complete the project without needing to increase customer rates, it said in a release.

Black & Veatch is designing the project, which it says guarantees efficiencies that provide overall cost recovery. The project will replace the plant’s current biosolids treatment process with a technologically advanced system that boosts performance, says the firm that builds infrastructure projects all over the world. The waste water facility will be self-sustaining by using a blend of renewable biogas and natural gas to power its operation and it will benefit ratepayers through operational savings while lowering the plant’s carbon footprint, it adds.

“Black & Veatch will leverage its technological and design-build expertise in delivering this important project for Medina County,” said Pete Thomson, Leader, Performance Contracting in Black & Veatch’s water business. “This effort will significantly improve both the treatment effectiveness and the plant’s sustainability.”

The Liverpool facility serves about 35,000 customers and processes an average of 9 million gallons of wastewater daily, the utility says. It is located just 30 miles south of Cleveland.

Black & Veatch says that will also train current plant employees on the most effective plant operation and maintenance procedures for the newly installed plant systems. The project began in January and will be completed in the spring of 2019.

The engineering firm’s “process experts have been readily available, open to many questions, and deeply engaged in understanding our operations and wastewater treatment plant” noted Amy S. Lyon-Galvin, P.E., Medina County Sanitary Engineer, in a statement. “Working collaboratively, we truly feel our ideas and suggestions have been considered and vetted, and we are receiving a project we believe in.”