Excellence Award Winners

Domestic-Category I: <1 MGD

Burwell WWTP

Harvest-Monrovia Water, Sewer and fire Protection Authority

The Burwell WWTP is owned and operated by Harvest-Monrovia Water & sewer Authority. First operated in 2008, this facility is a sister treatment system to the Jefferson Road WWTP. The Burwell Road WWTP plant consists of preliminary treatment utilizing a fine screen mechanism with flow equalization that incorporates anoxic zone capabilities. The major treatment component is a membrane filtration system followed by UV disinfection. This facility treats a waste stream consisting of 30% commercial waste and 70% residential wastewater. This is the second consecutive award for this facility.

Brent Kulavich (L) & Wheeler Crook (R)

Domestic-Category II: 1- 10 MGD

Riverview WRRF

SouthWest Water Company

The Riverview Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) is located in the highly developed Highway 280 corridor in Shelby County. This 3.0 MGD facility provides service to areas from just south of the Highway 280/Interstate-459 interchange, along Highway 280, to the Highland Lakes development atop Double Oak Mountain. The treatment train consists of bar screens, grit removal, extended aeration basins, secondary clarifiers, fine screens, flocculators for chemical precipitation of phosphorus, tertiary filters, and UV disinfection. Biosolids are processed through digesters and belt filter presses. Because the Riverview WRRF discharges to the Cahaba River, a 303(d) listed stream for nutrients, the facility is subject to stringent effluent phosphorus limits. Phosphorus removal at the WRRF meets the current growing-season limit of 0.2 mg/L. In 2016, average monthly effluent phosphorus concentration during the growing season was 0.072 mg/L. Pilot projects have been completed at the facility to demonstrate the ability to meet the future effluent TP limit of 0.043 mg/L.

Mark Globetti (L) and Wheeler Crook (R)

Athens WWTP

City of Athens Utilities

With a design flow of 9 MGD, the Athens Wastewater Treatment plant provides wastewater treatment for Athens, Alabama. Originally constructed in the 1970’s to treat 7 MGD, the WWTP has undergone two major renovation projects to upgrade to the current treatment capacity. The most recent effort was completed in September 2009. The facility has evolved from a trickling filter plant only to the current conventional activated sludge facility consisting of mechanical screening and grit removal, aeration basins with fine bubble diffused aeration, secondary clarification, UV disinfection, and post-aeration. Waste activated sludge is sent to two lagoons, totaling 20 acres and 10-feet deep, and the supernatant is recycled to the plant effluent stream.

(L – R) Frank Eskridge, Virgil White, and Wheeler Crook

Domestic-Category III: > 10 MGD

Dry Creek WWTP Decatur Utilities With a design flow of 36 MGD, the Dry Creek Wastewater Treatment plant provides wastewater treatment for Decatur, Alabama. Originally constructed in 1958, the WWTP has undergone multiple improvements and upgrades to meet growing demands of the City and treatment requirements. The Dry Creek WWTP is a conventional activated sludge treatment facility consisting of mechanical bar screens, aerated grit and grease removal, primary clarification, aeration basins configured in a step feed configuration, secondary clarification, and chlorination/dechlorination disinfection before discharge to the Tennessee River. Solids handling facilities include gravity thickeners, anaerobic digestion, and centrifuge dewatering.

(L – R) Tom Cleveland, Shannon Bailey, and Wheeler Crook

Domestic-Category III: > 10 MGD

Award of Recognition - HC Morgan Waste Pollution Control Facility, City of Auburn

(L – R) Wheeler Crook, David Jones, Matt Dunn

Industrial Facilities Category

Mercedes-Benz US International

Mercedes-Benz US International is a manufacturing facility and automobile assembly plant located in Vance, Alabama that employee 3,000 to 4,000 persons. This manufacturer provides everything under one roof- body, paint, assembly, shipping, and administration. It is a “just in time” shop where there are only three hours of assembly parts stored on site at any given time. Wastewater Treatment began at Mercedes with the start of the facility in 1996. A second wastewater treatment system was constructed in 2004 to keep pace with production demands. The primary waste streams from the facilities painting operations are pretreatment, phosphate, spray tanks, and an e-coat line. The bulk of the wastewater is produced as a result of overflowing the dip tanks when fresh water and chemicals are applied and at spray zones between the different tanks where chemicals are rinsed from the automobile bodies before going to other processes. The majority of the wastes being treated are for removal of heavy metals, phosphate excess, surfactants, and low level of oil and grease. The final effluent is discharged into the City of Tuscaloosa’s Sewer System.

Award of Recognition – Holcim, Theodore, Alabama

All of the storm water at the 50-acre plant site is collected for physical treatment in a system of three settling basins at the north end of the production site. Storm water ditches are strategically located at the site to quickly collect runoff water for conveyance to the basins for treatment. All of the storm water ditches are sloped to convey water from south to north and the ditches that surround the plant act as barriers, preventing water from leaving the site. The plant utilizes the storm water collected as cooling / conditioning water in its production process. This significantly reduces reliance on local municipality water used in the manufacturing process as well as the volume of water discharged to the Theodore Industrial Canal. In prior years, as many as 88 million gallons of water was discharged annually into the ship canal adjacent to the plant. Currently, the only time a discharge is made is when a tropical storm or hurricane is approaching or when maintenance work is performed on the basins. The plant crossed another milestone in 2016 by achieving over 17 years without any warning letters or notices of violations (NOV). Not violating the water discharge NPDES permit during this period of time was a team effort.

Travis Osborne (L) and Wheeler Crook (R)