Authority reviews plans for plant
BROWNSVILLE – Brownsville Municipal Authority reviewed preliminary plans for a new treatment plant Tuesday. Engineers from Widmer Engineering presented the plans for the new treatment plant, capable of handling up to 3 million gallons of waste a day. Design engineer John Tomaro said the average daily flow at the plant appears to be about 600,000 gallons a day, and the state Department of Environmental Protection recommends that plants handling combined sanitary and storm sewers be sized to handle five times their daily flow, to prevent overflows during storms.
Tomaro said he will have a better idea of the exact size the municipal authority needs once flow monitoring is completed at the end of the month. The design could be downsized if there is less flow than anticipated, Tomaro said.
He said the authority should anticipated trucking away more sludge than in the past, though they could see lower electric bills because of the increased efficiency of the system.
Tomaro told the authority members that the site for the new plant is perfect, with no water problems and solid bedrock. The plans include four aeration tanks, a sludge holding tank and several buildings for a sludge compressor, testing laboratory, office space and a meeting room. The plans also include a garage, though the authority members said they most likely will continue to use the current garage.
The authority is planning the new treatment plant to comply with a DEP consent order to upgrade the 30-year-old treatment facility, including making it operational during flood conditions. Tomaro said he conducted a feasibility study that showed that building a new plant would be more cost-efficient than protecting the current facility from flooding.
Tomaro said Widmer Engineering has completed about 35 percent of the drawings that will be needed for the construction project. Special problems, such as rerouting forced mains so the old system can operate while the new plant is being built, still must be tackled.
In other business, the authority voted to award the contract for cleaning and televising the sewer lines to Hydro Technology Inc. of Elizabeth. The company had submitted the low bid of $7,749.84, raising questions since it was nearly $5,000 less than the nearest bidder. Engineer Rusty Mechling said he discussed the project with Hydro Technology and the company understood the scope of the project when it submitted the bid.