[ back ]
Treatment plant gets $4.8 million upgrade
(by Sue Reid - March 11, 2011)
Treatment plant gets $4.8 million upgrade
By SUE REID
An upgrade to two anaerobic digesters at Solon's sewage-treatment plant -- the first capital-improvement project this year -- is under way, as well as electrical upgrades, at a total cost of about $4.8 million.
Plant Director Paul Solanics told City Council's public works committee last week that the project's lead contractor, Kenmore Construction, of Akron, has begun demolition.
He explained that the project entails the upgrade of the plant's two digesters. "We are currently only operating one at this time, because the other one needed major repair," Mr. Solanics said. In fact, over the last five years, the plant has been operating on only one digester, he said.
The digesters are large tanks used in the digesting process of sludge, breaking down the organic material. "Virtually all you have to haul to a landfill would be inorganic material," Mr. Solanics said of the result.
The digesters are an important part of the sewage-treatment process, he said. "If you are not breaking down the sludge, you are hauling a lot of organic material to the landfill and wasting space there." In addition, it's a lot more costly in extra fuel and manhours to haul the sludge to the landfill, he said. "You are trying to minimize that."
As part of the project, improvements will be made to the existing digesters, Mr. Solanics said. "We're using the existing tanks and adding some modified mixing and newer boilers that are going to facilitate the whole digestion process."
In the digestion process, methane gas is produced, he said. "We're going to utilize that methane gas to run the boilers, because currently the boilers operate off of natural gas." As a result, there will be a utility savings estimated at more than $40,000 annually. The plan in the future, if enough methane gas is produced, is that it will be able to be put back on the grid to be sold, he said.
The electrical upgrades will result in a complete refurbishing of the high-voltage electrical system that powers the entire plant, Mr. Solanics said. All of the wiring, which is over 30 years old, will be replaced as part of the project, he said.
Typically, such large capital improvements at the plant are costly, he said. "We're usually dealing with a lot of expensive equipment," he said. "This particular capital improvement is redoing a whole process, so to speak."
Also as part of the project, a back-up generator will be added to the plant.
The project is being funded through a low-interest loan through the Water Pollution Control Loan fund. The city will pay back the loan over the course of 20 years. Cost wise, this is the most significant project undertaken at the plant since the trickling filter project was completed in 2007 at a cost of $4.3 million. That project changed the treatment process.
The digester project is to be completed in one year, Mr. Solanics said.
Solon's treatment plant, originally built in the 1960s on Cochran Road, treats the majority of the waste water generated in the city, which is about 3.5 million gallons a day.
[ back ]
