Projects in St. Louis, Chicago

New EPA Regulations Mean More Water-System Construction

by Paula Widholm

Many metropolitan water and sewer districts are caught in “the perfect storm” of aging system infrastructures, limited funds for improvements and increased stormwater inflows.

For many, pressure is also mounting to make costly repairs to meet U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations in a timely fashion.

“We’re very concerned about our future water supply,” says Kay Whitlock, president of the Illinois section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and vice president at Rosemont-based Christopher B. Burke Engineering Ltd.

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In 2005, the ASCE gave the nation’s water and wastewater systems a D- letter grade on its Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. A new report card will come out at the beginning of 2009.

“It’s taking most of 2008 to do the report card,” Whitlock adds. “Committees are set up to investigate conditions on a variety of aspects of infrastructure.”

The EPA and state governments are also taking the issues seriously. In June 2007, the EPA and Missouri sued the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District for violating state and federal clean water statutes by allowing polluted water to be dumped into waterways through “overflows,” sewer pipes that empty into rivers and act as relief valves when heavy rainfall clogs the system. Similar lawsuits have been filed in Atlanta, Baltimore and Portland, Ore.

There has been no resolution, and the MSD is continuing to talk to the litigants.

“Over the last decade or so, the EPA started to regulate stormwater for water quality,” Whitlock says. “For the past 100 years or so, we were looking at storm sewers to take care of water overflows. In the last cycle of regulations, the EPA looked at stormwater systems as conveyors of contaminated water.”

St. Louis’ Big Task

In St. Louis, “the district’s big task is to reduce overflow in combined stormwater and sanitary sewer systems,” says Brian Hoelscher, director of engineering with the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District. “Some can be eliminated by decreasing the flow of stormwater into the system, and the other component is to transport and treat some of those flows. To do that, we have to expand treatment plants. At the same time, we’re eliminating flows at other parts of the system.”

The MSD has begun construction on the following wastewater treatment plants.

A $57 million project began in June 2006 at the Coldwater Treatment Plant, which discharges into the Missouri River. Expected to be complete at the end of 2008, the project is “increasing wet-weather capacity from 100 million gallons a day to 135 mgd with the ability to pump up to 220 mgd if necessary. This plant’s rated capacity of 40 mgd will stay the same,” Hoelscher says.

Goodwin Brothers Inc. of Crystal City, Mo., is the contractor, and Black & Veatch Corp. in Chesterfield, Mo., is the designer.

A $29 million project began in September 2006 and is also scheduled to be complete by the end of 2008 at the Grand Glaize Treatment Plant, which is one of two MSD plants that discharge on the Meramec River. At this plant, wet-weather capacity will remain at 40 mgd, but the rated capacity will increase from 16 to 21 mgd, and new discharge requirements will be met.

St. Louis-based KCI Construction Co. is the contractor, and the St. Louis office of Omaha-based HDR Inc. is the designer.

A $38 million project began in December 2006 at the Missouri River Treatment Plant, which discharges into the Missouri River, to increase wet-weather capacity from 80 to 190 mgd. Rated capacity will remain at 28 mgd. Completion is scheduled for August 2009.

The contractor is Goodwin Brothers, and the designer is St. Louis-based Burns & McDonnell.

A $90 million expansion project began in November on the Lemay Treatment Plant, which discharges to the Mississippi River. It is the only one that combines sewer as part of its collection system. It is scheduled for completion by April 2010. The rate of capacity will stay the same at 167 mgd, but the wet-weather capacity will increase from 233 to 340 mgd.

St. Louis-based Tarlton Corp. is the contractor, and Black & Veatch is the designer.

“In the future, most of the work will be in our collection system, eliminating infiltration and inflow of stormwater into the system,” Hoelscher says. “Our system was built when Abe Lincoln was president.

“Often, construction at treatment plants is easier because it’s on property that you own. On sewers, it’s much tougher. You’re in people’s backyard, and it takes a lot of understanding from the residents. A lot of the problems with aging have to do with sewers and the infiltration of groundwater and stormwater, which results in more water getting to plants, which overflows our system and creates basement backups.”

The MSD has 10,000 mi of sewers in its system—the fourth largest in the country.

“Over the next couple of decades to meet water-quality regulations set by the EPA, the MSD must spend $4 billion to $6 billion, and asset management will be an additional cost,” Hoelscher says.

Chicago’s Calumet Plant Upgraded

After 15 years of planning, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is building a new $122 million wastewater treatment plant with a rated capacity of 600 mgd to replace a 1930s one located along Lake Calumet in Chicago.

Construction began in December 2006, and about two-thirds of the cast-in-place concrete is complete and 40% of the entire project is done.

The project includes building two large cast-in-place concrete buildings with an architectural precast cladding and a glazed-block interior, and three cast-in-place concrete, below-grade diversion chambers.

“While we’re building the new plant, the old pump station is taking all the flow,” says Peter Nielsen, project manager of Elgin-based IHC Construction Cos. Inc., a member of a joint venture with Chicago-based FHP Tectonics serving as the contractor. Chicago-based Metcalf & Eddy is the project designer.

Nielsen says it’s the largest new plant under construction in the United States.

“It has three 9-ft-diameter horseshoe sewers lines coming into an existing pump station, and we’re building a diversion structure around those sewers and diverting flow to a new pump,” he says. “Then we’ll demolish the old pump from within the structure so the water’s always contained within the diversion structure.”

The Pump Building will contain six raw sewage pumps, each equipped with 1,500-horsepower motors, and 64- and 96-in. discharge piping and valves. Four will pump at a constant speed and two at a variable speed.

The new Screen Building screens the raw sewage to remove larger items of debris like branches, and there’s motor-controlled equipment in that building to eliminate hydrogen sulfide, the natural byproduct of raw sewage.

Recovery units were installed to exhaust air from the buildings because of odors and as an attempt to capture the heat so not all the new air has to be heated.

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