PWSA to rehabilitate filters at Aspinwall water treatment plant

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority (PWSA) will invest approximately $24m to rehabilitate the filters at its water treatment facility near Aspinwall, US.

The authority intends to award contracts for the project, which has been planned for six years. Completion is expected to take around three years.

The 18 basins known as rapid sand filters are capable of holding around 225,000 gallons of water. They are filled with coal, sand and gravel layers, which water passes through in order to filter particles and impurities during the plant’s last phase of treatment. The purified water is piped to a collection tank to supply to around 300,000 customers in the Pittsburgh region.

The PWSA plans to take out three basins at a time, while contractors replace the layered material and install new electrical components, lighting, heating, air conditioning, pipes and valves.

PWSA water quality and production director Ronald Duray said: "If we don’t do this, we could lose our ability to filter our water effectively, efficiently and within compliance. Basically, they’ve reached the end of their useful life."

By pumping water up through the layers, the plant will clean the basins every 100 hours. This will increase by 40 to 70 hours after the filters are rehabilitated.