CH2M HILL begins operations of a $173m water reclamation facility

CH2M HILL Constructors has started operations of the new $173m Spokane County water reclamation facility ahead of schedule, in the US state of Washington.

The new facility will have an initial capacity to treat around eight million gallons of wastewater a day, and will primarily serve the Spokane Valley area of the county.

Capacity of the facility is expected to be expanded to 24 million gallons a day to accommodate the increasing demand over the next 20-50 years.

Placed on a 20-acre site, the project will provide adequate treatment capacity to allow the county to complete the Septic Tank Elimination project in the Spokane Valley.

The new facility will also produce Class-A reclaimed water for beneficial reuse, including industrial uses, urban irrigation and wetlands restoration.

The facility’s treatment process uses membrane filtration technology, which has six million individual membrane fibres that filter out nearly all of the suspended solids in the wastewater.

The plant will use 90% of the gas to produce electricity with co-generation equipment, and the power produced will offset part of the site’s energy needs.

The new facility’s planning process began in 1999 by Spokane County to provide regional wastewater treatment needs and to comply with permitting requirements for protection of the Spokane River and its in-stream reservoirs.

The project was stalled from 2003 to 2009, by the development of the Spokane River and the Lake Spokane ‘dissolved oxygen total maximum daily load’ to define the maximum level of nutrients that can be allowed in the water to meet quality standards for oxygen.

Under the terms of the 20-year contract, CH2M HILL started the design phase of the facility in January 2009 and the construction phase in June 2009.

US-based CH2M HILL is a provider of consulting, design, design-build, operations, and programme management services.