Portland Water District breaks ground on water treatment facility upgrade in US

Portland Water District has broken ground on a $12.8m upgrade to the Sebago Lake water treatment facility located in Maine, US.

The facility supplies drinking water to 15% of Maine’s population.

Under the refurbishment programme, the company will install a new ultraviolet light disinfection system and upgrade the facility’s 20-year-old ozone treatment process.

The project, which will take 17 months to complete, will also provide additional barriers to potential contaminants.

Portland Water District project manager Gordon Johnson said, "After a successful pilot programme, we chose to install UV treatment to meet new federal rules."

Surface water suppliers will need to upgrade their current systems to further treat for possible pathogens like cryptosporidium, under the long-term enhanced surface water treatment rule.

The Portland Water District received a $300,000 grant from Efficiency Maine for the upgrade project.

Portland Water District water plant manager said, "UV is a highly effective treatment, economical and energy efficient. It requires no bulk chemicals and is a fairly natural process."

Efficiency Maine executive director Michael Stoddard said a company makes an important choice when it buys equipment that uses energy or makes energy.

"The high-efficiency option will save on operating costs over the full lifetime of the equipment, which in a case like this water treatment facility, is a very long time," said Stoddard.

"For making that decision, the ratepayers owe the Portland Water District a sincere thanks, as they will now be responsible for buying 2,364,282 fewer kWh, and paying $192,710 less, each and every year.

As part of the upgrade programme, the UV system will be retrofitted into the existing 1.5 million gallon clear wells used to store water before entering the distribution system.

The company also intends to install new technologies to update the 20-year-old ozone system, and a liquid oxygen system will replace a complex and energy-intensive process that creates ozone out of ordinary air.

Portland Water District’s project partners include CDM Smith (engineer) and D&C Construction.

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Image: Portland Water District breaks ground on Sebago Lake water treatment facility in the US. Photo: Portland Water District.