Water & Wastes Digest recently selected the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant’s Water Pollution Control project in Baltimore, Maryland, as a 2016 Top Project. WesTech Engineering was recognized for its role in the project: Supplying twelve 120-foot-diameter secondary clarifiers.
The awards were presented at the annual meeting of the Water Environment Federation (WEF) conference in New Orleans. Award-winning projects are chosen for making marked improvements to community, state and regional water infrastructure, with associated environmental benefits.
The Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant, owned and operated by the City of Baltimore, originally opened in 1911. It is located on the shore of the Back River; a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay. The plant occupies a 466-acre site and has a 35-foot elevation difference from influent to outfall, allowing wastewater to flow through the plant entirely by gravity.
Prior to this award-winning project, significant algal growth was observed in Back River throughout the growing season, a result of a combination of discharge from the water treatment plant and legacy phosphorus pollution from the sediment.
These problems needed to be addressed as part of the restoration strategy to improve water quality in Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary. WesTech has provided equipment to many of the treatment plants that have been key to the success of this rehabilitation, which has been tracked by the Chesapeake Bay Program.
On this most recent project at the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant, WesTech – in partnership with long-time sales representative Geiger Pump and Process – worked alongside many other engineering firms, suppliers, and contractors to improve from a flow rate of 180 MGD to 270 MGD. The plant was also able to achieve a regulatory limit of nitrogen concentrations of 3 mg/L per day, a change from the previous load of 8 mg/L per day, while maintaining phosphorus concentrations of 0.2 mg/L.
WesTech is proud to have contributed to these valuable efforts to reduce pollution and protect the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.
Photo: WesTech’s clarifier and drive groups pose with the 2016 Top Project Award, which was presented at WEF for their work on the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant project.
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