GHD provided evaluation, design and construction services for
comprehensive improvements to the City of Binghamton’s water
filtration facilities and Water and Sewer Department offices.
The facility is a 20 million gallons a
day (76Ml/d) conventional filtration plant, including: a raw
water pumping station and intake on the Susquehanna River; chemical
feed building housing alum, chlorine dioxide, sodium chlorite,
powder-activated carbon, acid, caustic and polymer; four
flocculation/sedimentation basins; and 10 rapid sand filters,
chlorination, corrosion control and fluoridation.
The site contains separate office and
maintenance facilities for water treatment and water distribution,
and sewer collection operations for the City.
The improvement program provided upgrades to
the treatment plant to comply with current and proposed drinking
water regulations to improve the reliability of the process, and to
address the rehabilitation needs of a 40-year-old facility.
The project also included major upgrade and
expansion of the office/maintenance space and Information
Technology improvements to link the communication and maintenance
between common staff across two City departments, including a water
and sewer system-wide SCADA system. Other plant improvements are
listed below.
- Chemical feed systems replacement
- Conversion from chlorine gas to sodium
hypochlorite
- A silo for powder-activated carbon storage and feed
- Exterior masonry and roof replacement of all buildings
- Expansion of residuals pumping capacity
- HVAC replacement for all buildings
- Structural improvements to process tanks
- Replacement of major electrical components
- Replacement of raw, finished water and backwash pumping
systems
GHD's services included: evaluation, design,
bidding, construction engineering, permitting, bench-scale
treatment studies, SCADA and PLC programming, computerised
maintenance management, and computerised operations and
maintenance manuals. A detailed construction sequence
was developed and communicated to the contractor to allow
continuous production during the upgrade even while major process
systems were being interrupted. The upgrade was completed without
impact to the city’s supply needs and met all water quality
standards.
The water plant improvements provided USD$15.5
million in upgrades and the project is the largest single public
works project undertaken by the City. The project benefits include:
a considerable reduction in power consumption due to
higher-efficiency pumping equipment and the availability of
distribution system storage information through SCADA to time
pumping for off-peak electrical demand periods; a reduction in
chemical costs due to online analyzer control and flow pacing; and,
a significant improvement in process reliability. In fact,
the plant was able to maintain production and meet all drinking
water quality standards during the worst flood of record on the
Susquehanna River.
The project, funded through the New York State
Revolving Loan Fund, received the Environmental Project of The Year
Award from the New York State American Public Works
Association.