How is River Bend using a $9 million grant to rehabilitate their Wastewater Treatment Plant?

River Bend's current wastewater treatment plan has not been enhanced since 1988. A $9 million grant will look to change that.

The Division of Water Infrastructure recently approved a $9,108,500 grant for River Bend to complete enhancements to the town's Wastewater Treatment Plant. The funds will come from the American Rescue Plan Act funding from the State Fiscal Recovery Fund.

"The town is extremely fortunate to have our manager, Delane Jackson, with us," says John Kirkland, mayor of River Bend. "His ability to convince the state government agencies that we deserve the grant we got is amazing, likewise the staff that operates it, Brandon Olsen."

Delane Jackson, River Bend town manager, says that this is the largest and most important grant in the town's history. The town currently pays $125,000 per year in debt service for the existing facility. Those payments will continue until 2027. Since River Bend was awarded a grant for this project, the town will have no debt obligation on the updated facility.

"Our utility funds, both water and wastewater, are independently funded by the payment that the users pay for that service, not the tax revenues," says Kirkland.

Without the $9 million grant, the town's debt would increase to $467,210 per year for the next 30 years, which would be passed along to utility customers.

Jackson explains while this project is estimated to cost $9 million, it is really saving the town $14,016,331 because that is what it would cost us if we had to borrow the money."

River Bend's Wastewater Treatment Plant was originally built in 1978 as a 35,000 GPD plant. It was expanded once in 1982 and the treatment capacity was increased in 1985 and 1988, which makes all existing treatment units and pumps between 34 and 44 years old.

"The plant is a steel plant, and the process is quite corrosive, so they (Wastewater Treatment Plants) have a useful life, and ours is nearing the end of its useful life," says Kirkland. "This grant will allow us to replace that facility."

This project will include a multitude of enhancements to the existing facility, but it will not increase the treatment capacity. On average, River Bend currently treats 110,000 gallons per day (GPD), but the Wastewater Treatment plant has a capacity of 330,000 GPD. Some of the new equipment installed will have the capacity to treat up to 685,000 GPD, but the addition of those pieces will not increase the treatment capacity of the plant.

The rehabilitation and replacement of the plant's infrastructure will provide improved effluent quality, as well as increased service life. Since most of the plant's energy consumption comes from centrifugal blowers that provide air to the two aeration basins within the concentric ring treatment units, they will install equipment to monitor and regulate the blower speed. The installation of variable frequency drives on each blower, dissolved oxygen sensors in all aeration basins, and control logic will help the plant maintain its target Dissolved Oxygen (DO) concentration.

This improvement alone is estimated to result in a 27.25% reduction in energy use at the plant.

Additional energy savings will come from tertiary denitrification filter backwash pumps, variable frequency drives for proposed filter feed pumps, and aerobic digester blowers.

Some of the features that will be added to the facility include redundancy in their operations, which will allow the plant to continue to operate at a diminished capacity even if parts of the plant are offline.

This project also calls to relocate the River Bend Water/Wastewater Laboratory from beside the pond near Linksiders, to the northwest termination of Plantation Drive. The lab near Linksiders sits on the edge of the 100-year floodplain, but this project relocates it well outside of the 500-year floodplain.

"During hurricane Florence, our lab was flooded and unusable," said Jackson. "For a structure as important as a lab, which is used in wastewater treatment operations, it is very beneficial to have it located outside of a floodplain, if possible."

The River Bend Wastewater Treatment Plant currently serves 966 of the town's homes and businesses. The average utility customer in River Bend uses about 3,000 gallons of water per month. The current sewer charge for 3,000 gallons per customer is $52.08.

"The completion of this project alone is not anticipated to increase the sewer rate," says Jackson. "In fact, due to more energy efficient equipment and processes included in this project, the facility will become more efficient, and those operational savings could translate into reduced sewer bills."

However, other factors such as inflation, regulations, and workforce demand have the potential to change operational costs in future years, which could subsequently change the monthly utility cost for customers.

The project will not be complete until at least 2025, possibly longer. The Division of Water Infrastructure intends to fund hinges on River Bend following set milestones. The city is required to execute construction contracts by Aug. 1, 2024.