Orange County WCID No. 1 Wastewater Treatment Plant

Innovation. The new wastewater treatment plant for Orange County presented a number of unique challenges that required the design team to devise cost-saving and efficient solutions. The entire site was low and had to be raised seven feet with fill before the project could even begin. The discharge permit required the flow in the receiving stream to be forced in a pre-determined direction. To address this, we enlarged the culverts in the receiving stream and designed a weir structure to force the flow in the correct direction. Although the site configuration was hampered by keeping the old plants operational during construction, the design team used the available site footprint to create an efficient layout that serviced all needs of the plant and its personnel.

The project scope included replacement of multiple existing plants that were deficient in capacity and in need of structural and equipment upgrades with one new 3.0 MGD wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), consolidating all of the District’s treatment capacity into one plant. The existing plants were kept in service during construction, dictating that the design of the new plant be within a narrow site footprint. The main treatment unit in the plant is an Aeromod system which provides treatment with equipment that has no moving parts below the water and uses non-corroding materials. From a long term maintenance perspective, this extends the life of the main treatment unit of the plant far beyond what one might expect with conventional WWTPs. The new, singular plant is keeping the District in compliance with TCEQ effluent requirements, thus preventing fines and citations going forward.

For more information regarding this project, please contact Toby Davis at tdavis@lja.com.

Division

Public Works

Services

Planning

Design

Bidding

Construction Phase