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 Refer to our
Corporate Web Site for a list of upcoming events.
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Client/Assignment:
Penn State University (PSU)/
Water Treatment Facility
Land Treatment Area (LTA) Management Plan
(State College, PA)
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Technical Components:
Irrigation
Land application
Wastewater reuse
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Overview:
The PSU Wastewater Treatment
Facility treats an average flow of 2.4 mgd to secondary
standards and discharges the treated effluent to an LTA. Our firm evaluated the LTA
in order to compile existing data, knowledge and opinions into one
concise document. This information is being used to improve
performance and provide more resilient wastewater management as
the University grows.
LTA Benefits:
- Enables effluent discharge
- Recharges water table
- Provides PSU with valuable agricultural and forest land
- Serves as a recreational resource for outdoor
enthusiasts
- Reflects nutrient reduction growth management strategy.
Special Accolades:
- Oldest (est. 1963) and largest (518 acres) domestic
wastewater spray application area in U.S.
- One of the most extensively investigated domestic
wastewater spray application areas in U.S.
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Water Resources
ASCE President-Elect
New Jersey
A Water/Wastewater Project Manager in our South Plainfield,
NJ, office, Teresa Peterson, PE, was named president-elect of the ASCE,
Northern New Jersey Branch. Teresa serves as chief editor
of the Branch’s monthly newsletter, facilitates communication
among its 1,800 members and represents the organization at
regional and national conferences.
AWWA Past-President
National
 Former
Director Walter Morris recently received an award for 50 years
of AWWA membership. Walt and Marlay Price
are both past national presidents of the AWWA, giving our firm
the rare distinction of employing two people who have held this
prestigious title.
Sewage Enforcement
Pennsylvania
A senior geologist with more than 20 years of experience based
in our Harrisburg headquarters, Mark Jones, PG, successfully
completed the Sewage Enforcement Officer (SEO) Certification
Program. In order to obtain his SEO, Mark attended the SEO
Precertification Academy administered by the Pennsylvania State
Association of Township Supervisors for the PADEP.
Water Resource Program Manager
Florida
 Michael G. Cox, P.E., PP, recently joined our firm as the
West Palm Beach, FL, Water Resources Program Manager responsible
for directing the planning and management of river basin, water
resources and land-related infrastructure and environmental
projects. . .
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 Technology
Corner:
"Collecting The Drops: A Water Sustainability Planner"
objective:
Provide a web-based, interactive water
sustainability tool where
facility users can assess water balance, impacts, opportunities,
risks and use. Modules within this site analyze water
supply adequacy and quality while evaluating a facility's local
impact.
risk
assessment:
Users will be able to conduct a water risk assessment and
provide case examples of Global Environmental Management
Initiative (GEMI) member company techniques. Combined with
engineering estimates and tools, this information provides users
with an overall, unit-specific risk assessment.
additional benefits:
- Access from any location.
- Communicate water resource management through community
involvement.
GEMI saga:
The GEMI has created tools and provided strategies to help leading companies foster
global environmental sustainability, promote health & safety excellence, and
achieve economic success for 17 years.
for more information:
Surf
GEMI's Water Planner Tool. |
Mission Statement:
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"To provide timely
industry news and information while sharing related Gannett
Fleming activities." |
Notes:
*
This site is best
viewed in IE or Netscape 6.0 or higher at 1024x768 resolution. *Click
here for site disclaimer.
How do I subscribe or
unsubscribe?
To start receiving your FREE subscription to
"Environmentally Speaking", please send an e-mail to environmental@gfnet.com
and include your name, address and telephone number in the body of your
message. Your
information will remain STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL.
To stop receiving "Environmentally
Speaking", just send an e-mail to the same address with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject field of your
message.
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Gannett Fleming Unveils GEMI's Latest
Water Sustainability Tool
"Collecting the Drops: A Water Sustainability Planner" was developed
by our firm and the Global Environmental Management Initiative (GEMI) to guide
facility users through assessing water use and impacts from
operations, performing water balance assessments and evaluating potential risks
and opportunities. The interactive planner enables users to
access the tool regardless of location.
This dynamic tool is further highlighted in our
Technology Corner.
Nutrient Reduction:
Managing Growth Strategies
Numerous wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) will
undertake facility upgrades which incorporate nutrient reduction in their
treatment trains considering new discharge permit cap load requirements (see our
April
edition). Consequently, there are various permit compliance strategies to provide for future
growth.
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Nutrient Cap Management
Strategies:
Nutrient credit trading
Use of reclaimed water
Land application of
effluent
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This places an additional level of
responsibility on existing plant managers, who must
accommodate growth while maintaining compliance with an
increasingly challenging nutrient limit. |
These include nutrient trading,
seasonal land application of effluent with agronomic nutrient
uptake and wastewater reuse applications.
When the cap load is established, it will remain in
effect unless the strategy is amended. Therefore, future community
growth must be included within the existing nutrient cap.
Our firm is working with stakeholders to develop
compliance strategies. In addition to policy formation, our efforts
include innovative
techniques (see our Spotlight
Project) to advanced treatment (such
as nitrogen or phosphorus removal).
Technology Profile
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^
Our firm designed the New Hanover oxidation ditch activated sludge WWTP.
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The Township of New Hanover, PA, utilizes an anaerobic selector ahead of
oxidation ditches for enhanced biological phosphorus removal at its 0.83 MGD
WWTP. This process further promotes improved activated sludge
settleability.
Contact Wastewater Project Manager,
Ron Jager, PE, [
bio
] for more strategy information or details regarding either the New Hanover or
Penn State assignments.
Green Design Innovation
|
Withdrawing water from the Lehigh River and
Spring Mill Reservoir, the facility is the nation's first LEED®-certified WTP.
It pumps water to more than 14,500 customers throughout
Pennsylvania's Northampton and Lehigh counties. |
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Included among its many sustainable features, the 8
MGD Northampton Water Treatment Plant (WTP) was constructed using slag concrete.
This includes a mixture of cement and recycled slag (a recycled byproduct from
steelmaking).
The building's super-structure envelope was also
computer modeled prior to design to ensure energy efficiency, resulting in lower
heating and cooling costs. The plant substructure extends three stories
underground to maximize natural insulation.
As reported in
June, our firm
designed this $18.6 million facility. Contact Design Manager,
Bill
Allis, PE, for more information.
Property Redevelopment:
Risk Management
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Environmental risks
from contamination (soil, groundwater or air) do not just derive from
concentration (eg, parts per billion).
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Redevelopment project stakeholders
have recognized the frustrations of strictly "quantifying"
environmental contamination risks for years. Fortunately, voluntary cleanup programs (VCPs) developed in the mid to late '90s
facilitated the shift to risk-based rather than standards (numbers)-based
cleanups in most states.
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The
collective knowledge gained by the environmental and property development
industries over the past 10 years has dramatically improved the assessment of
environmental risks.
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Municipalities
can now proactively utilize VCPs to fully consider land use and other
contributing risk factors. This is critical to evaluating redevelopment
opportunities on environmentally distressed properties.
See our papers/presentations section
for more information from Midwest Project Manager,
Darrell Oman ).
Elements of Successful Construction Projects:
A Consultant's Point of View
While construction project delivery systems such as traditional
Design-Bid-Build and Construction Management At Risk are continuing
to evolve and change, the factors which enable a project to be successful remain
the same.
Anyone ever involved in construction would agree that a
successful project is:
-
completed on time,
-
stays within budget
-
meets the Owner's needs.
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Each of these
criteria must be considered early in the development process, receive devoted
resources and be properly administered throughout the course of an assignment.
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Construction Manager,
Dave Weiss,
PE, elaborated on how these elements are critical to achieving project success
in his related AWWA National Conference paper presented last month.
Dave's article examined the
building blocks of project success, ranging from documents,
design, schedule and budgeting, to necessary stakeholder criteria.
It also examined issues that will play a role in future
projects.
Property Redevelopment:
Land Use Drives Environmental Action
Today's seemingly tangled web of
environmental liability laws can significantly impede urban
redevelopment opportunities. However, by employing a risk management strategy which
considers exposure and, most importantly, land use, municipal redevelopment
authorities can dramatically
enable progress.
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Benzene (a common marker constituent for petroleum-based contamination sites),
for example, has a cleanup action level of five parts per billion in groundwater.
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Darrell Oman's articles on this subject describe
how throughout the 1980s and early '90s many state and
federal agencies prescribed cleanup action levels in terms of a specific,
table-based number. These cleanup action levels frequently drove the
remediation process without regard to cost, schedule or current and future land
use potential.
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"...
in one development project a municipal redevelopment authority broadly analyzed all
of the real or potential risks and developed best case/worse case scenarios to evaluate
all legal, financial and environmental liability ramifications."
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Even though redevelopment
authorities can benefit from a risk-based approach and
regulatory process, just focusing on
environmental contaminants does not minimize all potential
project risks. Issues like wetlands, storm water,
environmental media impacts
from commercial or industrial operations, biodiversity settings
or archeological artifacts must all be considered.
Contact Midwest
Project Manager,
Darrell Oman, for more information.
» Construction
Management Association of America
» Global
Environment Management Initiative (GEMI)
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Department of Community and Economic Development
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Nutrient Management Program
» USEPA
Region 5 -
Brownfields
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