The design of the upgrade of the Brookfield Waste Water Treatment Plant in Masury is about 60 percent complete, and county officials have advertised for proposals for firms who want to manage the construction phase of the project.
The upgrade will replace some of the processes that are now considered outdated. The chlorine disinfection system that cleanses water will be replaced by an ultraviolet light system; the swirl concentrator, a bypass system that partially treats excess water when severe storms dump lots of rainwater that gets into the sanitary sewer system, will be removed and replaced by a 2.4-million-gallon detention basin; and a pump station will be built on-site.
The upgrades will not affect the plant’s capacity of treating 1.3 million gallons a day or taking in 4.6 million gallons a day during heavy rains.
The plant is at the northern end of Hubbard-Masury Road, by the cloverleaf for Routes 62 and 82. It was built in 1962 and upgraded in 1988.
promoArcadis U.S. Inc. was hired to design the upgrades, its contract lasting through the preparation of construction bid documents. The company is eligible to submit a proposal to manage construction, said Scott Verner, special projects director and chief design engineer for the Trumbull County Sanitary Engineer.
“It’s been going very well,” Verner said. “The consultant’s been doing a good job.”
Consultants who want to manage construction have until May 22 to tender proposals and the engineer’s office will grade the proposals and submit three to the county commissioners, who will chose one, Verner said. The engineer’s office negotiates a contract with the chosen consultant.
The engineer’s office also is preparing a Permit to Install application to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. This permit is required of all sanitary sewer or water project upgrades or new construction, Verner said.
It is expected that construction bids will be solicited toward the end of the year and construction will commence in 2021, he said.
The most pressing item is to replace the swirl concentrator by June 30, 2021.
On Feb. 25, Brookfield Trustee Gary Lees talked of wanting to convene a meeting with local, county and state officials and representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to address his concerns about the potential for flooding at the plant.
The plant was flooded in 2003, and Lees said at a meeting in 2004 officials discussed building a dike or a rim levy to try to keep flood waters from reaching the plant, which discharges treated water into Yankee Creek.
“I’m trying to protect the sewer plant,” Lees said.
Verner said on April 20 that he had not been approached about such a meeting. The 2003 flood was the result of a “once in a 100-year, 500-year storm” and while he can’t guarantee that such a storm will not occur again, “There’s really no provisions that we can put in place to protect the plant.”
The plant serves about 3,600 homes and businesses in Brookfield and Masury, and a small portion of Hubbard Township. Sewer customers will see a rate hike to at some point to pay off the low-interest loan that will fund the estimated $17 million project.