With the growth of Warren County and the aging plant’s reliability, Bowling Green Municipal Utilities (BGMU) proactively searched for options for long-term resiliency and reliability for their existing water treatment plant (WTP). SSR worked hand in hand with BGMU over the past several years to guide them through design of an expansion to the water treatment plant. Initially, SSR assisted BGMU with replacement of the existing gaseous chlorination system with an alternative disinfection system. After an extensive evaluation of potential alternatives, SSR recommended, and agreed with BGMU and WCWD, that onsite generation of mixed oxidants was the most advantageous alternative for their water systems. We phased this conversion to help minimize disruption to the existing plant and to help operators become comfortable with the new equipment. Phase one brought a bulk sodium hypochlorite system online to provide continuous disinfection so the former gaseous chlorine equipment could be demolished. Phase two included the conversion to onsite generation of mixed oxidant solution, taking over as the primary disinfection. The former bulk sodium hypochlorite system used in phase one now acts as an emergency backup only.

Upon completion of this project, SSR assisted BGMU with evaluating options for additional treatment capacity at the plant. Ultimately, they decided to increase capacity to 45 MGD using similar conventional treatment processes already at the plant. During this initial effort, SSR conducted several meetings with Water Recovery Facility (WRF) leaders and WTP staff to assist with designing a new reclamation basin at the WTP site. This basin was designed specifically for creating intermittent flow to the WRF to help reduce the impacts of the sludge. Based on feedback from operators, NPDES emergency discharge is available with this basin and flexibility was given to add dedicated pumps for the WTP Sludge to be able to pump directly to the WRF in the future. 

In addition to the WTP expansion design, SSR performed extensive hydraulic modeling on the raw water pumping system as there were no two like pumps in either of the two raw water pump stations. Modifications to the existing raw water pump station included the relocation of an existing pump used for cleaning the traveling screen and modifications to the existing traveling screen discharge chute to improve discharge and maintenance for the BGMU staff.