The City of Murfreesboro is located in southeastern Middle Tennessee approximately 30 miles outside of Nashville. The city was established almost 200 years ago as an agricultural community that specialized in harvesting corn, cotton, and tobacco.  Since then the economy of Murfreesboro has shifted to rely on a more stable industrial and manufacturing core.  In addition, the city is home to Middle Tennessee State University and was recently named the “Most Livable Town in Tennessee.” These factors along with many others have made Murfreesboro the fastest growing city in the state of Tennessee.

Due to its many accolades, the exponential growth of the region has put a strain on the city’s infrastructure and forced the Murfreesboro Water Resource Reclamation Facility to undergo a multi-phase expansion and upgrade. Upon completion, the expanded plant will enable the city to maintain its socioeconomic position and forecasted growth until 2035. The most recent part of the expansion, Phase 4D, is scheduled for completion in early 2018. This phase included the addition of a third oxidation ditch for nitrification/denitrification and biological treatment, a new headworks building, two 145-foot diameter final clarifiers, five deep bed sand filters, ultraviolet disinfection and post-aeration upgrades. The plant has an influent raw water pump station capacity of 52.0 MGD. The plant is designed to treat medium strength waste and produce an effluent that will meet tertiary treatment standards. The plant is monitored by a computer system with programmable logic controls at all treatment processes.

SSR was responsible for providing the preliminary engineering report, hydraulic modeling, detailed design, and construction phase services. Prior to Phase 4D, SSR also provided services at the facility associated with expanding biosolids handling facilities, variable frequency drives for energy savings, and process control. The facility was also upgraded with additional pumping, storage, and bulk hypochlorite chlorination facilities to support the Murfreesboro Water Resources Department’s initiative to begin distributing reclaimed water to the City of Murfreesboro.

SSR designed one of the first reclaimed water systems in Tennessee for the Murfreesboro Water Resources Department (MWRD). The initial system utilized bulk bleach for secondary disinfection, however based on the success of the WTP’s OSG system, the Department assumed OSG would also be beneficial on the reclaimed water. SSR’s analysis of the economics indicated that the highly variable demands on the reclaimed system would not allow a favorable return on MWRD’s investment, and instead recommended an upgraded bulk bleach system. That is the system currently being installed.

SSR is well versed in the intricate requirements of completing study, design and construction phase services in accordance with the strict requirements of projects tied to Federal Funds. The last two major expansions of this facility were accomplished using State Revolving Loan Funds (SRF). In addition, Phase 4D is funded by the largest SRF Loan in state history.