Wastewater Treatment Plant

Washington Township, Michigan

The Charter Township of Washington is generally serviced by a wastewater collection system that connects into the Macomb County Wastewater Disposal District (MCWDD) and eventually discharges to the Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) operated by the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA). Washington Township is the northern most community that is connected to this system and had a large majority of the Township unable to connect at all due to the significant distance away from the system and/or capacity constraints within the existing system. As part of the overall capital improvement plan and because many businesses and residents expressed the need for public sanitary sewer to expand their current businesses, the Township established a new sanitary district and constructed a wastewater treatment plant that would be able to service more of the Township.

The project included a new operations and screening building, equalization, treatment, and sludge tanks, along with an influent pump station. The treatment is performed with membrane biological reactors in an uncovered treatment tank. Work included a thorough NPDES permitting process including creation of a detailed anti-degradation statement to allow discharge into the nearby Healy Brook Drain. The logistics of starting up a new treatment plant without any customers posed an additional challenge to the project, requiring a phased start-up and simultaneous construction of trunk line sewer to facilitate existing development to connect to the plant and provide the necessary flow to continuously run the plant.