The Village of Albion owns and operates an extended aeration active sludge Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP). NYSDEC instituted new effluent disinfection requirements as part of the Villages revised SPDES permit, which was the primary project driver as the plant did not have a disinfection system.

Wendel was retained to select and design a new disinfection system to assist Village Officials with making informed implementation decisions based on equipment performance, efficiency, ease of operation and accessibility as well as energy, operation and maintenance costs. Wendel’s integrated capital and energy approach, experience leveraging energy efficiency programs and expertise with grant funding sources like the Water Quality Improvement Project (WQIP) program set them apart.

An invaluable first step was leveraging available grants. The NYSERDA Flex Tech program provided a 50% cost matching grant for preliminary engineering. The team looked holistically at the plant to identify auxiliary equipment that needed upgrading in addition to the disinfection system to provide a fully functioning process while maximizing grant funding.

Ultraviolet (UV) disinfection was identified as the optimal disinfection system. The basis of design was modular High Wattage – Medium Pressure (HW-MP) UV banks with automatic dose pacing controls. With higher UV output and variable lamp control, fewer lamps were required and less man-hours needed for future maintenance and replacement. The UV system is capable of treating Peak Hour Flows of 4 MGD and Average Daily Flows of 2 MGD.

The Village also received a $600,000 grant from the WQIP program. Construction was awarded Nov 2019 with final completion anticipated July 2020. The project was started up and commissioned in May 2020.