By Scott Harvey
Greenville – The City of Greenville this Friday is scheduled to break ground on its new wastewater treatment plant, the largest construction project in the City's history.
A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for Friday, July 2, 2010, at 9 a.m. at the facility, located at 100 Division Street, just East of Interstate 30.
Gracon Construction of Mesquite, Texas will soon begin the two year, $20,484,070 construction of the new Sequencing Batch Reactor Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The existing plant was built in 1953, expanded 10 years later, and received its last upgrade in 1980. The processing equipment is more than 30 years old. Plans call for the expansion from the current treatment capacity of 4.23 million gallons per day (annual average) to 6 million gallons per day (annual average.
The project includes the construction of a 6.0 Million Gallon per Day (MGD) wastewater treatment plant on the site of the existing Wastewater Reclamation Center. Improvements include a new headworks with fine screens and lift station, septic receiving station, Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) Treatment Plant, effluent equalization basin, Ultra Violet (UV) Disinfection Facility, sludge holding and dewatering facility, connections to existing improvements, demolition work, and associated piping, site work, electrical and instrumentation. Plans do not include remodeling any of the offices at this time.
The City of Greenville was approved for a 30 year, $20 million, zero interest loan through the Texas Water Development Board. The City will fund $225,000 for additional testing and subsequent necessary remediation of the site.