The Regional Municipality of Durham said it is increasing the capacity of the Newcastle Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP)—the facility that receives and treats sanitary sewage for the local community.
“With all of the new residential and commercial developments planned in the near future for Newcastle, more wastewater treatment capacity at the Newcastle WPCP was needed,” says Regional Chair and CEO John Henry. “Rather than building an entirely new plant, we looked into innovative ways to upgrade the current plant, which will take less time to complete and ultimately save more of our taxpayers’ money.”
In 2014, the region completed a feasibility study that identified what would be required to increase the wastewater treatment capacity at the WPCP. The study noted that the estimated capital savings were approximately 75 per cent, when comparing upgrading the existing plant versus the construction of a new plant with the same capacity, said a region’s media statement.
The Newcastle WPCP upgrade is scheduled to begin in Spring 2022 and will involve refurbishing and/or replacing components of the WPCP to increase capacity through optimization, including sewage sludge pumps, collection mechanisms, chemical feed systems and more, it said.
Sustainability will be addressed throughout the project by using more efficient equipment including blowers and aeration system controls that will reduce power consumption of the aeration system by approximately 10 to 20 per cent, it added.