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Cities of DC, Atlanta to receive major innovative wastewater treatment facilities

May 19, 2014

PC Construction will provide its services to complete a $60-million filtrate treatment facility at the DC Water Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, D.C., as well as a $28-million water reclamation facility located in the city of Suwanee, Ga.

Pcconstruction Dcwater Blueplainsfiltratefacility

SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT, May 19, 2014 -- PC Construction, a company specializing in general contracting, construction management and design-build work, will provide its services to complete a $60-million filtrate treatment facility at the DC Water Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Washington, D.C., as well as a $28-million water reclamation facility located in the city of Suwanee, Ga.

DC Water: Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant

One of the highlights of the DC Water Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant project is the implementation of the DEMON® process, a method used to eliminate nitrogen from wastewater. Upon completion, the project will be the largest DEMON facility in the world.

DEMON, which is an acronym for Deammonification, employs specialized natural ammonia-oxidizing bacteria to metabolize and remove nitrogen from the recycle stream coming off the plant's sludge dewatering facilities. The outcome is significant energy savings -- 50 percent for nitrification, 100 percent on carbon source -- when compared to traditional nitrogen removal processes.

Construction at the new treatment plant follows an extensive pilot program to ensure environmental and cost benefits of implementing the process on this scale. Savings include reductions in energy demand by more than 70 percent and the elimination of costly supplemental chemicals used in the conventional approach.

Identified as one the best ways to reduce energy and chemicals usage in a filtration process, DEMON has been adopted by more than 20 facilities in Europe and has started to gain traction in the United States.

"Breeding Better Bugs: Is Tiny Bacterium the Next Big Thing in Nitrogen Removal?"

The DC Water Blue Plains Advanced Water Treatment Plant construction site Shakerag Water Reclamation Facility Commissioned by the Forsyth County Water and Sewer Department, construction of the Shakerag Water Reclamation Facility in Suwanee, Ga., helps the department meet its growing need for increased sewer capacity in the greater Atlanta metropolitan area. Construction of the project includes a 1.25-mgd membrane filtration facility with a packaged headworks facility; biological basins and membrane tanks; operations and membrane equipment building; chemical facility; dewatering building; finished water facility; and plant drain pump station. A key feature of the Shakerag Facility will be the advanced membrane bioreactor (MBR), designed to increase treatment performance while reducing chemical use. Similar to the technology use to purify drinking water, the MBR process puts better quality water back into the environment. Construction of the Shakerag Water Reclamation Facility is expected to be complete in 2016. See also: "Innovative membrane technology used at Georgia wastewater reclamation facility"
About PC Construction PC Construction offers general contracting, construction management and design-build services to private companies and public entities of all sizes. The company manages projects up and down the East Coast and in the southeastern United States from its corporate headquarters in South Burlington, Vt., and regional offices in Portland, Maine and North Carolina. For more information, visit www.pcconstruction.com.

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