April 21, 2015 -- The existing water treatment plant (WTP) in the town of Bargersville, Ind., was operating at 90 percent above its capacity, producing low-quality treated water and resulting in frequent equipment breakdowns. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) had sent a warning to the town that if measures were not taken soon, IDEM would issue a connection ban, thereby limiting any new connections to the existing WTP. This could have had disastrous impacts for Bargersville, as it would have greatly affected growth (industrial and population) throughout the WTP area, resulting in negative economic impact to the town and its residents.
Expanding the existing WTP would have helped solve the problem; however, the surrounding terrain would not permit such an expansion. With the WTP situated in a well-developed area with a distribution system dating back to the 1970s and its existing well field surrounded by gravel mining operations, expansion simply was not an option. Therefore, Bargersville hired Strand Associates Inc. to design and assist in construction of a new WTP. Located in Waverly, Ind., the new 6 million-gallons-per-day WTP includes three groundwater wells, four high service pumps, a raw water main, and two 1-million-gallon, glass-lined clear wells for finished water storage.
While the design could have used traditional methods, Strand opted to use sustainable and innovative techniques to promote a greener plant. For instance, instead of using traditional lime softening or ion exchange processes, Strand used the less common option of fluidized bed reactor. With lime softening, limewater is added to remove ions that facilitate hardness (i.e., calcium and magnesium) by precipitation. The problem with this method is the high volume of resulting sludge and high overall expense. Another option, ion exchange, softens the water by introducing sodium ions to replace calcium and magnesium ions. This method reduces water hardness but increases the water's sodium content and its wastewater byproduct requires additional treatment prior to discharge to a body of water.