Saline Council Updated on Wastewater Treatment Plant Progress

Tetra Tech’s Sr. Vice President Brian Rubel speaks at the Aug 18 Saline City Council meeting

Saline City Council was presented progress updates on the construction of the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) by Brian Rubel, Sr. Vice President from Tetra Tech, the company awarded the contract by council. According to Rubel, construction is primarily following the initially proposed timeline.

“The aeration systems are scheduled in December, into January, and that would include also the primary clarifier, so aeration and the secondary clarifier, and then the primary clarifier is right behind that,” he said.

Rubel also addressed concerns about potential odors that have been raised by some citizens, stating that while the odor control mechanization has been delayed, it is scheduled to be finished by the end of September. This will be a few weeks after the construction of the headworks building, which will be able to process wastewater. However, due to the design of the building, the air turnover will deplete many odorous effects, according to Rubel.

“It’s not like you’re going to get these lofting orders,” he said. “I mean, it’s going to pretty much keep everything circulated. So, you’re probably not going to get as strong an odor as you might think.”

Councilmember Harmount also asked about the WWTP’s ability to handle wet weather events such as heavy rain, including mentioning that the storage tank had an increased capacity from 1.3 million gallons to 2 million gallons.

“The biggest thing that will help with wet weather treatment will be the storage tank, because now we have a place to store the peak as the rain comes, and then we will de-water it slowly back to the treatment plant afterwards, where there’s plenty of capacity there,” Rubel said. “That’s a huge improvement to the process.”

Rubel expressed intent to keep Saline City Council regularly updated as the WWTP construction continues.