Byrdstown completed a $3.8 million water treatment project featuring new sediment basins and flocculation chambers to improve water quality and operational efficiency.
Water Plant Superintendent Buster Harmon said the town finishing up the final paperwork to close out the project. Harmon said it focused on enhancing the pretreatment process to remove solids before water reaches the internal filtration system.
“It’s already helping us by lowering our chemicals. We don’t have to use as much chemicals as we did in the past,” Harmon said. “It’s also going to make the water quality better because we’re doing a hour long treatment outside of the plant before it gets into our filters.”
Harmon said the town currently operates at about 50 percent of its filtration capacity but expects to reach the 80 percent threshold required for state-mandated upgrades within the next two years. The existing micro-membrane filter system is housed on skids, which allows for relatively quick installation of new units.
“When you get 20 years, 25 years on equipment it starts breaking down. Sometimes it’s more economical to buy a new system outright than it is keep trying to keep an old system up and running,” Harmon said.
Harmon said the upgrades are necessary to keep pace with ongoing residential and economic growth throughout Byrdstown and Pickett County.
Harmon said the flocculation chambers utilize mixing wheels that slow down to cause mud and particles to clump together into heavier solids. This material, known as floc, settles before moving into a second phase involving sedimentation tubes.
“We’re pushing water uphill in those sedimentation tubes and all the heavier solids will settle out in that, and you got your clear water that comes to the top,” Harmon said. “It’s just going to help in the pretreatment of the water before it gets into our filters and eventually we’re going to have to upgrade our filters in the plant here.”
Harmon said the town coordinated closely with contractors to prevent service disruptions during the construction period. This planning included staff working longer night shifts to allow the construction crews to perform necessary work during the day.
“They let me know when they was going to have to have a disruption somewhere and we planned for that,” Harmon said. “We worked well with our contractors and they worked well with us.”