PERFORMANCE PROFILE,
O’Fallon, Missouri
1: INITIAL OPERATIONS CHALLENGES
1: Initial Operations Challenges
Effectively
manage the business and technical challenges associated
with successive expansions, and reliably provide state-of-the-art
water and wastewater treatment services to one of the fastest
growing communities in the state. - Help the City navigate the complexities of moving from a patchwork system (which utilized more than 20 small mechanical plants spread throughout the 72-square-mile service area) to a centralized treatment facility.
- Assist the City in planning a conversion from lagoon storage of biosolids to a state-of-the-art treatment facility.
- Provide potable water treatment and excellent customer service during rapid increases in system demand and complexity.
- Develop and implement a comprehensive pretreatment program for the continually expanding industrial and commercial enterprises flocking into the O’Fallon service area.
Alliance Water Resources provides complete system operations and maintenance for sewer facilities serving the City of O’Fallon and a substantial unincorporated adjacent area. Alliance has provided comprehensive management services for the overall O’Fallon system since 1983. During this time the population served has grown from 9,000 to more than 60,000.
Alliance was responsible for operation and maintenance of the City’s three secondary treatment plants, eight waste stabilization ponds, 11 pumping stations, and the entire sewer collection system until their removal from service in the spring of 1984. At that time Alliance initiated start-up and operation of a new 5.5 mgd Activated Biofilter Treatment facility, which replaced all existing treatment facilities. The ABF facility represents state-of-the-art primary and secondary treatment technologies. The plant was expanded in 1993 to a capacity of 7.5 mgd and again in 2003 to 10.0 mgd. More recently, the plant has upgraded to UV light disinfection from chlorine.
Alliance is also responsible for operation and maintenance of the City’s potable water system. The original system consisted of deep wells with ion exchange softening and a distribution system with elevated storage. Construction of a new 6.0 mgd R.O. (reverse osmosis) membrane water plant is complete, which reduces demand on the existing wells.
Alliance’s comprehensive management services also include computer billing and customer collection services. In addition, the company provides inspection, evaluation, and repair services for the 235-mile wastewater collection system, and oversees the development of pretreatment permits and discharge criteria, plant surveys and inspections, routine monitoring, and data evaluation.
As part of O’Fallon’s progressive ongoing approach to wastewater treatment, Alliance also oversees operations and maintenance of a new Class A biosolids manufacturing facility which came on line in August 2001 and is among the first of its kind in the nation. This innovative facility converts 34,000 pounds/day of biosolids into a fertilizer supplement of such high quality that it is registered and approved for use on parks, golf courses, and home gardens.
- Alliance has worked closely with the City to cost-effectively operate, maintain, and steadily expand state-of-the-art water and wastewater systems which have made possible more than 20 years of phenomenal business and residential growth.
- Just five years after it was built in 1984, O’Fallon’s new 5.5 mgd plant had reached 75 percent of its capacity. A flow equalization basin constructed to Alliance’s specifications allowed the operations team to divert and store peak flows, then treat the excess during low flow periods. This Alliance program produced very substantial cost savings by allowing the City to delay major plant expansions until 1993 and 2003.
- Alliance developed and implemented an extensive industrial pretreatment program approved by the U.S. EPA and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. In addition to providing regulatory guidelines for all connected industries, the program is helpful to businesses that are investigating O’Fallon as a potential location.
- The plant received the Missouri Water Environment Association’s Treatment Plant of the Year award (in the large facility category) for 1996.
- Customers were experiencing low water pressure in a particular section of town. Alliance responded by installing two booster stations to relieve customer complaints until planned system improvements can be completed by the City.
- An infiltration and inflow (I&I) investigation was performed in response to localized home flooding during rain events. The problem infiltration point was located and resolved, but the study revealed large areas that should also be investigated. Alliance worked with the city to form an in-house, Alliance-operated I&I department.
- Touch read water meters have been upgraded to radio read. This new technology will streamline meter readings and billing processes.
- Alliance implements the required Phase II Storm Water program for the City.
- Alliance designed and installed a booster station for the City, saving them approximately $30,000 over the cost of an additional contractor.
- When a lift station became fully filled with water, Alliance staff rebuilt and repaired it within 48 hours. Having expertise in-house to make the repair saved the City more than $100,000.