Now feeling the brunt of shipping delays recently due to a global pandemic is the City of Greenville’s Waste Water Treatment Plant.
During their regular Tuesday meeting, the city council voted unanimously for the approval of Change Order No. 1 with Hemphill Construction Co., Inc to add 129 calendar days to the project time due to issues with equipment deliveries under the Comprehensive Sanitary Sewer Improvements Project, Contract No. 6 — Waste Water Treatment Plant Effluent Pump Station.
One of the Waste Water Treatment Plant project’s consulting engineers, Darrel Martinek of W.L. Burle Engineers, P.A., informed the council of some of the issues that have somewhat impeded their progress in restoring the plant to full functionality.
Almost a year ago, engineers projected the plant to be up and operational by May 2021.
Since then, however, inclement weather, material shortages and other unforeseen circumstances have occurred.
Martinek said of the project, “We’re replacing two effluent pump stations and the deliveries of materials have gotten out of wack. We gave them a long contract time because we knew the delivery on the effluent pumps is usually around 18 weeks and they hadn’t even shipped yet,” noting the pumps are scheduled to be shipped from Cascade Pump Company of Santa Fe Springs, California.
Ward 3 Councilman Vernon Greenlee asked Martinek if he had an idea as to when the project would be complete.
Martinek cited excess groundwater around the clarifiers as one of the central reasons why progress has been stalled.
As of Tuesday, the groundwater was measured at 117.
“It has to be at 116 to clean the clarifiers,” Martinek said. “One remains to be cleaned and then we have to start fixing it and that’s clarifier #3. With clarifier #4, we know what needs to be repaired, but we’ve got to drain it, clean it out, and once the water pumps through it, we’ve got to start making those repairs.”
“The clarifiers are 95 feet in diameter and they only have a 6 inch thick slab and if we were to drain them and the groundwater is above the bottom, it would crack the slab and then you’d have to rebuild them.”
Martinek told the council he believes the excess groundwater is due to the river being so high for so long.
He pointed out that adjacent to the Waste Water Treatment Plant, is a “slew” that drains under the highway and causes the groundwater to accumulate.
“The Drainage Commission has been out there at least twice killing beavers and removing beaver dams because we noticed when we got a rain, the groundwater jumped up even though the river hadn’t,” Martinek explained. “It jumped up overnight, but the Drainage Commission has been working with us trying to keep the beavers out so it’s not adversely affecting the water.”
Martinek said the aim is still to have the plant’s grit channel and grit equipment operational by September if everything shows up like they anticipate.
“That’ll really help,” he said. “Once we have the grit system operational, then the water comes into the plant and gets the grit out before it gets to the clarifiers and that’s been the issue — the city’s plant hadn’t had an operational grit system in 20 years.”
In response to Councilwoman Tasha Banks’ inquiry with respect to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrative Order, Martinek said updates are being provided as they go along and consulting engineer William Burle has been submitting the necessary reports.
