The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST) has invested $547.1 million – the largest single-round investment in its history – to replace lead service lines, rehabilitate aging systems, upgrade treatment and service capabilities and mitigate contaminants across the state.
The funding will be distributed across 23 counties, funding 30 water-centric projects in total. A selection of the projects receiving financial support include:
The Lancaster Area Sewer Authority received the largest single award – $160 million – to upgrade the Blue Rock Water Resource Recovery Facility (BRWRRF). The project will prioritize building a second aeration tank, an electrical building, a fourth final clarifier and a waste-activated sludge-thickening facility. Additional work will include constructing a trucked waste receiving facility, a trucked waste administration building, two holding tanks and submersible chopper pumps.
Additional construction work scheduled for the BRWRRF improvement project will include screening equipment, force main discharge piping, an enclosure for the receiving area and updated electric, potable and utility water infrastructure. The authority also plans to replace the existing chemical storage building, pumping station, mechanisms of primary clarifiers 1 and 2 and the gravity thickener. The project vision calls for modifying the existing aeration tank, converting a train of the tank into a side stream treatment system, performing site work, upgrading the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system and installing yard piping.
The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority will receive a total of $77.8 million across two projects to replace lead service lines and water mains. The lion’s share of the funding will empower the authority to replace more than 58,000 feet of 4- to 16-inch diameter pipes with zinc-coated ductile iron pipes. The remaining award will facilitate the replacement of 562 public and 482 private lead service lines.
Pennsylvania American Water Company will spend a combined total of approximately $54 million across two projects to enhance water treatment infrastructure and mitigate environmental contaminants. The company will use $28.5 million from the awards to improve the filters at the Butler Water Treatment Plant. The project will include demolishing three Aldrich purification units, building a treatment building and concrete tank structure, and installing three 6 million-gallons-per-day (mgd) ballasted flocculation and sedimentation trains.
Additional improvements for the treatment plant will include the installation of four 4 mgd dual-media gravity filtration units with air scour capability. The vision calls for rerouting process piping and chemical feed lines, modifying the electri9cal and control systems and increasing the plant’s capacity to 12 mgd.
The remaining $25.5 million will be used to improve the Berwick water treatment plant’s per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) remediation and treatment capabilities. Plans call for building a treatment plant next to the existing facility. The new building will include a buried clear well, wet well and granular-activated carbon pressure filters. Additional equipment will include:
- Disinfection and corrosion control systems.
- A sodium hypochlorite disinfection system.
- A pipeline to transfer raw water from the existing wells to the new plant.
- A finished water transmission main to convey water from the plant to the existing distribution system.
The city of Philadelphia will receive $47.7 million to build an 8,500-square-foot pump station. The station will be able to handle a 21 mgd capacity, featuring six pumps, redundant feed systems, a standby generator and on-site stormwater management. The city will also upgrade the existing Belmont station with replacement pumps and interior modifications.
The Western Berks Water Authority will spend $41 million to improve its water treatment plant. The authority will build four dual-media gravity filters with 2.67 mgd capacity each, a 1-million-gallon baffled clear well and a service pump station. Additional work will cover the installation of a 54,000-gallon backwash waste equalization tank, a polymer feed system and site modifications to improve chemical handling access, deliveries and containment.
The plans will receive several chemical system improvements, including new fluoride and ammonium sulfate chemical rooms with 1,500- and 4,500-gallon bulk storage tanks, enhanced day tanks and feed pumps and a newly installed sulfuric acid feed system. The plant’s SCADA systems will also be upgraded.
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