Center Township Sanitary Authority (Beaver County, Pennsylvania) has completed an upgrade to the headworks facilities at their existing Elkhorn Run Sewage Treatment Plant. LSSE provided design and permitting services for the installation of a new mechanically cleaned bar screen and site improvements at the existing CTSA sewage treatment plant.
The existing Elkhorn Run headworks facilities consisted of an aged and ineffective comminutor originally designed to macerate solid and fibrous materials in the influent waste stream. With the recent increased popularity of “flushable” wipes and cleaning products it has become increasingly obvious that simply grinding or shredding these materials is not sufficient to protect downstream sewage facilities and process equipment. The shredded materials often “bulk” back together and create maintenance headaches for plant operators including clogging pumps and pipes and accumulating around process piping/equipment.
LSSE designed a new concrete influent headworks channel upstream of the existing influent channel to house the 1⁄4” opening screen. The self-cleaning mechanical screen specified removes solid materials and rags from the waste stream to protect expensive downstream process equipment. Mechanical rakes clean the screen and transport the removed items to a mechanical washer/compactor where they are rinsed, dewatered, compacted, and deposited in a dumpster for economic removal with minimal operator effort. The overall design concept also included an emergency screen bypass pipe that re-used the existing bypass bar screen.
In addition to the headworks improvements, LSSE also coordinated with the Operations Supervisor, Robert “Judge” Martini, to incorporate the design of site grading, paving and access improvements as part of the construction project to facilitate installation of the new screen channel and provide improved site access and mobility for plant operations.
