Muscle Shoals Wastewater Treatment Plant

Muscle Shoals Utilities Board
Colbert County, Alabama

Robert Pride and Craig Swinney lead preliminary, design, and construction administration efforts on a major upgrade to the Muscle Shoals Wastewater Treatment Plant. The project was completed to both return the plant to compliance with its NPDES Discharge Permit and to provide an additional 2 mgd of capacity for future growth. Major components of the project included:

• New influent metering.
• Modifications to the existing headworks that included new blowers, enhancing provisions for grease removal, improved hydraulic capacity, and flow splitting.
• Construction of 2 new aeration basins designed for BOD reduction and nitrification with provision for the future addition of total nitrogen removal and/or biological phosphorus removal.
• Conversion of the existing Schreiber aeration basin to a completely mixed, diffused aeration basin.
• Modifications to the existing final clarifiers including effluent trough covers and improved scum removal.
• A new RAS/WAS pumping station with RAS and WAS metering.
• A new Blower Building utilizing multistage centrifugal blowers for the aeration processes.
• Chlorination/de-chorination process with liquid hypochlorite and sodium bisulfate.
• A new chlorine contact basin with effluent re-aeration and flow metering.
• Complete electrical upgrades including standby power and a new in-plant SCADA system.
• Renovations to the plant’s existing administrative facilities.

The project was completed below the original contract bid amount and in accordance with the State’s mandated Consent Order Schedule. The subsequent Phase II improvements included improvements to the plant’s solids handling facilities with a new sludge pump station, polymer feed system, and a dewatering centrifuge.