City of Durango Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility

Designing a Plant That Meets Demands and Blends in to a Community

Durango, Colorado

Originally constructed in 1952, the facility is in need of an expansion and upgrade in order to meet the increasing regulatory demands and anticipated growth of the surrounding community.

In redesigning the wastewater treatment plant, our goal was to design a facility that would blend in with the surrounding community.

Sitting adjacent to a world-class whitewater park, Animas River Trail, and Santa Rita Park, is the City of Durango Santa Rita Water Reclamation Facility. Originally constructed in 1952, the facility was in need of an expansion and upgrade in order to meet the increasing regulatory demands and anticipated growth of the surrounding community. We designed the city's new wastewater treatment plant to mitigate various visual and odor impacts.

1952

original construction date

We prepared a nutrient report, including planning level criteria for improvements, based on projected growth and regulatory requirements; an alternatives analysis with a preliminary opinion of probable construction cost and estimated operation and maintenance cost for each alternative; and an implementation plan for the recommended alternatives. The design of the secondary process improvements included primary effluent carbonaceous oxygen demand (COD) fractionalization, BioWin model development, BioWin model calibration of existing treatment process, custom Johannesburg Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) secondary process, secondary clarifiers, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system improvements, an energy efficient aeration system, a blower/chemical building, and new process pumps with return activated sludge and waste activated sludge and scum in the treatment complex.

Client

City of Durango

Cost

$3.1 million

Services

Engineering
Planning, Consulting and Advisory

Markets

Water

Regions

West