2009 E3 Design Honor

H. Clay "Junk" Whaley, Sr. Memorial Water Plant

St. Cloud, Florida
ENTRANT: Jones Edmunds & Associates, Inc.
ENGINEER IN CHARGE: Thomas W. Friedrich, P.E., BCEE

The 9 MGD water plant for the City of St. Cloud was designed to be easily expanded to 12 MGD, and to fit on a compact site donated by a local developer and long-time community resident. The plant site was bermed and landscaped to blend with the surrounding environment and minimize impacts to adjacent land owners.	The MIEX® resin has properties that allowed a Jones Edmunds and the City to design a unique solution. The resin is very small (180 micron), magnetic, macroporous, anionic, acrylic resin that is used in continuous mixed process. The resin removes hydrogen sulfide (bisulfide form) in addition to DOC and color.	The was designed using a "gravity flow" concept to minimize re-pumping and reduce facility power costs. The three groundwater well pumps feed raw water to the elevated contactors containing the MIEX® resin. Following separation of the resin from the treated water in the settlers, the water flows by gravity through a hydrogen sulfide stripping system (pH adjustment w/ CO2, deep bubble aeration used to remove remaining sulfide), through resin polishing units, disinfection, fluoridation and to ground storage tanks prior to high-service pumping. A small percentage of resin is removed from the spent resin recirculation flow and sent to the resin regeneration system. Sodium bicarbonate or sodium chloride are used to regenerate the spent resin. Waste brine is sent to the City's wastewater treatment plant where 100% of the water is reclaimed for unrestricted public access reuse.
Raw water feed to resin contactors with 20 ml/Liter resin concentration.	Spent resin return pumps sending resin from bottom of settlers back to contactors.	Gravity flow magnetic media (magnetite) polishing system to remove any remaining resin particles prior to disinfection and fluoridation.

Entrant Profile

Jones Edmunds & Associates, Inc. designed and constructed the largest operating magnetic ion-exchange (MIEX®) water plant in the United States to prevent the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs), total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs) in the City's potable water to achieve compliance with EPA's Stage I DBP Rule.

Firm's Role

Developed holistic team approach with City staff from conceptual design through final design, construction, project startup, and operation.
Enabled the City to solve its water quality problems by providing a high-quality facility made possible by an efficient and effective project delivery method.
Sole-sourcing and negotiating a stipulated bid price for the magnetic ion-exchange equipment.
Pre-qualifying contractors for bidding on the construction.
Value engineering with the selected contractor to reduce construction costs.
Agreement between the City and contractor on Owner Direct Purchase (ODP) for major materials (concrete, piping, paving) and equipment to reduce tax on these items.
Core St. Cloud/engineering staff involved from conceptual phase, pilot testing of technology, facility design, permitting, construction and facility start-up and operation.
Firm services included:

Water Master Planning / Well Siting Study
WaterGEMS® Hydraulic Water Distribution Model
Pilot Testing
Water Use Permitting / Groundwater Modeling
Well Design and Construction
Facility Design, Construction Administration, and Startup

Other Contributors

Owner: City of St. Cloud
General Contractor: Wharton-Smith, Inc.
Architect: Fleischman-Garcia
Structural: Master Consulting, Inc.
Civil: Osceola Engineering
SCADA: Rocha Controls
Security Design: A Secure America
Well Drilling: Diversified Drilling
Resin Manufacturer: Orica Watercare
Surveyor: Johnston Surveying
Geotechnical: Ardaman & Associates

Complexity of the Problem

The residents of St. Cloud, Florida complained for years about the City's water quality.

It had a brown color due to high levels of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and exceeded odor MCLs due to high quantities of hydrogen sulfide.
To maintain minimum disinfectant residual levels, the City had to rely on high levels of disinfectant dosing (Chlorine demand of 15 to 18 mg/L), creating high levels of disinfectant byproducts (DPBs).
When the EPA's Stage I DBP Rule went into effect the City fell out of compliance.
The City was legally required to send its water utility customers a notice of non-compliance because their water exceeded the EPA's standards for Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and Haloacetic Acids (HAA5s).

The City was seeking a long-term solution to improved drinking water quality to protect the health and welfare of its customers and at the same time design a facility that was energy efficient to operate, blended with the surrounding community, and did not negatively impact the environment or surrounding residents.

Solution

Following the investigation of treatment alternatives, the recently developed technology of magnetic ion exchange (MIEX®) was determined to be the best long-term solution to the City's water quality problems.

On March 27, 2008 construction of America's largest operating MIEX® water treatment plant was completed and the new facility went on-line to produce potable water for the citizens of St. Cloud, Florida.

Originality and Innovation

Design Elements
The water plant features many innovative design elements that work together to provide a unique water treatment solution.

Largest MIEX® plant (9 MGD expandable to 12 MGD) in the United States.
First concrete construction of a MIEX® plant in the United States.
First MIEX® facility specifically designed to promote hydrogen sulfide removal.
First full-scale deployment of Sodium Bicarbonate as an alternate regenerant to salt.
First full-scale deployment of magnetic media post polishing filters.
"Gravity Flow Concept" to reduce power consumption - Without re-pumping, groundwater flows from the wells, through the ion-exchange contractors, settlers, polishing filters, the pH adjustment and air-stripping system (currently off-line since not required), through the chlorination and fluoridation systems to ground storage tanks before high-service pumping to the City's customers.

Process Flow Schematic

Integrated Approach

Designed to allow MIEX® technology to be used as a stand-alone water treatment option to promote removal of hydrogen sulfide, DOC, and color.
Provides a complete and permanent solution to the DBP problem without the use of chloramines, which:

eliminates the need for annual chlorine burn in distribution system
significantly reduces amount of potable water wasted for distribution system flushing

First facility to use sodium bicarbonate as a resin regenerate.

This environmentally-friendly solution eliminates the brine waste products produced when using Sodium Chloride, which protects the City's reclaimed supply which is 100% reused for unrestricted public access reuse.

Social and Economic Advancement: Sustainable Design, Economically Completed

The technology as implemented has lower O&M costs and produces less brine waste than conventional ionexchange systems.
Ion-exchange removal of sulfide eliminated the need for odor-control scrubbing facilities.
Tax savings, value engineering, and City-executed work items resulted in a final contract cost of $19,032,995, not including the City's self-performance items.
The simplicity of the process enables the City's operations staff to work effectively without significant additional training.
Engineering fees for design were $808,876 and construction administration (including full-time resident representative services) was $930,000, for a total engineering cost of $1,738,876, only 8.8% of the total facility construction cost for a cutting-edge facility.
The final total construction cost for the facility was approximately $19.5 million. This yields a construction cost of $2.20 per gallon of treatment and water production.
The technology was evaluated, pilot tested, permitted (including well field geologic modeling), designed, advertised, bid, and awarded within 24 months and was constructed and operational within 20 months, for a total time of approximately 3.7 years from initiation.

Working with Residents to Improve Their Quality of Life

The City was able to obtain 5 acres of land for the new water plant through a cooperative agreement with long-time local residents, the Whaley family. This partnership inspired the City to name the new plant after the Whaleys' father, H. Clay Whaley, Sr. His nickname was "Junk" so the plant is officially called the H. Clay "Junk" Whaley, Sr. Memorial Water Plant.
The design engineer and the City worked together to ensure minimum impact to the adjacent landowner. The site, structures, and administrative building are designed to meet the residents' visual aesthetic interests (they even picked the plant colors); site features included low-profile structures and landscaped berms, sound-deadening features to reduce facility noise, and a "dark night" facility concept.

User Satisfaction and Proven Performance

Lowered finished water and distribution system THMs and HAAs below the MCL.
Significantly reduced hydrogen sulfide and color in the water, dramatically improving the taste and odor. The facility reduced chlorine demand by over 80%, removed over 60% of the DOC - the compounds that create DBPs and color in water - eliminated 98% of odor, and removed virtually all color to well below the MCL.
This facility now produces over 90% of the water delivered to St. Cloud residents, and the City has been able to reduce the operational period and production of the old water facilities.

Resin regeneration tanks operating in a continuous feed batch process. Regenerant reused 5 to 15 times, produces 400 gallons of waste brine per/ MG water produced.		The design of the facility incorporated low-profile design of process structures and equipment, an advanced security system with detection fence and dark night concept to save power costs and minimize impacts of bright facility lights on the surrounding community. In addition high-berm landscaping was provided around the entire site to improve visual impact and blend with surrounding area.
The design of the facility incorporated low-profile design of process structures and equipment, an advanced security system with detection fence and dark night concept to save power costs and minimize impacts of bright facility lights on the surrounding community. In addition high-berm landscaping was provided around the entire site to improve visual impact and blend with surrounding area.	The design of the facility incorporated low-profile design of process structures and equipment, an advanced security system with detection fence and dark night concept to save power costs and minimize impacts of bright facility lights on the surrounding community. In addition high-berm landscaping was provided around the entire site to improve visual impact and blend with surrounding area.