Rochelle Well #11 Water Treatment Plant
Project details
- Location: Rochelle, Illinois
- Client: City of Rochelle
- Construction Cost: $2,832,000
- Scope of Work: Prepared IEPA Project Plan Report, Pre-Application Documents and Loan Application Documents, Preparation of Construction Drawings, Bidding and Contract Documents, Technical Specifications IEPA Public Water Supplies Permit, Bidding and Award, Shop Drawings Review, Construction Staking Construction Observation and Project Administration
- Project Schedule: Completed - 2018
- WHA Team: Matt Hansen, P.E., Mike Long, P.E., and Larry Griffiths
Phase I, II & III Services
WHA was the lead engineering firm for the planning, design and construction phases for the City of Rochelle’s Well #11 Water Treatment Plant project. The City’s Well #11 saw a rapid increase in the combined radium levels and the City was out of compliance in the first quarter of 2016. The City toured Hydrous Manganese Oxide (HMO) filtration, ion exchange, reverse osmosis and an absorptive media treatment process for radium. The City preferred the HMO filtration system so the City and WHA proceeded with contracting a filter manufacturer to perform a pilot study of the treatment process. The pilot study was used to determine the performance of the HMO process and test different filter loading rates and chemical feed rates. WHA provided the day to day pilot study testing.
The water treatment plant is a 1,300 gpm pressure filter using the addition of HMO and the filter media to remove the radium and iron in the raw water. The water treatment plant building is 3,273 square feet and houses the pressure filter, sand separator, HMO, chlorine, fluoride and phosphate chemical feed equipment, a motor control center, water system and filter controls, and a small lab to perform daily testing. The project also included a 32,000-gallon backwash tank to hold the backwash water, so it can be released back into the sanitary sewer system at a rate that doesn’t overload the sanitary sewer; a standby diesel generator to power the water treatment plant during a power outage; and site piping and grading improvements. WHA also had to obtain a construction permit from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources – Office of Water Resources to construct the water treatment plant at the Well #11 site due to a recent change in the FEMA flood mapping which put the site in a floodway.
WHA prepared the IEPA Project Plan report and pre-application documents so the City could become eligible for funding through the IEPA Public Water Supply Revolving Fund Loan program and prepared the loan application documents, so the City could secure the IEPA loan.