By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Reconstruction of Hays’ updated wastewater treatment plant is running 45 days ahead of schedule.
A progress report was presented Thursday night to city commissioners by Stan Christopher, HDR Engineering.
Most of the work is now taking place above ground. Christopher likened the current status of the $28.4 million project as “builders having a new house roughed in.”
He showed photos of the site including a 185-foot diameter aeration basin which will replace two smaller ones.
“It’s not that the plant capacity is being increased, but the quality of water coming out of the new plant is much tighter than what your current plant,” explained Christopher.
“In order to achieve that you need to be able to treat the wastewater for a longer period of time and that’s why this structure is bigger than what you have currently.”
The biosolids, or wastewater, will go from the aerator into two clarifiers and settled out, is filtered and disinfected, and then discharged into two reclaim/reuse water tanks.
“That effluent water is fully treated,” said Christopher, “and can be either discharged to Chetolah Creek or be pumped out for use on the Fort Hays Municipal Golf Course and the ball fields for irrigation reuse.”
Christopher noted there have been no change orders on the project, and was quick to compliment the city employees working with the contractor.
“We’ve seen tremendous support out of your staff at the plant,” he told the commission.
“Any modification of a plant requires you to make connections to the existing plant at numerous times. That usually requires shutting down the entire facility for four to five hours, sometimes up to eight hours. Obviously, those have to be timed when wastewater’s not being discharged into the sewer, or at least, very little of it, and that’s usually 1 o’clock in the morning. Your staff is working with the contractor with those shutdowns and fast-tracking it into three or four hours, and putting the plant back into operation well before most of us are up for the day.”
The final completion date is projected to be August 1, 2019.