Tradesmen finish the last of the digester slab foundation pours at the Brightwater Wastewater Treatment System. CH2M?Hill provided the engineering and architectural design services for the treatment plant.

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The story behind the need for new infrastructure in King County, Wash., is the same as anywhere else, but the magnitude of a new $1.8 billion wastewater treatment system here is anything but typical.

Population growth – paired with aging treatment facilities – has spurred the need for a cutting-edge wastewater treatment system that can serve the needs of communities in King and Sno­homish counties.

Labeled the Brightwater Treatment System, the project will serve the fast-growing northern portion of King County’s wastewater service area. The project consists of a treatment plant with capacity to treat up to 36 million gallons of wastewater per day, an off-site influent pump station, reclaimed water distribution facilities and convey­ance tunnels.
 

A new 13-mile pipeline will convey the treated effluent to a mile-long outfall where it will be released into Pug­et Sound.

The $437 million regional wastewater treatment facility will be the third plant to serve the great­er Seattle area. The total project cost for the Brightwater system is $1.8 billion. King County’s wastewater treatment utility protects public health and water quality for 17 cities, 17 local sewer districts and more than 1.4 million residents in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties.

CH2M Hill is providing engineering and architectural services for the treatment plant. According to Project Manager Pat  Burke, prior to being selected for the Bright­water treatment plant design, CH2M Hill completed facility siting studies and assisted with preparation of an environmental impact statement for the wastewater system. The offsite conveyance facilities were designed and are being constructed by other companies. CH2M Hill teamed with Brown and Caldwell and several other key sub-consultants to pursue the Brightwater design, and was later joined by Seattle-based Mithun Architects + Designers + Planners.

“Our combined resources provided the county with the industry-leading technical expertise and depth of design talent required to select the right treatment technologies, appropriate mitigation measures and then deliver the project,” says Burke, who joined the firm six years ago to work on Brightwater. Accor­ding to Burke, the need for a new north end treatment plant – now known as Bright­­water – was identified in t he County’s Reg­ional Wastewater Services Plan, adopted in 1999. CH2M HILL be­came involved is siting studies shortly thereafter.

Valued at approximately $47 million for the company, “the Brightwater treatment plant involves some 6,000 drawings, and during peak periods we had over 150 staff engaged in producing the design,” Burke explains. “With our combined re­sources, we were able to meet all schedule milestones for design deliverables.

“At the peak of production, we had over 20 sub-consultants participating in the pro­ject, including minority and women-own­ed businesses and key advisors on issues such as LEED, seismic issues and landscape design.”

Technological Expertise
The Brightwater drawings were prepared using 3-D modeling software including Bent­ley TriForma and InRoads, which provided detailed, graphical images of proposed facilities. “The design team made ex­tensive use of 3-D visualization tools to en­able county staff to optimize layouts for functionality and ease of maintenance,” Burke explains. “The 3-D model files were furnished to construction contractors to aid their execution of the work. Kiewit used the files to construct a physical model of the solids facilities that has helped them plan the work.”

The treatment plant will be constructed under two separate contracts with King County. Hoffman Con­struction Co. is acting as a general contractor/construction manager. Hoffman is responsible for the overall site/civil construction, as well as the liquids processing facilities. Kiewit is constructing the solids and odor control facilities under a traditional design/bid/build contract. Fresh­water testing and start-up is scheduled for late 2010 with commissioning in early 2011.
    

Lessening the environmental impact of the overall project was a priority. Prior to construction, the project team conducted a four-year technical analysis and public participation process to select the most suitable locations for the various facilities based on engineering, community and environmental reasons.

Brightwater includes constructed wetlands and wildlife habitat that mitigate project impacts. Open space at the North Mitigation Area has been enhanced by re­constructing degraded streams that had been routed into culverts.

Paving has been minimized, reducing the runoff potential from the site. Storm water management includes detention, sed­imentation and polishing through constructed wetlands. These enhancements will improve water quality in nearby Little Bear Creek, Burke states.

The treatment plant itself uses technology to reduce its footprint on the environment. “The split-flow membrane bio­reactor [MBR] process, combined with chemically-enhanced primary treatment, reduces the overall footprint of the treatment plant compared to other, more conventional alternatives,” Burke explains.

The unique split-flow MBR process works in tandem with chemically enhan­ced primary clarification. “The split-flow process configuration allowed MBR technology to be applied to Brightwater at a cost competitive with conventional activated sludge,” Burke notes. “Brightwater will produce up to 21 million gallons per day of reclaimed water from the MBR process.”

Quality Control
The design used a multi-faceted app­roach to quality control, augmenting traditional checking with the use of 3-D design tools to identify conflicts and interferences, and continuous engagement of the county’s staff to review pre-design work products and, eventually, CH2M Hill’s drawings and specifications, Burke notes. “The latter step has been particularly successful – we received excellent input on key pro­cess decisions,” he says. “The county’s staff remained engag­ed throughout de­sign to tailor the Brightwater facilities to meet their needs.”

Also, by using the general contract­or/ con­struction manager delivery, Hoff­man Construction has been onboard since pre-de­sign, providing invaluable review and input, Burke says.

“The project has benefitted from the County’s collaborative app­roach to construction,” he adds. “We have regularly scheduled work sessions with the construction management team, Hoff­man, Kiewit and their key subs where we jointly focus on construction issues, con­tractor value-engineering ideas, change ord­ers and the like.

“As we get a bit further along, we’ll begin similar meetings foc­used on testing and start-up, again in a highly collaborative en­vironment.”

Collaboration between the owner and CH2M Hill has obviously been integral to the project’s success. “The continuous eng­ag­ement of the owner’s operations and maintenance staff – people who have been with us from the earliest days of process selection right through development of de­tailed wiring diagrams – has been a trem­endous asset,” Burke notes.

Depth of Experience
Senior Vice President Jeff Haight ex­pl­ains that CH2M Hill has deep roots in water quality and environmental infrastructure-related work. Founded in 1946, the firm has remained true to its ideals. “The corporate operating philosophy has been simple: Do good work, make a profit and have fun,” he says. “All three of those have been part of our mission statement and we live those values every day.”

Today, the 100 percent employee-own­ed firm remains a leading wastewater treatment firm, but also specializes in critical in­frastructure and related systems, government, industrial, energy and environment-related projects.

Headquartered in Englewood, Colo., the company’s northwest operations are heavily involved in wastewater infrastr­ucture and other large civil works projects. “Needless to say, it’s becoming very competitive,” Haight says about the North­­west. Yet, the region appears to be less impacted by the nat­ional recession than are other parts of the country. “There is a lot of new industry out here that are not feeling as much of the recession. Financ­ing and man­ufacturing are not the core businesses out here. The technology and energy sectors are industries bucking national trends.”

Cost Control
One national trend the company is not immune to is the rising cost of construction-related materials.

The company’s con­struction arm has felt the increase in steel and concrete, for example, just as other businesses have. “The biggest thing is that projects are costing our clients more,” Haight says. “Part of what we do as problem-solvers is  do more with less.”