GS&P Selected for Wastewater Plant Expansion in Guam
Gresham, Smith and Partners is pleased to announce it has been selected as the lead process design manager, as a prime sub-consultant to Dueñas, Camacho and Associates (DCA), to expand the Northern District Wastewater Treatment Plant (NDWWTP) located on the northwestern coast of Guam, the United States territory located in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. NDWWTP will be upgraded to increase capacity to 12 mgd and provide secondary biological treatment to reduce pollutants in the wastewater before being discharged into the Philippine Sea.
At an approximate cost of $100 million, one of the primary goals for the NDWWTP project is to provide improved wastewater infrastructure to protect marine and groundwater resources, as well as to accommodate the relocation of 5,000 members of the military and their families from Okinawa, Japan to a new Marines Corps Base on Guam. With a current population of approximately 165,000, the island is home to Andersen Air Force base and U.S. Navy Guam, making Guam a strategic military asset for the United States and our allies.
The plant improvements will also produce a treated water quality that will comply with more stringent effluent standards mandated by Region 9 of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In addition to serving as the lead design engineering firm for equipment and processes, GS&P will conduct a wastewater characterization study and develop a dynamic process model to evaluate processes to determine the most efficient solution possible. The team will also provide site layout, a design development report and process start up and optimization including operator training.
“The Guam Waterworks Authority has committed to completing these needed improvements of increasing the capacity of the plant and upgrading to a secondary treatment process to improve our levels of service, ensure the protection of our marine environment and water resources, and support national defense realignment objectives. Having the right partners to achieve that commitment is crucial to our success,” said Miguel C. Bordallo, P.E., general manager, Guam Waterworks Authority. “We have worked with GS&P on many projects, and they continuously show an in-depth understanding of the unique challenges our island environment creates, the details of our infrastructure, and how to integrate our goals into efficient and cost-effective design solutions. We are looking forward to continuing our work together on our improved Northern District plant.”
“We are proud to continue serving Guam in partnership with Guam Waterworks Authority, including our servicemen and women and their families. Our work at Northern District and other treatment plants in Guam supports important infrastructure improvements,” commented Ken Baker, senior vice president and principal, Gresham, Smith and Partners. “The upgraded NDWWTP will be a more operationally efficient and serviceable facility that produces improved effluent.”
GS&P is working with the DCA team on several projects in Guam, including the new greenfield Agat-Santa Rita wastewater treatment plant, replacing an older facility while providing more capacity and improved treated water quality. As with NDWWTP project, GS&P is the prime process design consultant. Designing certain process similarities into both facilities will provide a larger inventory of interchangeable spare parts to support maintenance for these island treatment plants. GS&P is also involved with a sewer improvement project, which eliminates the Baza Gardens wastewater treatment plant by re-routing wastewater to the new Agat-Santa Rita facility. Finally, the team is improving the Umatac-Merizo overland wastewater treatment plant located on the southern side of Guam.
