Waste Water Treatment Expansion in City of Council, Idaho

Titan Technologies, Inc. was recently awarded to lead a unique project for the City of Council to install the first SAGR system in Idaho.

Titan Technologies has teamed up with Great West Engineering, with the help of Nexom, to build the first Submerged Attached Growth Reactor (SAGR) system in Idaho to help improve the City of Council’s failing and aged wastewater treatment facility.

The City of Council uses a lagoon system to process wastewater — an extremely powerful and cost-effective tool. However, lagoon systems often have trouble removing ammonia in cold climates which limits the ability of nitrification to occur.

According to Nexom:

“Ammonia reduction (nitrification) can be consistently and reliably achieved at water temperatures below 0.5 degrees Celsius (32 degrees Fahrenheit) in climates where primary and secondary lagoons are ice-covered for much or all of winter. Providing treatment with very low water temperatures eliminates the need for insulating, increasing depth or decreasing the retention time of lagoon cells to retain heat.”

SAGR is an ideal system for Council which sees an average low temperature of 35 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter months.

The project began with excavation of an existing lagoon pit to make room for the two new specialized SAGR cells. The SAGR cell construction involved preparing pads for the SAGR frames to be built. Once the frames were built, a team came in and lined them with HDPE liner. Once the liner was in place, air lines were strung, the structure was filled with washed stone on top of aeration domes. After the rock and domes were in place, filter fabric was put down and nine inches of wood chips were placed on top for insulation.

Other improvements to the wastewater treatment facility included removal of sewage sludge in lagoon cells and reconstruction of existing cells to allow them to be relined with HDPE liner to prevent leaking into the nearby waterways.

Work also included construction of a new wastewater treatment building which will house a new UV treatment system, which will eliminate the outdated dechlorination system to sanitize the wastewater before the effluent can be discharged.

Improvements are also being made to the treatment facilities’ sewer piping, sewer manholes, and other structures. Totaling nearly 3,000 linear feet of 15″ PVC pipe.

Additionally, the City of Council is receiving nearly 16,000 linear feet of HDPE sewer pipe which will be installed using the pipe bursting method, eliminating the need for open trenching. This technique will reduce costs to the City and shorten the time needed to replace the existing pipe.

Estimated project value is nearly $6.4 million.