GREENFIELD — The Greenfield Wastewater Utility is investing more than $1.2 million to update its treatment plant, the first major upgrade to the facility in 15 years.
The plant, located behind Park Cemetery on the south side of Greenfield, treats city sewage before it enters Brandywine Creek as clean water. Over the past several years, the plant has lost some of its treatment capability and equipment needs replaced and cleaned, said Nicholas Dezelan, wastewater manager.
Recently, the Greenfield Board of Public Works and Safety approved the wastewater utility to enter into a contract with Thieneman Construction for $1.2 million, which includes construction and contingency fees. Rates will not increase as a result of the investment.
Dezelan said most of the project will update and repair the plant’s aeration system. Aeration provides oxygen to microorganisms that break down waste. The work will add a new turbo blower to send more air through the system, and each aeration tank will be drained to replace equipment inside. It will also aid in the treatment plant to meet compliance standards, Dezelan added.
The last major update to the plant was in 2004, according to a history of the city utilities on the city website written by historian Greg Roland. Dezelan said the layout of the current plant was first built in the late 1970s; it replaced most of the treatment facility equipment and processes that first came to Greenfield in the 1930s.
Construction at the plant is expected to begin later this year, close to Thanksgiving Day, Dezelan said, and work should last about 12 months. The contractor will work with wastewater employees to ensure there’s little to no disturbance in the normal services and to meet compliance requirements for wastewater plants.
The plant is designed to treat 4 million gallons of wastewater per day, and it normally treats about 3 million gallons, Dezelan said. In the next three to five years, he said the utility will look to expand that capacity as the city grows. The department will also need to meet future permitting and capacity requirements.
Municipalities in Hancock County already have invested more than $10 million this year in expansion of wastewater plants. In March, New Palestine christened a $4.2 million facility that nearly doubled the town’s treatment capacity. In August, McCordsville announced it would expand its sewage plant — doubling its capacity to 1 million gallons a day — at a cost estimated at $5.9 million. New Palestine has raised rates to pay for its expansion. McCordsville so far has not.
In September, NineStar Connect, which got into the wet utilities business with its acquisition of Gem Utilities, announced it would invest $3 million in new water and sewer services in areas it serves in western and northern Hancock County.
