Water Treatment Plant in Concord, MA
This project included construction of a 1.5 mgd capacity water treatment facility to treat potable water pumped from the existing Deaconess Well. The water treatment facility consisted of six vertical LayneOx pressure filters. The work also included demolition of the existing well pumping station and construction of a well pump vault with vertical turbine pump over the existing well, and completion of a SCADA system design to monitor and control the water treatment facility and well station.
Background:
Faced with increasing iron and manganese concentrations at two of its existing wells, Concord Public Works (CPW) decided that treatment was required. Several treatment options were evaluated, with the most cost effective option being pressure filtration. Piloting pitted manganese greensand against LayneOx, a proprietary media marketed by Layne-Christensen Company utilized in other parts of the country, but not in New England. In addition to proving its effectiveness in iron and manganese removal, “new technology approval” was obtained for the media from MassDEP. Although piloting showed LayneOx to have an advantage over greensand during testing at the Deaconess well site, the Town’s Procurement Office was reluctant to allow CPW to solely specify a proprietary media. Differences in piping and chemical requirements for both filter processes precluded a design that could have served either treatment system. Hence, a pre-purchase equipment bid was developed specifying both systems.
An additional challenge to treating the water was designing the treatment facility itself, whose architecture had to “blend in” with the bucolic and well healed character of the surrounding neighborhood. The Town requested that we provide three options simulating different themes; a barn, railroad station and a Richardsonian Romanesque style structure similar to the Chestnut Hill pump station. Our Architect provided renderings of the three options along with estimated costs and lists of pros and cons. After several meetings and input from various interested parties the Town chose the barn theme.
