Engineers from Jones, Petrie and Rafinski (JPR) will conduct four studies of the Bremen Wastewater Treatment Facility for specific needs to upgrade the plant or construct an all-new plant.
Wastewater Superintendent Matt Cunningham said the plant is aging and while the sand filter is working well now, the town needs to take a proactive approach.
“They’re going to give us an idea of how our plant is existing,” explained Cunningham. “They’re going to look into constructing a new plant and we gave them plans that we had in 2008 when the plant was going to be designed then. They’re going to look at doing the different tankage and stuff to basically make the plant run for another 20 years. They’ll possibly look at a different style of Wastewater Plant than the designs we gave them.”
The proposal is for $32,000 for the studies that Cunningham asked the council to consider.
Cunningham continued, “I think it’s something that needs to be done to look toward the future. Like I said, I don’t want to be behind the 8-ball because IDEM was breathing down our necks pretty heavily for a little bit.”
Ken Jones from JPR commented that the plant is well maintained.
“The facility is 65 years old and we’ve crawled around and looked at the condition,” stated Jones. “I think the town needs to be congratulated as to how well it’s been taken care of to get that many years out of a wastewater plant. It’s pretty incredible.”
He added that the facility has items that cannot be overcome including a grade line issue with the creek. However, the studies will be done to see what can be upgraded while still in operation or if a new plant is more feasible.
The Bremen Town Council members voted to approve the proposal as presented.
