Louisville Wastewater Treatment Plant

Planning and Designing for Future Wastewater Regulations and Low Effluent Nutrient Criteria

For the new wastewater treatment plant in Louisville, Colorado, we developed a facility plan with projected wastewater flow and load projections for the city’s build-out population and projected potential future regulatory requirements.

The WWTP improvements included a new secondary clarifier with launder cover to reduce algae growth.

The upgraded WWTP employs a Johannesburg biological nutrient removal secondary process.

The process pump station houses internal recycle pumps for nitrogen removal, and return-activated sludge, waste-activated sludge, and scum pumps.

The WWTP is equipped with High Speed Turbo Blowers (HSTBs) to reduce energy in the biological treatment process.

As part of our facility plan, we evaluated the ability of the existing treatment process to meet current state design criteria and the new, stricter effluent nutrient limits. Pictured are aeration basins capable of performing biological nutrient removal.

Client: City of Louisville
Owner: City of Louisville
Location: Louisville, CO
Services: Engineering

Markets: Water
Construction Cost: $29 million
Completed: December 2017
Region: Southwest

The City of Louisville Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) had not been upgraded in many years. With a 25 percent population growth expected in the next 20 years, and new, stricter effluent limits for nutrients mandated by the state, we were selected by the city to evaluate its existing wastewater treatment infrastructure. Specifically, we were selected by the City of Louisville to perform plant compliance assistance, facility evaluation, and facility planning, design, and construction phase engineering services.

To accommodate the new stricter effluent nutrient limits and to set the WWTP to meet further reductions in effluent nutrient limits, we designed a new headworks facility (with two new mechanical bar screens and two new grit removal systems), a 2.5 MGD Johannesburg biological nutrient removal secondary process and secondary clarifiers, solids handling upgrades, two new channel UV disinfection systems, a new backup generator, a remodel of the existing operations lab, and a new 2,000 square-foot shop building. The WWTP is designed to biologically remove nutrients to concentrations below 0.7 mg/L phosphorus and 7 mg/L total inorganic nitrogen.

mechanical bar screens

new grit removal systems

2.5 MGD

Johannesburg biological nutrient removal secondary process and secondary clarifiers

new UV disinfection systems