Construction has started on the world’s most expensive leachate treatment plant which at $27 million will be the most expensive ever built in the world to date.
A number of plants are estimated to have been built at up to $15 million previously, but this one is significantly the most expensive in terms of the (assumed) capital cost, and it will only pre-treat the leachate which will then be discharged to the public sewer.
There will be an additional charge for that, levied by the Wastewater Treatment Works operator on top of the running costs for the leachate pre-treatment plant – but that cost pales into insignificance when compared with this level of investment.
We have found the following information on the web about the project:
JOHNSTON — The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation (RIRRC) recently broke ground on a $27 million leachate pre-treatment plant. The new facility, which will be built on RIRRC property, will utilize green principles to create an energy-efficient system capable of properly treating wastewater before it is released into municipal sewer systems.
“This new facility will help to ensure that Resource Recovery is completely compliant with all modern wastewater treatment standards, and will employ approximately 160 Rhode Island workers in the construction sector through early 2015,” said Mike OConnell, RIRRC’s executive director.
Central Landfill Getting $27M Leachate Facility – Composting …
It is not clear whether the £27 million quoted includes for operational costs for a period after construction, but at this price the plant must certainly be the most expensive contract ever.
A second US leachate pre-treatment plant which has just commenced construction is also in the news, this time it is located at the Monmouth County Reclamation Center in New Jersey.
The investment must be substantial, and in thic case the contract does include operational of the plant after construction, but no figures have been given in the press releases we have seen.
We include further information on this second leachate pre-treatment plant below:
Applied Water Management (AWM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Natural Systems Utilities (NSU), has broken ground along with Middlesex Water Company on a new leachate pretreatment facility at the Monmouth County Reclamation Center in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, US.
The companies have partnered to design, construct and operate the facility under an initial 15-year contract with Monmouth County.
Monmouth County Reclamation Center superintendent Richard Throckmorton said that a long-term public-private partnership with the local New Jersey companies enables the county to have in place a system to manage wastewater with long-term reliability and flexibility, designed to accommodate future regulations.
The project includes a new wastewater treatment plant, which employs an advanced membrane bioreactor (MBR), pump station and pipeline that connects to the local sewer utility.
The MBR technology provides a high level of treatment that helps protect the environment by removing over 500,000lbs of nitrogen and over 1,000lbs of heavy metals from the waste stream every year.
NSU-AWM executive vice president Richard Cisterna said that using an advanced MBR reduces the amount of untreated leachate hauled off-site, significantly lowering operating costs and positively impacting the environment.
New Jersey begins construction work on new leachate pretreatment …
These two plants, due to the cost involved, must surely raise the profile of leachate treatment in the US, both within the public who will in the end be paying for them, and the water treatment industry which will need to create specialized water treatment process systems for the special nature of leachate, if these plants are to operate reliably and efficiently.
