The Parkstone Wastewater Treatment Plant is situated on a 15-acre site within the Parkstone Development and accommodates the wastewater treatment and disposal facility and land application system (LAS). At full build-out, the initial phase of the development will generate an average 100,000 gallons per day (gpd) wastewater flow requiring treatment and disposal. Much undeveloped land surrounds the 290-acre development tract which, in time, will likely be developed.

In anticipation of additional properties being made part of Parkstone, the proposed wastewater treatment plant has been designed for future expansion.The wastewater treatment and disposal system treats wastewater to an acceptable level for subsurface drip disposal including a significant reduction in total nitrogen in the wastewater. A drip irrigation system installed in the 12-acre portion of the treatment plant site can be used for disposal of 100% of the treated effluent at full capacity on a year-round basis. A wet-weather emergency storage pond in the vicinity of the treatment structures will provide emergency storage for fully-treated effluent during extremely wet conditions.

The first construction phase (Phase I) of the treatment plant provides 125,000 gallons per day of biological treatment by a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and 100,000 gallons per day of drip irrigation disposal. In Phase I, the SBR basin concrete tankage will allow storage be doubled to 250,000 gpd by adding treatment equipment. The drip disposal system will have a first phase capacity of 100,000 gpd with features to add 25,000 gpd of additional drip fields. The ultimate expansion (Phase III) to 250,000 gallons per day will require the construction of an off-site storage pond, a drip building and a drip irrigation field capable of handling 125,000 gallons per day.

Forsyth County purchased the facility in 2007. The Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP) recognized the facility as its “Plant of the Year” in 2012 in the less than 1.0 MGD category.

The 0.550 MGD Windermere Wastewater Treatment plant serves the 1,373 acre Windermere Development that includes approximately 1,100 single-family homes, two apartment communities, a golf clubhouse and other amenities as well as a commercial village center. An adjacent development, Blackstock Mill by McCar Homes, also pumps its wastewater to the Windermere facility.

The wastewater treatment plant is designed to achieve urban water reuse standards. The plant consists of fine screening, activated sludge wastewater treatment, chemical enhanced filtration and disinfection by chlorine. A reject pond, sized for 3-days of average daily flow, is shown in the photo above. An effluent holding pond, sized for 30-days of average daily flow, is also located on the plant site, but not shown in the photo.

Treated effluent from the facility is used to irrigate the Davis Love designed golf course.  Forsyth County purchased the facility in late 2006. The upgrade to 0.550 MGD was completed May of 2002. 

The Georgia Association of Water Professionals (GAWP) recognized the facility as its “Plant of the Year” in 2011 in the less than 1.0 MGD category.

The 0.750 MGD Spout Springs Water Reclamation Facility, completed May of 2004 by PF Moon and Company, was built to serve John Wieland Homes and Neighborhood’s Reunion Development as well as Newland Communities’ Sterling on the Lake Development. Hall County purchased the facility in December of 2007 to serve the southern portion of their service area.

The facility includes SBR aeration equipment and filtration equipment manufactured by Aqua-Aerobic Systems, Inc.  The Headworks includes a spiral screening unit manufactured by Parkson. Construction photos along with unit process descriptions..

The facility currently has a permit to expand capacity to 1.0 MGD. The expansion would only require the construction of two additional tanks (one SBR and one digestion) to the existing six tanks for a total of five SBR tanks and three digestion tanks.

The facility includes a 100-Acre land application system to dispose of treated effluent. Reuse force mains have been constructed to beneficially reuse water at both the Reunion Development and the Sterling on the Lake Development.

CEC also designed the influent pump station that serves the Reunion Development and pumps to the Spout Springs facility. The pump station is a duplex station that includes two 130 HP Flygt pumps operating at approximately 1,600 gpm at 216-feet TDH. A 250 kW standby power generator provides continuous operation during power outages.

City of Cumming’s 8.0 MGD Advanced Water Reclamation Facility (AWRF) included a 6.0 MGD upgrade from the original 2.0 MGD facility. (Filtration added in 2000 expanded the facility to 3.0 MGD, but was removed in this expansion.) The final construction cost was just under $30 million (or $5 per gallon) and was completed by Skanska in the summer of 2008.

The only original components to remain included one oxidation ditch and two clarifiers (shown on the right side of the photo). This facility was designed and managed in-house by CEC personnel, with the exception of an electrical and HVAC design subcontract.

The upgrade included abandoning the existing influent pump station and the existing headworks and providing a new, similar influent pump station and screening and grit and grease removal facility. The biological treatment process included an expansion and upgrade of the existing oxidation ditch aeration process followed by peripheral feed clarifiers. Additional tertiary treatment was added in the form of a flocculation and inclined plate settling system for phosphorus removal and effluent sand filtration. The previous disinfection process, using gas chlorination and sulfur dioxide dechlorination, was replaced by ultraviolet light disinfection.

Also, the Envirex Cannibal process was included to handle the biological solids. Inerts and digested sludge is dewatered by the existing centrifuge. Phosphorus is removed chemically in a two-step P-scalping process. Chemical sludge is dewatered with a second (new) centrifuge.

Civil Engineering Consultants presented a paper at the 2008 Fall Conference of the Georgia Association of Water Professionals, which provided an overview of the newly completed facility. A copy of CEC’s presentation can be found here (PDF 3.6MB)