The new Logan Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility. Photo courtesy of Logan City Environmental Department.
LOGAN – With Logan’s new regional wastewater treatment facility opening soon, the city’s Environmental Department is offering free guided tours of the plant to the public.
“We will offer a general tour,” according to city spokeswoman Emily Morgan Malik. “That’s available to individuals aged 13 and older.”
Malik added that the Environmental Department will also host a family friendly tour that can accommodate all ages, including children in strollers.
Both types of tours will have a morning and afternoon time slot, between June 7 and 18, excluding Sunday, June 12 and Monday, June 13.
The Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility was a $150 million undertaking by Logan City. The plant will replace a 460-acre lagoon system currently serving seven cities in Cache County – Logan, Smithfield, Hyde Park, North Logan, Providence, River Heights and Nibley – plus Utah State University.
Back in 2010, a study by Environmental Protection Agency found that the lagoon system was releasing too much nitrogen and phosphorous into the water behind Cutler Dam.
MWH Constructors of Bloomfield, CO was selected as the general contractor for the project and construction of the new plant began late in 2018.
The new facility will product higher quality effluent flows to nearly Cutler Reservoir and will allow the city to treat a greater amount of water, to a higher quality, with a smaller footprint, according to a MWU Constructors news release.
The lagoons are anaerobic, city environmental director Issa Hamud explains. The new treatment plant is aerobic. It depends upon significant aeration to reduce ammonia and phosphorus in the treated wastewater.
The aeration process takes place in circular treatment tanks. The plant will also employ a patented process known as BioMag that uses metal particles to draw sludge down to the bottom of a water clarifier.
The new wastewater treatment plant is located south of the Logan sewer lagoons along Valley View Highway (State Road 30).
Malik said that the tours will be limited to 15 participants per tour.
“Each participant must be registered individually,” she emphasized, “so that we can have an accurate headcount for his tour.”
To see the available dates and times that tours are being offered, visit http://wastewater.loganutah.org.
If you have any questions about the tours, please contact Emily Morgan Malik at 435-719-9792.