A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held for Logan City’s new $150 million wastewater treatment plant on Monday morning. Joining Major Holly Daines in that ceremony were (from left) City Environmental Director Issa Hamud; former Mayor Randy Watts; former Providence mayor John Drew; and others.
LOGAN – Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday, Logan City’s new $150 million wastewater treatment plant is nearly ready to go online.
City Environmental Director Issa Hamud said that the plant, located at 2445 West, 200 North on Valley View Highway, is still test-conditioning water. But results so far have indicated that the plant is already exceeding expectations.
Major Holly Daines was joined in the opening ceremony by Hamud; former Logan mayor Randy Watts; John Drew, former Providence mayor; and others.
The Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility 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.
Also present for the event were state Sen. Chris Wilson; House District 3 candidate Val Potter; Logan municipal council members Amy Z. Anderson, Jeannie Simmonds and Ernesto López; the mayors of participating communities; and representatives of Carollo Engineers and MWH Constructors.
Prior to the ceremony, Daines said that the project was funded with low-interest loans, but residents of those seven communities and USU will be paying off those debts for the next 40 years.
Also on-hand for the ceremony was U.S. Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT), who promised to do his best to secure federal grants to defray some of the project’s expense.
The Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility has been nearly 20 years in the planning and construction stages.
After years of discussions with state water quality authorities between 2002 and 2010, a study by the federal Environmental Protection Agency found that the city’s 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 actual construction of the new plant began late in 2018, with Carollo Engineers consulting.
The new facility will produce higher quality effluent flows to nearby Cutler Reservoir and will allow the city to treat a greater amount of water – up to 18 million gallons daily — to a higher quality, with a smaller footprint, according to a MWH Constructors news release.
The lagoons are anaerobic, 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 take place in circular treatment tanks called bio-reactors … The plant will also employs a patented process known as BioMag that uses metal particles to draw sludge down to the bottom of a water clarifier.
Daines explained that the original plans of the wastewater treatment plant envisioned having four bio-reactors, but that number was trimmed to three as construction expenses mounted.
If Moore is able to secure a federal grant, Daines said that it will likely be used to begin work on the fourth bio-reactor, which will eventually be needed to handle Cache Valley growth.
The MWH representatives said that the plant’s construction required 27,000 cubic acres of concrete and 12 miles of pipes.
The Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility was also completed 45 days ahead of schedule.