This unique project provided a cost-effective solution to water treatment plant bypass design and upgraded Muskoka’s Fairyview Water Treatment Plant.
The Fairyview Water Treatment Plant (WTP), like many other facilities, faced redundancy issues preventing shutdowns of pump chambers and clear wells for inspections or maintenance. EXP designed and implemented a cost-effective solution to enable maintenance and upgrades without disturbing potable water operations for the Town of Huntsville.
Phase 1 ‒ Civil Phase
Phase 1 of the solution was civil phase construction. EXP’s design consisted of a 720-meter, 600mm diameter serpentine pipe. The pipe was designed to mimic the chlorine contact chamber and provide proper contact time to the water before distribution. It allowed the existing chlorine contact chamber to be isolated and shut down for a lengthy period of time. This pipe was buried behind the water plant and tied into the existing distribution system. It was designed to handle the maximum flows through the Fairyview Water Treatment Plant and provide a long-term solution.
Phase 2 ‒ Mechanical Phase
Phase 2 included mechanical phase construction. Once chlorine contact time (the time required to disinfect the water at a specific concentration) was achieved, EXP provided alternate means for water supply to the distribution system while maintaining the required pressure and flow. The solution allows the high-lift pumps to be taken off-line and for the high-lift pump well and chlorine contact time chamber to be drained and inspected. Since the backwash well is isolated from the other two chambers by a spill-over weir, the team proposed a solution to utilize the backwash pumps and supply water to the distribution via the backwash pumps in series with a booster pump system.
EXP’s innovative solution for a booster pump system
During Phase 2, the team faced another critical challenge. The high flow rate and low head capacity of the backwash pumps hindered the head requirement needed to pump to distribution. To address this challenge, the team came up with an innovative solution for designing a booster pump system.
The booster pump system, in series with the backwash pumps, helped achieve proper capacity levels and completely bypass the chlorine contact chamber and the high-lift well. We were able to realize significant cost savings by constructing this system and remained under the budget approved by the district.
EXP made the following upgrades to the plant during the project:
- The booster pump system operated for 10 weeks and provided flows upward of 5500 m3 per day during a summer period.
- During construction, the chlorine contact chamber and high-lift were isolated and received a full inspection, maintenance and modifications.
- The opening that fed from the chlorine contact chamber to the high-lift was filled with a sluice gate, and a new spill-over weir was cut open.
- Filter effluent discharge was upgraded from one point of entry to three to allow for various operational scenarios (discharging directly to high-lift, to chlorine contact chamber or original backwash well).
- Upgraded HVAC and diesel generator within the water treatment plant.
During construction, the Fairyview Water Treatment Plant was fully operational and was compliant with all the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks regulations and requirements for the new system operation. The system has the capacity to deliver 400 m3/hr (110 L/s) at the required total dynamic head while providing proper disinfection.
Services
Design, Inspection, Commissioning, Construction Administration