Wow, I can't believe 2011 has come and gone already. I was very busy in 2011 and will try to cover the most exciting things that happened last year in this post. The most exciting milestone by far was the 5 year anniversary of Great Blue Heron Management. I am so proud of the success of the company so far and incredibly grateful to all of my customers for trusting me to provide quality work.
I had the opportunity to work with the Shelton CT Water Pollution Control Authority (WPCA) and plant staff on process control and the implementation of the maintenance management program over the last few years. In 2011, the Shelton CT Wastewater Treatment Plant staff celebrated thier first full year of very good nitrogen removal. In fact, its the first year since the new plant was constructed that the WPCA didn't have to pay the State of Connecticut a fee for exceeding the nitrogen credit threshold. Shelton also fully implemented a maintenance management program which is helping them to track preventive and corrective maintenance that otherwise would not have been measured in the past. So cudo's go out to the staff of the Shelton facility for staying on top of the biological process while struggling through some serious equipment issues. There is a new consulting engineer working with the WPCA and the plant staff so hopefully the equipment issues will be resolved in 2012.
I had the pleasure of working with the folks at Cambridge Water Technologies (CWT) for several years now on multiple projects. None more satisfying than the Sturbridge, Massachusetts Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade this past year. The treatment plant was upgraded from 0.75 MGD to 1.3 MGD and now has the ability to remove total phosphorus below 0.2 mg/L and total nitrogen below 10 mg/L at design flows. Construction of the last process tank is almost complete and performance testing is about to begin in the first quarter of 2012. So far the two technologies (BioMag and CoMag) have been on line for many months and have performed very well. The consulting engineer for this project, Tighe and Bond, estimates that the Town of Sturbridge will save significant dollars over membrane technology during the life of this project.
Great Blue Heron Management added one additional water treatment plant to the company in 2011. This particular water treatment plant has a complex treatment process for its size. It removes radon gas and arsenic while filtering and disinfecting the water. So far, we have had to do a major housekeeping effort, stock critical spares where we had none, begin the task of identifying all of the major isolation gates in the distribution system, repair the auxiliary generator, and perform multiple repairs and updates to the electrical and mechanical systems. The facility is much more reliable today than it was one year ago. Thanks to Salisbury Management for being a great customer to work with on these complex systems.
EMC Corporation has been a customer of GBHM almost since day one. This past year the scope of work expanded to include several lift stations with added 24/7 alarm coverage. In addition, many of the existing assets are reaching the 10-12 life expentancy. So during the last part of 2011 and much of 2012, GBHM and EMC Corporation will be engaged in significant updates to pumping and control systems. We are also working together to identify all of the water and wastewater infrastructure assets and determine how best to manage these in the future.
Lastly, it was with great pleasure that I had the opportunity to host the first annual outing for some of GBHM's customers in 2011. We headed to the Town of Orleans, MA for a fun day on the water fishing for striped bass. As much as I tried to allow my customers to catch the largest fish, it just wasn't possible becuase yours truly caught the big fish of the day. I'm hoping this is the first of many outings over the years. Hope you enjoy the post. Send me your comments.
