September's top stories: DC Water selects Emerson, Scottish Water to build tunnel

DC Water has chosen Emerson Process Management's control system, to automate equipment and processes for two innovative environmental projects at the Blue Plains advanced wastewater treatment plant in Washington DC.

The Ovation control system will enable DC Water to optimise operations of two capital improvement projects at its 370 million gallons per day plant.

The company hopes the enhanced nutrient removal and thermal hydrolysis and anaerobic digestion projects will enable it to comply with new environmental regulations and meet population growth.

Utility giant Northumbrian Water is preparing to pump around £1bn in services to its customers in the north-east between 2015 and 2020, in a bid to help stimulate economic growth in the region. Covid-19 Report — Updated twice a week Understanding the Covid-19 outbreak, the economic impact and implications for specific sectors Get the free report

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The company believes the investment will protect and create jobs among its network of suppliers and contractors, and also encourage new businesses to move into the area.

Northumbrian Water will improve 270 miles of sewers to reduce the risk of flooding and clean 1,500 miles of water pipes.

Veolia Water has won a contract from Romarco Minerals for a water treatment plant at the Haile Gold Mine, located in Kershaw, South Carolina, in the US.

The company will design the 1,200 gallon per minute (GPM) DenseSludge water treatment plant, and also supply equipment and provide construction oversight.

Veolia Water stated the high density sludge water treatment solution will help meet all National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements.

US-based Middlesex Water Company has partnered with Natural Systems Utilities (NSU) and its wholly-owned subsidiary Applied Water Management (AWM) to design, construct and operate a new leachate pretreatment facility in Tinton Falls, New Jersey.

The new facility will be constructed for the Monmouth County Reclamation Center. Middlesex Water will provide operational support to the project and will also act as guarantor of AWM's performance.

Recently, Middlesex Water partnered with NSU, in an alternative energy joint venture project serving the Village of Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Environmental solutions provider United Envirotech has secured a contract to acquire, upgrade and expand a wastewater treatment plant in Liaoning Province, China.

The company has signed an RMB286m ($46.7m) 30-year agreement with the municipal government of Hong Wei District, Liaoyang City, to acquire the existing 15,000m³/day plant and upgrade it with its membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology.

It will add an additional 45,000m³/day of treatment capacity to cater to a future increase in demand.

Once completed, the plant will treat 30,000m³/day of municipal wastewater and 30,000m³/day of industrial wastewater.

Design and construction company Mott MacDonald, in a joint venture (JV) with contractor JN Bentley, has been awarded a five-year framework extension to support UK utility Yorkshire Water.

The JV will help deliver £1bn of planned investment throughout the asset management period, which runs from 2015-2020. It will provide creative and innovative schemes that improve the water network for the benefit of customers across the region.

As sole contract partners on Yorkshire Water's reservoirs stream, the JV has maximised the benefits of design for manufacture and assembly, implementing solutions which reduce embodied carbon.

It has also realised 24% cost savings, as well as benefits in safety and quality.

The European Union (EU), the German government and the Palestinian Authority have awarded €40m for the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in East Nablus.

The new plant will help address problems with untreated wastewater from East Nablus. It will allow the treated wastewater to be re-used in agriculture, conserving limited groundwater resources in Palestine.

The project includes construction of a central wastewater treatment plant to serve the eastern part of Nablus city and six surrounding villages of Azmut, Salem, Deir Al-Hatab, Kafer Qalil, Rujeeb and Beit Furik. It also includes new and extended collection systems.

Scottish Water will build a £100m sewer tunnel in the south of Glasgow, as part of the biggest upgrade of the city's wastewater network in more than a century.

The wastewater tunnel will help to improve water quality and reduce flooding issues at key locations served by the Shieldhall wastewater treatment works. It will transfer combined sewer flows (surface water such as rainfall and wastewater from properties) and provide storm storage of heavy rainfall.

The project is part of Scottish Water's £250m five-year programme of work to upgrade the wastewater network in the Glasgow area. The company announced the programme in February.