Client: Ascension Parish
Completion Date: 2009
Ascension Parish is a suburban Parish located south of Baton Rouge and west of New Orleans along I-10. The Parish has experienced tremendous population growth in the past 15 years. The rate of growth has increased at an even faster rate since Hurricane Katrina as New Orleans area evacuees have settled in the Parish due to quality schools and convenient access to both Baton Rouge and New Orleans. As a result, both the rural/individual wastewater treatment and subdivision package treatment plants are no longer meeting pollution discharge limits for the growing wastewater effluent produced. Consequently, the Parish, with the financial and technical assistance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, will construct a new wastewater facility near Gonzales, LA which will provide ultimate treatment capacity of 7.5 million gallons per day as designed by GEC, Inc.
GEC's Public Works Group has designed a new $10.5 million Sequencing Batch Reactor (an activated sludge type) wastewater treatment facility with influent pump station, headworks, belt filter press and disinfection system. The plant will start operation with a 1.5 MGD capacity which can easily be upgraded in stages as new service area flows are added to the plant. The designed facility will have auxiliary electrical generation capability so that treatment will continue during power outages. The designed effluent quality will meet the pollution limits required for discharging to the Mississippi River approximately three miles from the facility site. It is estimated that this new facility will begin operations in the Spring of 2009.
