USA - Wolf Creek

About the Nereda® Wolf Creek Wastewater treatment plant in USA

Wolf Creek wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) is located in Foley, a city in Baldwin County, in the south of Alabama, USA.

The challenge

The Wolf Creek treatment facility in the City of Foley, Alabama, was upgraded to provide residents with improved water quality and exceptional nutrient removal. The Riviera Utilities facility serves approximately 6,000 residential and commercial customers in the vicinity. Wastewater is collected through a network of over 100 miles of gravity mains, 40 lift stations and 30 miles of force mains. It flows into the WWTP, and the treated effluent is then discharged into the Wolf Creek watercourse. The WWTP featured outdated technology that required upgrading, to meet current water industry legislation and to prepare for the future. Its challenges also included limited space for upgrades, due to the plant’s urban location. The upgrade was an ideal opportunity to implement a robust, proven technology capable of handling the plant’s disruptions and salinity, as well as offering cost-efficiencies and easy operation on the site.

The solution

Nereda technology, the advanced wastewater treatment process invented and developed in the Netherlands, was applied for the first time as a full-scale project in a treatment works in the United States. Various past issues at Wolf Creek were addressed by the selection of aerobic granular sludge as the solution for the site and its future operation. The project saw Riviera Utilities working in contract with Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood Inc. (GMC) to design a wastewater treatment plant upgrade and expansion. GMC is one of the region’s prime architecture and engineering firms. Aqua-Aerobic Systems is marketing Nereda in the United States, as the technology’s official licensee. Aqua-Aerobic Systems is a designer and manufacturer of total water management solutions, and its understanding and expertise makes it an ideal partner for the technology.

The outcome

The upgraded WWTP at Wolf Creek operates at a capacity of an average 3.6 MGD, up from 2.0 MGD at the old site. Three 2200 m³ Nereda reactors will have the capacity to process a peak flow of 961 m3 per hour. By selecting Nereda technology, the facility benefits from energy reduction, increased cost-effectiveness through savings in tankage size and is more operator-friendly.