Two new clarifiers are up and running at the Greenville Utilities Commission Wastewater Treatment Plant, effectively expanding capacity to serve more residential and industrial customers.
This $20 million capital investment project replaced one failed clarifier and added a second one to accommodate future capacity needs as the Greenville region continues to grow.
One clarifier, built in 1985, was taken offline in 2019 after staff discovered damage to it. Need for the second clarifier in the coming years had already been identified at the time of the failure. Building the two at the same time saved money in the long run as construction crews were already on site and the price of construction is expected to rise in the future. Construction began in the spring of 2024 and just wrapped up this fall.
“The new design is much more efficient than the vintage clarifiers,” WWTP Superintendent Jason Manning said. Jason said these new clarifiers are able to dampen out pulses and surges in flow to ensure sludge settles, allowing clear, treated water to continue through the filtration and disinfection treatment process.
“The task of a clarifier is to use gravity to separate the biological solids and the treated water, so if a clarifier is able to mute those pulses in flow more efficiently, then that is really good. It settles better and faster,” he said.