Awastewater treatment facility for the south side of Newcastle has been on the minds of city officials for some time. They’ve been steadily working towards placing a facility near State Highway 9.
The new facility would be different from the aerobic system now under construction on N.E. 16th Street, just west of Portland. They’ve been looking at an MBR plant, which uses a bioreactor process of vacuuming through membranes to clean water.
City Manager Kevin Self said this type of facility and process is very clean.
“Basically it’s totally different than the sewer plant that we are building up north. That facility is an aerobic system, treated with oxygen. This plant uses membranes with a vacuum system that will pull the water through the membrane and scours the treatment.”
Self said it is a very clean discharging plant, and what comes out of it can be much cleaner than what comes out of the aerobic-style plants. He added that these types of plants are easily expandable and would serve the City for years to come.
Self said the City believes this type of plant and the required influent and effluent lines will cost the city about $20 million instead of the $50 million required for the aerobic system plant. He said Newcastle residents will want to know why the City didn’t build one of these types of plants earlier instead of the aerobic system plant.
“These plants are not new, but they were operated differently before where water was pushed through, and membranes would break,” Self said. “They were not as efficient at cleaning then and costs to operate were more expensive. DEQ said no more plants like this would be allowed in Oklahoma. They weren’t doing what they were intended to do.”
Self said the new plants which vacuums through the membranes are much more successful.
“Our engineer has been in contact with DEQ about this proposed plant and DEQ has told him there shouldn’t be a problem with approving this newer type of plant,” Self said.
Self and Mayor Karl Nail took a trip in late winter, early spring specifically to visit an MBR plant in Trophy Club, Texas. They went to see how it operates, to discuss the operations, and talk about the pros and cons of such a plant with the individuals who operate it.
They’ve determined that a plantlikethiswouldpotentially give the City the ability to still meet its waste load allocation, but still discharge a lot of water through the plant because of how clean it is once it goes through this type of treatment process.
Self said the plant is still a work in progress, and that they are in the beginning stages. This includes the approval of a contract with S2 Engineering which was made several months ago to perform a waste load allocation for the City on the North Fork of Walnut Creek to determine potential discharge waste load — or how much the City can discharge into the creek.
Self said that study is complete and the information has been compiled for a discharge permit with the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality. That too, is still in the process. Self added that the City has been working with a property owner at State Highway 9 and State Highway 62, to hopefully purchase five acres for a new plant.
The City has selected Kubota as the manufacturer of the plant.
“That will all still have to go out to bid, as to who would construct, etc.,” Self said, “but that would come at a later time.”
Wall Engineering has been working with the City on a design and engineering for the plant, as well as the influent line, that would run from SH62 and SH-9 down to Harvey Street and SH-9. Self said they will also be engineering a line that would go under SH-9 and flow down to the North Fork of Walnut Creek.
Self said the City hopes to have this new facility complete within the next three to four years, with four being a maximum.
“It’s our goal to have it done within two to three years,” he said.
One of those reasons is because it would serve the Chickasaw Nation Medical Complex to be built at Main Street and S.W. 16th Street in Newcastle. Self said the new facility is a huge benefit for not only the City of Newcastle, but also the Chickasaw Medical Complex. The City has been in talks with the Chickasaw Nation about they plant, and the possibility of sharing in the project with the City.
“The goal is that a new facility would serve the businesses or any type of redevelopment that may happen,” Self said. “That sewer would be there for those new businesses.”
He said it would serve several businesses and individuals along SH-9, especially those along Harvey Street and the Crystal Lakes Addition, as well as any new business that may build along the SH-9 corridor. It would also serve the City of Newcastle Fire Station on SH-9.
“This is an absolutely huge deal that will open up the SH-9 area, in particular for commercial development, especially the closer you get to U.S. Interstate 35,” Self said. “We know that’s a prime area for commercial development, and we want to make sure we can capture that development as it comes in. We already have water there, but we don’t have sewer.”
To pay for a new facility, the City is hoping that with the Chickasaw Nation’s partnership they will be able to leverage some of the existing loan funds the City has for the north plant.
“This way, the loan that we already have would encompass both the north plant and the south plant,” Self said.
The City has close to $8 million that they’ve been putting aside along with grant money through the Indian Health Services for this purpose.
