B&N Wastewater Storage Project Receives ACEC Kentucky Grand Award
The Buechel Basin Wastewater Storage Facility Project was named a Grand Award recipient at the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Kentucky Engineering Excellence Awards luncheon, held on March 25th.
Designed by Burgess & Niple (B&N), this large-scale wastewater storage solution was selected as one of the top five projects in the state. The award was presented to David Shank, PE and Dakotah DeRoche, PE from B&N and William Marshall, PE from the Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD).
The Louisville and Jefferson County MSD built this massive wastewater storage facility as a solution to address Sanitary Sewer Overflows (SSOs) that can cause environmental and public health hazards, such as untreated wastewater discharged into streams, water in basements, flooded roadways, and poor water quality. With a capacity of 104 million gallons, the Buechel Basin Wastewater Storage Facility is MSD’s biggest basin system and one of the largest in the country.
How it Works
When excess stormwater overwhelms the sanitary sewer, the overflow is diverted to
the basins where it is held until a storm event subsides. The basins are gradually
emptied back into the sewer and the water is treated at Morris Forman Wastewater
Treatment Plant before discharging to the Ohio River. The three basins combined
can contain a 10-year storm event.
With the Buechel Basin system, untreated contaminants from SSOs are kept out of local creeks and streams. This is beneficial to the environment and the health, safety and welfare of the community.
More Storage at a Lower Cost
The Buechel Basin system applies proven technology on a massive scale and is more
cost effective than other wastewater storage alternatives. Compared to building
large pipes for storing overflow, the Buechel Basin facility can hold a substantially
larger volume at a fraction of the price per gallon of water stored.
In April 2014, the Buechel Basin Wastewater Storage Facility was utilized for the first time during a storm event. The event storage volume totaled 18 million gallons and two basins successfully handled this volume with no exceedances or odor issues.
B&N was the lead design firm for the project and provided:
- Design
- Surveying
- Environmental permitting
- Geotechnical and site/civil engineering
- Process, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering
- Architectural design of the screening building and electrical building