Wright-Pierce was the recipient of a 2023 Silver Engineering Excellence Award from American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC), New Hampshire Chapter, for our role in helping the Town of Whitefield upgrade their wastewater treatment facility (WWTF).
The Town of Whitefield’s WWTF required an upgrade in capacity and to come into compliance with its NPDES discharge permit while also providing flexibility to upgrade the new process to meet potential future requirements. The selected secondary treatment process upgrade included a full WWTF process conversion of the lagoon process to a mechanical, activated sludge process consisting of Sequencing Batch Reactors (SBRs). To meet the stringent nutrient requirements, a tertiary filtration system was implemented using cloth disc filters.
The bigger picture of the entire wastewater process was taken into consideration including an upgrade to the Brown Street Pump Station that provides the WWTF influent. The Johns River, the waterbody which the Whitefield WWTF effluent discharges to, flows from the source waters of Cherry Pond and through the Towns of Jefferson, Whitefield, and Dalton before joining the Connecticut River. With this WWTF upgrade, the Town has invested significant efforts in keeping the Johns River waterway safe for humans and wildlife for years to come.
The project met the Town’s goals of reducing NH3 and TP levels to below the mandated NPDES permit required limits while positioning the facility for potential future upgrades, all of which was funded by a combination of NHDES State Revolving Loan funds including forgiveness, USDA-Rural Development Loan and Grant Funds, and a dedicated grant provided by Northern Borders Regional Commission.
The photo below is from the ribbon cutting ceremony when the project was completed. Wright-Pierce Project Manager Mike Curry and Project Engineer Paige Durant were joined by DPW Director Rob Larson, the Whitefield Board of Selectmen, H20 Innovation operations staff, Daniel Hebert Construction, representatives from NHDES and USDA, along with State Senator Erin Hennessey and State Representatives for the ceremony at the newly upgraded WWTF. Contact us today to learn more.
