The Star City WWTP, located alongside the Monongahela River near Morgantown, West Virginia, required this major rehabilitation and expansion to improve the reliability and efficiency of the plant while increasing capacity from 12 MGD to 21 MGD. Nearly every process within the plant was replaced or improved. The aging and overburdened rotating biological contactor system at the heart of the secondary process was replaced with modern membrane treatment systems. A new headworks building, primary effluent splitter structure, primary effluent screening building, primary pumping station, and UV disinfection facility further improved the main process train, while a new 80’ tall digester provides improved sludge treatment on the space-constrained site. New control rooms and laboratories will help ensure efficient and comfortable plant operations for decades to come.
The entire plant is confined to a narrow floodplain along the Monongahela River, requiring detailed phasing to ensure both efficient construction and ongoing safe operation of the facility. The “back and forth” nature of the plant flow further complicated construction; reflecting a long history of plant expansion along the floodplain, the large diameter piping carrying the flow between the processes crisscrosses the facility in a complex network, requiring significant temporary measures and tie-in planning to complete the new modifications.
