The largest membrane bioreactor wastewater treatment project in North America is nearing completion in Canton.
Four years ago, Canton worked out with Kubota Industries for the Japanese maker of high-efficiency portable waste-water filtration units to scale up its technology for city-size use.
Now, the last of a set of swimming pool-like tanks filled with membrane arrays—MBRs--is going in at Canton’s waste treatment plant. Water Reclamation Supervisor Tracy Mills says tests so far look good.
“The MBRs to this point have exhibited an exceptional discharge to near drinking-water quality.”
Mills says the sixth MBR will be done by Christmas and the “substantial completion date” for the $49 million construction project will be in February.
“The original estimate was a little over $50 million for the construction aspect. We are under that. We anticipate that we’ll have one more change order, to clean up loose ends at the end of the project. That will take us into early 2018.”
There are pending legal filings in connection with the project that Mills says he cannot comment on. But from court records, those appear to have to do with installations of screens at plant intakes and not the bio-reactor membranes themselves.
