Pine Creek wastewater treatment facility in McCandless expanding
The Authority’s Pine Creek Wastewater Treatment Facility is the Authority’s single largest asset. It has a treatment capacity of 6 million gallons per day and serves over 12,500 customers. This facility has proven to be not only an asset to the Town of McCandless but also to the other six communities that it provides a service to. This facility has allowed for continued development, both residential and commercial, for the Northern Allegheny County Region. In forecasting future needs at this facility and contemplating future regulatory requirements, the Authority voluntarily initiated a Long-Term Control Plan (LTCP). The main objective of this LTCP was to meet continued regulatory compliance while providing an affordable and efficient service to its rate payers. In 2022, the Authority undertook Phase I of this Long-Term Control Plan. This Plan, the “Pine Creek Upgrade Project”, has included physical construction of treatment process units to increase the aeration time in the Facility, to provide advanced treatment for ammonia nitrogen and total suspended solids reduction and removal. Additionally, the design includes capabilities for total nitrogen and total phosphorus control, which is anticipated to be a future PA DEP requirement for this Facility. In conjunction with this, the secondary treatment of clarification and solids removal was upgraded to provide a controlled and efficient separation of these two elements of the treatment process. Finally, with these steps in place, the turbidity of the facility discharge has been improved to a point that ultraviolet disinfection could then be installed to replace the chlorination system that has proven to be inadequate during colder temperatures and periods of elevated ammonia nitrogen. It should also be noted that eliminating the use of gaseous chlorine has created a much safer environment for the employees and residents of the area directly around this Facility. All these improvements have in turn helped to improve the receiving stream’s health for Total Mass Daily Load Limits (TMDLs) for both suspended solids and fecal coliform. Phase I has been a successful undertaking for the Authority and has improved the overall operational capabilities of this Facility, while at the same time preparing the Authority for any future regulatory compliance requirements.