Background/Purpose of Request:
The Ocean Isle Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant is in need of significant rehabilitation and expansion. In addition to rehabilitating existing facilities, the project will provide centralized wastewater treatment by replacing some existing nearby wastewater treatment facilities and expand overall treatment capacity in the southeast area of Brunswick County. In an effort to regionalize wastewater treatment in the area, Brunswick County Public Utilities and the Town of Ocean Isle Beach entered into an agreement whereby the towns aging wastewater treatment plant was conveyed to Brunswick County and the County would provide an additional 550,000 gpd of treatment capacity to meet the Towns existing permitted collection system tributary flows. Moreover, Brunswick County intends to decommission the aged, decrepit Sea Trail wastewater treatment steel package plant system with an original design capacity of 500,000 gpd and re-route flow to the centralized, regional Ocean Isle Beach WWTP.
Also, through agreement with a developer, the County acquired the Ocean Ridge collection system, re-use system, and WWTP. The 500,000 gpd Ocean Ridge WWTP (100,000 gpd actual) was taken out of service and the capacity needs to be replaced. The proposed project will result in the interconnection of the Ocean Isle Beach WWTP with the County’s Carolina Shores WWTP to add additional operational flexibility. The non-discharge OIB WWTP and associated water reclamation spray fields must undergo significant rehabilitation to be able to meet the 1.60 mgd original design capacity of the system.
A Preliminary Engineering Report will investigate new effluent disposal means such as high-rate infiltration basins or effluent re-use on other golf courses. Moreover, the installation of biosolids, dewatering, and residuals handling equipment as well as off-site digestion facilities will be part of the project (currently, a portion of the sequencing batch reactor [SBR] treatment train must be used for residual storage). It is anticipated that the failing spray irrigation fields that routinely result in Notice of Violations will be replaced with re-use force mains to supply nearby golf courses with reclaimed water for irrigation, infiltration basins, and conjunctive re-use facilities to meet re-use application needs during wet weather periods.
Additional land will be required for these facilities as there is not adequate land located on the existing OIB Wastewater Treatment site. The project will require the replacement of headworks facilities, the addition of biological treatment trains, filtration, disinfection, biosolids handling facilities (sludge thickening, sludge storage, sludge disposal), re-use facilities, and associated force mains. The rehabilitation of existing facilities, replacement of the decommissioned facilities, and regionalization commitments with the Town and Ocean Ridge developer would necessitate an after-project capacity of the OIB WWTP of 2.2 mgd treatment capacity, but a logical expansion based on the existing infrastructure would likely result in a 3.05 mgd after-project capacity that would match the 3.05 mgd of disposal capacity.
The Brunswick County ARPA Committee reviewed and approved the Project Request and Eligibility Determination attached.
Staff recommends authorization of $4,942,733 million in County ARP funds for the design and land purchase associated with the rehabilitation and expansion of the Ocean Isle Beach Wastewater Treatment Plant. |