AWWA INF53956

The City of Binghamton, New York's 20 million gallons per day (mgd) waterfiltration plant has provided quality drinking water to the City and parts of theTown of Binghamton for over 40 years. With only limited upgrades over the past 40years, much of the plant contains original process equipment. The plant iscapable of producing high quality water that meets today's drinking waterregulations; however, relying on older process equipment limits its ability toreliably meet the regulations. With the passage of new drinking water regulationsthrough the 1990s, the City recognized that improvements to the plant werenecessary to improve its reliability and performance. The availability of lowinterest loans from the New York State Revolving Loan Fund to help finance theimprovements was also a factor in initiating a comprehensive performanceevaluation (CPE) of the filtration plant. With the assistance of Stearns &Wheler, LLC and the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Public WaterSupply (NYDOH), the City performed a CPE in 1998. The CPE evaluated all aspectsof the treatment plant performance and established priorities for implementingupgrades. Structural, architectural, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC facilitieswere evaluated as part of the CPE. This paper summarizes the findings of the CPE,identifies the recommended improvements, and highlights the resulting treatmentreliability and performance enhancements to date. Architectural, plumbing, HVAC,and electrical improvements to the plant were recommended as part of the CPE.This paper will focus primarily on the process improvements. Includes figures.