SANUP
WHAT IS SANUP?
In 2005, Virginia imposed an unprecedented legal requirement – by 2011, AlexRenew must remove 62% more nitrogen from our treated wastewater. That means designing, building, and installing modern equipment that allows us to meet the new regulations and do our part at improving the health of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The lower the discharge limits go, the more advanced/complex our facilities are needed to be – on an already constrained site. This is SANUP: our State-of-the-Art Nitrogen Upgrade Program.
A long-range planning effort was started in 2007 where the team evaluated all current and emerging technologies needed to achieve AlexRenew’s 2011 and 2030 needs and goals. It was ultimately decided to break SANUP up into “packages” to allow us to spread design and construction costs over a 7-year period. The individual packages are:
Supplemental Carbon Improvements
Centrate Pretreatment and Final Effluent Flow Measurement
This is one of our most innovative technologies planned – by utilizing anammox bacteria, or red bugs, in a deammoniafication process (DEMON) before the biological reactor basins, AlexRenew will no longer use the chemicals and only 30% of the energy typically needed during this treatment process. There are currently only 14 installations of DEMON in Europe, and AlexRenew will become one of the first to use this technology in North America.
In addition, measurement instruments installed in the post-aeration basins will allow us to accurately measure our final effluent flow discharged to Hunting Creek. This package is scheduled to begin construction in 2011.
West Plant Site Access and Nutrient Management Facility
Biological Reactor Basin Number 6
These are “must have” investments for us and our ratepayers. They will help us continue to provide safe, cost-effective, exceptional service in an environmentally sustainable manner. They also allow for continued growth and re-urbanization of the area while still encouraging an Eco-City environment and generating new jobs.
