The Guam Waterworks Authority has awarded a $122 million to Black Construction for upgrades to the Northern District Wastewater Treatment Plant, which will begin in early 2020 and take approximately two and half years to complete.
“This upgrade to NDWWTP Is the largest project to date under GWA’s system improvement plans,” GWA general manager Miguel Bordallo said.
“This award will ensure that NDWWTP will move to secondary treatment which would meet the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), and increase hydraulic capacity throughout the facility to accommodate future flows,” added Bordallo.
“This enhancement will improve the quality of effluent sent out into the Philippine Sea, something that GWA has been concerned about for some time”, he added. “In 2017 the Consolidated Commission on Utilities successfully negotiated from Congress approximately $116 million for the upgrades, this to ensure very little impact to ratepayers.”
NDWWTP was originally constructed in 1979 by the U.S. Navy. This secondary treatment system at NDWWTP will also improve quality of the effluent to the Philippine Sea, thus reducing impacts to coral reefs and improving the quality for public use.
In addition to the secondary treatment, an Autothermal Thermophilic Aerobic Digestion System (ATADS) will be constructed reducing the NDWWTP end product sludge quantity that currently needs to be landfilled.