It has been said that double the effort yields triple the success. When the Village of Palmyra applied its Clean Water Fund award toward an important wastewater treatment plant upgrade, it coupled the project with the construction of an adjoining new public works garage. The result boosts wastewater treatment efficiency, achieves compliance limits for ammonia and phosphorus, and supports the current needs and future goals of the community public works department.

The Village of Palmyra has an estimated current population around 1,770 people with a projected maximum population in the next 20 years of 1,930 residents. In addition to residential, commercial and public authority flow, the Village accepts pretreated industrial flow from Standard Process, Inc., and also serves the Blue Springs Lake Sanitary District.

New dry pit submersible raw wastewater pumps

The new wastewater treatment facility replaces an aging uncovered lagoon system with chlorine disinfection that was struggling to meet more stringent regulatory limits for ammonia and phosphorus. The upgrade solves that challenge while also boosting treatment efficiency, designed for an average daily flow rate of 0.23 MGD. It does so with a variety of new improvements: raw wastewater pumps, aeration system for the lagoon, lagoon covers and baffles, moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) for ammonia polishing, chemical phosphorus removal system, ultraviolet (UV) disinfection system and new secondary service building to house the MBBR blowers, chemical storage tank, chemical dosing pumps and ortho-phosphate analyzer.

In tandem with the wastewater treatment project, the Village sought the design and construction of a new public works garage on the same property. The new garage replaces a demolished service building and measures 60 feet by 100 feet, complete with an attached 28-foot by 64-foot office, laboratory, electrical, mechanical and process space. This new space is home to Palmyra Department of Public Works, which maintains all public infrastructure, roads, highways and bridges, parks and recreational facilities, public buildings, sanitation and utilities in the Village.

The Village of Palmyra, Public Works employees, project stakeholders and residents celebrated the completion of both the wastewater treatment facility and public works garage with an open house on August 6, 2022.