Working to eliminate chlorine from the disinfection process at its Humboldt Industrial Park wastewater treatment plant, CAN DO, Inc. recently completed a $450,000 installation of an ultraviolet disinfection system.

CAN DO began the planning phase for the ultraviolet disinfection system in 2013 in order to eliminate the discharge of sodium bisulfate and sodium hypochlorite into the waterways from the wastewater treatment plant. The plant is equipped to treat up to 1 million gallons per day of sanitary sewage. It serves only the Humboldt Industrial Park, which consists of 60 industries employing approximately 10,000 people at peak periods of the year.

“The Humboldt Industrial Park wastewater treatment plant is a state-of-the-art facility with the capacity to handle additional park tenants and is environmentally friendly to the community,” said CAN DO President and CEO Kevin O’Donnell.

In 2009, CAN DO completed an expansion of the plant and increased the treatment capacity from 500,000 gallons to 1 million gallons per day as part of a $6 million upgrade that also included adding a 1 million-gallon detention tank and a sand filter to capture minute particles.

CAN DO has installed a variety of nutrient removal equipment over the years that reduced the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus in the discharge water. These changes have helped CAN DO to meet and exceed the Chesapeake Bay environmental standards that ensure that aquatic life in the bay continues to flourish.

For its most recent project, CAN DO received a $450,000 20-year low-interest loan from the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (PENNVEST). Entech Engineering of Mountaintop designed this process change and Eastern Environmental Contractors, Inc. started construction on the new system in July and delivered and installed new ultraviolet equipment in October.

“The new system will be much more effective, environmentally speaking,” said CAN DO Director of Operations Greg Kurtz. “It consists of three UV units to enable it to handle the maximum plant capacity. The ultraviolet light is used to kill/alter bacteria’s molecular structure making it impossible to reproduce.”

The new system allows the treatment facility to comply with a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection mandate. According to a report from the United States Environmental Protection Agency, UV disinfection has several advantages including:

• It is effective at inactivating most viruses, spores and cysts.
• It’s a physical process rather than a chemical disinfectant, which eliminates the need to generate, handle, transport or store toxic/hazardous or corrosive chemicals.
• It has no residual effect that can be harmful to humans or aquatic life.
• It is user-friendly for operators.
• It has as a shorter contact time when compared with other disinfectants (approximately 20 to 30 seconds with low-pressure lamps).
• It uses equipment that requires less space than other methods.