Establishing Operational Awareness to Improve Permit Compliance

The largest wastewater treatment plant in New Mexico, the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority’s (Water Authority) Southside Water Reclamation Facility (SWRF) treats over 50 million gallons of wastewater and discharges to the Rio Grande. This river serves as a valuable primary water source for Native American pueblos residing downstream.

To protect the water quality of this receiving body of water, as well as sovereign nations that rely on it, the SWRF is required to meet discharge limits established by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. However, the facility’s operations and maintenance (O&M) practices consistently resulted in poor compliance, which led to even stricter permit limits that the facility struggled even more to meet.

Therefore, in 2012, the Water Authority contracted Carollo to evaluate the SWRF’s existing O&M. The initial audit revealed a few strengths against a wide range of concerns and issues, with the root cause of the poor permit compliance being linked to inconsistent procedures rooted in outdated practices and protocols rather than data-driven process adjustments and engineered solutions. Following the audit, Carollo promptly led a comprehensive overhaul of the Hach Water Information Management Solution (WIMS) database used to track and display the SWRF’s performance. By doing so, inefficient or inadequate processes were flagged and targeted for specific improvements.

Carollo also developed detailed management plans per process area, establishing how exactly to operate and optimize each major treatment process. These plans now serve as training guides for new hires and refresher documents for seasoned staff and are also incorporated into the facility’s annual operations plan. Also developed by Carollo, this larger document details how the SWRF will be operated in the upcoming year, how performance metrics connect to budget development, and what major engineering or maintenance projects are anticipated in the near future.

These various guiding documents openly communicate (and publish) expected standards and goals the SWRF must meet and, with each update, allows both Water Authority management and facility staff to keep their thumbs on the pulse of their facilities.

The success of this three-year project is demonstrated by the SWRF’s excellent and continued compliance with its discharge permit as well as its winning of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) peak performance award. Furthermore, the Water Authority and its staff members now have a capital improvement plan and budget that are defensibly adjusted according to real, fact-based needs rather than opinion.

The Water Authority has now integrated Carollo’s concepts and approach into their water treatment, water distribution, wastewater collection, and biosolids handling systems.