Wastewater Package Plant Evaluation and Decommissioning – West Muskingum County Schools – Zanesville, Ohio

In conjunction with expanding its middle and high schools, West Muskingum County Schools contracted STONE to evaluate their on-site wastewater system. The original school buildings discharged wastewater to a package wastewater treatment plant consisting of activated sludge, settling, aerobic sludge digestion, tertiary effluent sand filters, and sludge drying beds. The system, built in 1972, was observed to be performing adequately, but equipment was falling into disrepair, and mechanical equipment was in need of replacement. STONE prepared cost estimates for system upgrades and compared these to the costs of connecting to a nearby City of Zanesville trunk sewer. Certain political and monetary concessions were made by the City, and the school board decided to connect to the trunk sewer and decommission the existing wastewater treatment plant.

STONE then prepared detailed construction documents for the on-site decommissioning and demolition of the wastewater treatment plant as part of the construction package for the new school buildings. A key challenge of this project was to locate the original drawings of the system. Using its contacts with Ohio EPA, STONE obtained scanned copies of the 1972 plans, which were used in the evaluation and base plans for the decommissioning/demolition documents.