Ray Bullard Water Reclamation Facility Upgrade

The contract has been executed for the Ray Bullard Water Reclamation Facility Upgrade. The facility in West Melbourne treats sewage and discharges the treated effluent water either through deep well injection or through reclaimed water lines used for irrigation. The Save Our Indian River Lagoon Plan identified that the nutrient concentrations in the reclaimed water was higher than could be taken up by the plants it irrigates, thus adding excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollution to the Indian River Lagoon. The current nutrient concentrations in the reclaimed water averages 23.51 mg/L of total nitrogen and 6.38 mg/L of total phosphorus. This project will install a a three-stage biological nutrient removal activated sludge treatment system into the current wastewater treatment process. This will reduce the nutrient concentration of the reclaimed water to 5 mg/L of total nitrogen and 1 mg/L of total phosphorus. Once complete the project is estimated to prevent 11,360 pounds of nitrogen and 3,302 pounds of phosphorus from entering the Indian River Lagoon each year.