High wastewater disposal fees were keeping costs up at a confidential personal care manufacturing plant in the U.S. The owner was looking for a way to cut long-term expenses and commissioned a study for a pretreatment system and put the concept out to bid. Woodard & Curran offered an alternative approach that would achieve the client’s goals and cost 25% less than the original design.
NEW APPROACH CUTS PROJECT COSTS BY A QUARTER
The wastewater from a typical personal care product production line has a high organic load. This leads to local POTWs charging high fees to accept and treat it. Installing pretreatment can be an effective way to control those costs. In this case, the client had a complex conceptual design with an estimated capital cost that was simply too high. Searching for another option, they invited Woodard & Curran to submit a design-build proposal for the 210,000 GPD system.
Rather than take the preliminary design concept as set in stone, we looked for opportunities to improve it. And we found them. Teaming up with a local contractor, we proposed a system that cost 25% less to build than the previous bid while still accomplishing the desired treatment goals. Our design/build team delivered the project on a fast-track schedule, initiating construction as soon as each phase of the design was complete. Skid-mounted equipment and factory fabricated piping and utility work reduced field construction time and helped ensure quality. The team commissioned the plant and provided start-up services that brought the system into full operation in a short time, allowing the client to reduce its wastewater charges.
