(Cleveland)- The City of Cleveland has been awarded an additional $ 1 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission for the upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
Tom O’Bryant, Director of Economic Development and Planning for the City of Cleveland advised that the ARC funds will be used to construct wastewater treatment plant upgrades to meet required federal environmental standards and improve service for the City’s 934 households and 333 industrial and commercial wastewater customers.
The work according to O’Bryant will also make the City more resilient to severe weather events, encourage existing industry expansion, and accommodate future business and industry growth.
According to O’Bryant the wastewater treatment plant upgrades will be done in two stages; first an upgrade in the wastewater treatment method from a Lemna system to a more traditional tertiary treatment system that incorporates biological nutrient removal; and then an upgrade in wastewater treatment capacity from 0.75 millions of gallons per day to 1.15 MGD.
The treatment method upgrade will allow the City to meet the requirements under a new wastewater discharge permit issued in 2019. The City is operating under a consent order from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division under a previous standard of treatment of wastewater until the completion of the upgrades.
In addition to ARC funds, other federal sources will provide 17.9 million, local funds will total just over $2.2 million bringing the total project funding to $21,234,365.
