Dewatered Screenings Load Out System Brush Creek WWTP in North Huntington, PA

General Description

The Western Westmoreland Municipal Authority (WWMA) operates and coordinates municipal services for seven boroughs and townships in the western portion of Westmoreland County, PA. The Brush Creek WWTP plant has a peak flow of 15 MGD with a daily average of approximately 4 MGD with a service area of 12,500 acres that includes residential, commercial, and light industrial customers. The area has also seen an increase in residential, commercial, and light industrial development.

The Brush Creek plant had recently been upgraded under the COA Improvement Project, which included upgrades to the screenings removal system. The screenings loadout system included a storage hopper, slide gate, and control system. This improvement will allow for the screening equipment to continue to process influent when there is no truck around to fill. The screenings hopper was fed by a washer-compactor after the upstream bar screen. KWS Environmental provided a complete load out system to meet the requirements of the application.

Design Parameters

1. Product Type: Dewatered Screenings
2. Material Density: 70 Lbs. per Cubic Foot
3. Hopper Capacity: 370 Cubic Feet
4. Duty: 5 Days a Week, 8 Hours per Day

KWS Advantages

KWS Environmental is an ideal partner for consulting engineers and contractors for every phase of a project. For the Brush Creek project, a team of professional engineers from KWS Environmental provided design services for the residuals storage and handling section of the project. With just a few general specifications and preliminary layout drawings to go by, KWS Environmental created a load out system that included a screenings hopper and twin-actuated slide gate.

Compacted screenings discharge from an existing washer/compactor in very large cylindrical chunks, necessitating a large hopper size and slide gate opening. The hopper was designed to hold 370-cubic feet of compacted screenings, more than two days accumulation. The slide gate was designed with a 4-foot by 4-foot opening to eliminate bridging in the hopper and facilitate truck or container loading. KWS Environmental also provided structural steel supports for the hopper and slide gate, which required close coordination with the contractor.

Special Features

The screenings hopper and slide gate were designed and manufactured from 304 stainless steel to provide long-lasting protection against corrosion. The slide gate utilized twin pneumatic actuators designed to open and close with more than 20,000 lbs. of weight on the gate. The gate blade was 1-inch thick to reduce deflection under load and supported by stainless steel rollers with graphite-impregnated bronze bushings.

The overall length of the slide gate was reduced by mounting the pneumatic cylinders on each side of the gate. KWS Environmental manufactured the hopper and slide gate in accordance with the Pennsylvania Steel Procurement Act and American Iron and Steel Act, which requires all iron and steel to be of US origin.