HeadsUp Newsletter - Vol 3.11: November 2006

Located in the heart of Southwestern Ontario, the City of London has been known to take an active approach in waste reduction. For instance, in the spirit of Canada’s waste reduction week, the City of London offers their residents an assortment of incentives to encourage them to participate in their three ‘Rs” program: reduction, reusing, recycling (and composting wastes). This plan aims to decrease landfill space and greenhouse gases, as well as heighten water quality, and save their municipality money in disposal costs. With extra savings and a mission to improve environmental standards, the City of London Municipal team planned to upgrade their wastewater treatment plant in September of 2004.

The plan to upgrade the headworks portion of their wastewater treatment plant was required by their need to handle increasing flow from mostly residential and some commercial points. To ensure that they would make a well informed choice for their treatment equipment, the City’s decision makers decided to attend the Water Environment Federation Technical Conference (WEFTEC) in 2004. During the conference, they visited many manufacturers’ booths including that of Headworks^® Inc. After much consideration and thought, the City of London Municipal authorities asked Headworks^® Inc. for a budget proposal and to schedule a site visit of a nearby plant.

Headworks^® hosted a visit to the nearby installation in Amherst, NY which has four screens with over 45’ in length. The trip was attended by authorities from The Region of Niagara, the City of London and their consulting engineer. All were so impressed with the site visit that the screen replacement was designed solely around the Headworks^® Bar Screen.

They were eager to move forward as they had already upgraded their grit system and the new system was overloaded with solids. The existing screens had 2” openings that allowed too many solids to pass and were so old that they were no longer mechanically reliable.

The plant often sees as much as 90 MGD and needed screens which would be able to handle this capacity and future increases. To complicate the requirements, they wanted Headworks^® to design around their existing channels, which were very deep. There was limited room for the new screens and they would need to be installed vertically, at a 90 degree incline. Headworks^® was able to supply vertical screens that were 55’ long screens in 4 sections to facilitate installation. The City of London has installed the first phase of their screening upgrade. Two Headworks^® Bar Screens were successfully installed and have been running to the full satisfaction of the City of London.

For more information on the Headworks^® Mahr^® Bar Screen, please visit www.headworksusa.com.