Client: Northampton Borough Municipal Authority
Location: Northampton, Pennsylvania

The Northampton Water Treatment Plant is a true pioneer in sustainable "green" design. The fully automated facility is among the first of its kind to receive the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED^® registration.

Among its many environmental benefits, the facility was constructed using concrete with slag additives, which includes a mixture of cement and recycled slag. The building's on-site orientation and superstructure envelope was computer modeled prior to design to ensure energy efficiency, which resulted in lower heating and cooling costs. To maximize natural insulation and minimize surface disturbances, the plant substructure extends three stories underground, stacking major processes on one another.

Additional Sustainable Features:

• Energy-saving lighting fixtures and lighting controls
• Optimal indoor air quality through the minimization of VOC-emitting materials
• Recycled rubber flooring
• Use of day lighting to illuminate offices and process areas
• Use of low-flow or no-flow water fixtures
• Use of fast-growth lumber
• Stormwater treatment for both sediment removal and biological treatment
• Computer control of various processes to minimize chemical feed rates, wastewater generation
• Optimization of ultraviolet dosage for disinfection
• Pump power usage via variable-frequency drive operation to reduce energy consumption

Client: Mountainview Thoroughbred Racing Association
Location: Grantville, Pennsylvania

Our firm designed a sequencing batch reactor wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) to replace an existing contact-stabilization WWTP. The new facility receives a combination of domestic wastewater and horse-washing wash water and provides treatment to levels less than a total nitrogen of eight milligrams per liter (mg/L) and total phosphorus of one mg/L. The WWTP effluent receives tertiary filtration prior to discharge to a high-quality stream requiring total residual chlorine of less than 0.1 mg/L as a monthly average.

Approximately 25 percent of the WWTP effluent is reused for irrigating the turf and track, as well as for toilet flushing in Hollywood Casino, Penn National’s sports/entertainment complex. The WWTP received the first Wastewater Reuse Permit issued in Pennsylvania under current reuse regulations.

Client: Hampden Township Municipal Authority
Location: Hampden Township, Pennsylvania

Gannett Fleming is providing design and engineering services to the Roth Lane Wastewater Treatment Plant. These services include the abandonment of the recycle pump station; modifications to headworks and aeration reactors; and construction of secondary clarifier, return-sludge screw pump station, filtration building, and ultraviolet disinfection facility.

An administration building is being constructed using sustainable design features. Our firm is utilizing thermal insulation R values in the building envelope (R-20 walls and R-25 continuous roof insulation) containing both cavity wall insulation and foamed-in-place back up wall concrete masonry block insulation. The roof is being constructed using a continuous structural insulated panel roof system, commonly known as SIPS, supported on trusses or exposed glulam wood beams.

Use of clerestory windows provides daylighting to the administration common spaces with solar shades to reduce summer solar gain. Remote clerestory windows with electric operators allow the summer heat to dissipate through the high window openings, while cooler air comes through the first floor windows, creating a natural gravity ventilation path.

From an energy perspective, high-efficiency lights were designed along with lighting controls to turn off the interior lighting spaces when not in use. Indoor air quality was also addressed with interior materials and coatings with low volatile organic content.