The Town of Betterton contracted with DBF to complete a Preliminary Engineering Report and associated environmental documents, per USDA-RD guidelines, to upgrade their existing wastewater treatment plant. The existing plant was originally built in 1968 with no process redundancy and, due to the age of the plant, repair and maintenance was steadily increasing, resulting in some permit excursions.

Alternatives were investigated to meet their current discharge limits with the capability of expansion and additional nutrient removal. As the project was under design, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) approached the Town and offered ENR grant funds. The Town accepted and DBF assisted with updating past reports to meet the funding agencies requirements as well the overall design to achieve ENR discharge requirements.

The final project included the Sequencing Batch Reactors process to meet BNR requirements with denitrification and phosphorus removal filter to meet ENR requirements. This process was chosen so that only one reactor could be utilized to accommodate the Town’s current low flows which would save on operational costs. As flows increased, the second and third reactors could be brought online as needed. In addition, modifications to the existing plant were completed to provide the required emergency storage along with a new influent pump station, administration building, post-equalization tank, ultra-violet disinfection, effluent pump station, aerated sludge tanks and improvements to the sludge drying beds.

The Town was awarded funds from USDA-RD in the form of $1,904,000 in loan and $2.241,000 in grant along with $6,179,800 in MDE grant monies of which DBF was able to increase by $274,493 during construction as a result of further discussions with MDE.