Davis, Bowen & Friedel, Inc. (DBF), provided planning, surveying, architectural, engineering, and construction administration/inspection services for the Town of Selbyville to upgrade their existing water treatment facility to comply with DNREC requirements to remove the contamination of Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) in their drinking water supply.

DBF designed the upgraded water system with many factors in mind including continued use of the existing water treatment facility during construction. The design team worked with architectural challenges in satisfying the State Historic Preservation Office requirements with balancing the aesthetics of installing 30-foot-tall aeration towers in the central, historic district of the Town.

The upgraded water treatment facility included improvements to and addition of new chemical systems including caustic, permanganate, fluoride, corrosion control, disinfection, removal of six (6) older smaller iron removal filters with three (3) larger more efficient iron removal filters with upgraded media, two (2) aeration towers for VOC removal, high lift pumps, and a new water treatment building that blended into the surrounding historic district. All systems were integrated into a new SCADA system to provide an added level of control and remote monitoring/operations.

The project construction was provided on-schedule and on-budget. The entire project was provided a 100% grant by the Drinking Water State Revolving Funding (DWSRF) and the United States Department of Agriculture-Rural Development (USDA-RD). The project complied with EPA’s American Iron and Steel Requirements (AIS).