Biwater is undertaking a contract for the reconstruction, extension and upgrading of the Piatra Neamt Wastewater Treatment Plant (WwTP). The contract was signed between Biwater International and the Central Finance and Contracts Unit (within the Romanian Ministry of Public Finance) in October 2005. The Client is the Public Utility Company CJ Apa Serv S.A.

The overall objective of the works is to refurbish and extend the existing WwTP so that the plant will be able to purify the additional flow of water due to extension of the sewerage network as well as allow the wastewater effluent discharge to meet the effluent standards set by the Romanian Ministry of Environment which are in compliance with EU Directives.

The works include the following main objectives:

• reconstruction and extension of the WwTP;
• upgrading of the sludge treatment facilities;
• reconstruction and upgrading of all electromechanical equipment;
• construction of a SCADA system to operate the plant.

The project will be jointly funded by the EU through ISPA funding (68%) and by EIB through a loan (32%) to CJ Apa Serv, and will be completed in 24 months followed by a 12 month defect notification period.

The WwTP is located on the South - East side of Piatra Neamt city, built in 1966 and subsequently modernised in several stages: the first stage in 1982 and the second stage in 1983. The rehabilitation of the screens and the mechanical dewatering of the activated sludge were completed in 1993 using the Company's own investment in modern equipment.

The plant will be refurbished for a population equivalent 205,000 customers: 137,000 domestic, 47,800 industrial, 18,500 institutions and the remaining 1,700 are equal to the water recovered from the water treatment plant.

Works include:

• The building of a new room for coarse screens and their equipment with two new units including the washing, pressing and transportation stages.
• The replacement of the old sieves with two new fine screens including the washing, pressing and transportation stages.
• The grit chamber and the grease removal will be supplied with new scrapers, grit and grease pumps. Also, new penstock valves will be inserted.
• A new building for the new ferric chloride dosing equipment which is used for the phosphorous compounds reduction from the wastewater will be constructed.
• The pumping station stage 1 will be equipped with five new and modern pumps, two are provided with frequency converters.
• Two out of the four tanks for primary sedimentation will be rehabilitated and two of them will be rehabilitated for anoxic tanks. Primary sedimentation tanks will be equipped with new scraper bridges and submersible mixers will be installed in the anoxic tanks.
• The existing aeration tank will be rehabilitated and a new aeration tank with identical parameters to the existing one will be built. The tanks will be equipped with new pumping units for recirculation and with a new modern aeration system with fine air bubbles using immersed diffusers.
• The three tanks for secondary sedimentation will be repaired and equipped with three new scraper bridges.
• A new building with two compartments, one for the four new blowers and the other one for the transformer station will be built. To avoid accidental stoppage due to the absence of electrical power, the wastewater treatment plant will benefit from two special connections for electrical power supply from the national electrical system.
• From the six sludge digestion tanks four will be rehabilitated, the other two will be conserved. The units will be repaired and equipped with new equipment.
• The existing gas holding tank of 1,000 cubic meter capacity will be refurbished and a new one with 500 cubic meter capacity will be built. A new gas flare unit will also be installed in the station.
• A new building for mechanical sludge thickening will be constructed. Mechanical dewatering of the digested sludge phase will be equipped with new units. All valves, pumps and relevant pipes will also be replaced.
• The central control tower will be radically modernised by introducing a new system in which the technological process will be computer controlled (the SCADA system).
• The chemical laboratory will be equipped with control and measurement machinery, with specific equipment, instruments, glassware and reaction agents.
• The road infrastructure within the WwTP will be repaired.
• The concrete platform used for the temporary storage of dried sludge deposits will be refurbished and the drainage of the run-off from the sludge deposits will be ensured.
• The administrative building will be repaired; the thermal station will be supplied with high performance, high yield unit; gases will be released through a new metallic chimney.
• All the existing penstock valves will be replaced, both for the existing structures and on the connection circuits between them.