Capacity Assessment for the Bayamón and Puerto Nuevo Regional Wastewater Treatment Plants

The Bayamón and Puerto Nuevo Regional Wastewater Treatment Plants are both chemically enhanced primary treatment plants with 301(h)-modified National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits for the shared ocean outfall. The Bayamón RWWTP is operating at its NPDES permitted flow limit. To meet immediate needs for increased capacity a plan was developed to perform a capacity assessment of both plants to determine their capabilities to handle flows greater than the current permitted flows, while maintaining the effluent load allocations in the existing NPDES permits. Each plant's performance and facilities were analyzed. Based on the findings it was determined that the Bayamón RWWTP has the capacity to treat a monthly average flow (MAF) 30% higher than the permitted MAF and the Puerto Nuevo RWWTP has the capacity to treat 11% higher MAF.