Case Study of a Florida Reuse UV Disinfection System

A new UV disinfection system was installed at the 45.42 ML/d (12.0 mgd) Falkenburg Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWTP) to replace gaseous chlorine in Hillsborough County, Florida. The UV system must disinfect 100 percent of the plant effluent to either Florida's high level disinfection standards (HLD) for surface water discharge or to Florida's disinfection standards for public access reuse. As a result, the UV system included many provisions to prevent discharge of inadequately disinfected effluent. The UV system did not increase the plant's demand for utility power, because the plant's power source was converted from a coal-based utility source to a waste-to-energy plant when the UV facility was installed. The UV system size was optimized with a six-month on-site demonstration of the UV equipment's ability to control lamp sleeve fouling. Performance testing was completed in 2009, and the new UV facility is reliably disinfecting plant effluent to meet both Florida's high level disinfection standards and public access reuse standards.