The Resilient Practices on the Island of Guam

The small U.S. Territory of Guam is challenged with being located in a region of the Pacific that is commonly referred to as "typhoon alley". Guam Waterworks Authority (GWA) is tasked with operating and maintaining the island's civilian water and wastewater systems. Duenas, Camacho and Associates, Inc. has been fortunate to provide design support to GWA over the last 30 years. Our design team, consisting of local and national experts, assisted GWA in their construction of two new secondary wastewater treatment plants, and refurbishment of three existing wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the last eight years. The challenges of increased infiltration and inflow (I&I) due to these extreme events have plagued the sewer collection and treatment system. There are three approaches that have been used address the extreme weather events and subsequent infiltration and inflow (I&I): Flow Equalization, Passive flow through and Process Reconfiguration. Through the use of EQ tanks, passive flow-through, and process reconfiguration, the five new and rehabilitated plants on Guam have been successful in handling these events.