From Ashes to Achievement: GLWA’s Story of Rapid Risk Response Following a Facility Fire

The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) is a regional water and wastewater authority serving 3.9 million people in Southeast Michigan. In response to the new Maximum Achievable Control Technology (MACT) rule governing sewage sludge incinerators, GLWA conducted a symposium in March 2012 to gather wastewater industry expertise supporting selection of appropriate disposal technologies for biosolids averaging 450 dry tons per day (DTPD). Based on the information received, GLWA over the intervening years embarked on a three-pronged biosolids disposal scheme, which included(a) the decommissioning and replacement of six obsolete multiple-hearth incinerators (designated Complex I) with a new 316 DTPD (firm) biosolids dryer facility to be constructed and operated via a public-private partnership under a design-build-operate-maintain contract;(b) initiation of a separate design-build contract to bring eight newer multiple hearth incinerators (designated Complex II) into compliance with the new air emissions regulations by installing new scrubbers and afterburner technology in order to maintain approximately 350 DTPD of firm incineration capacity; and(c) entering into contracts for supplemental land application and landfilling to support an NPDES permit requirement for 850 DTPD of peak biosolids processing capacity.By early March of 2016, four of the eight incinerators had been upgraded and tested to demonstrate emissions compliance and the biosolids dryer facility had been placed into service and was undergoing trial operations.While these strategic initiatives were coming into alignment, Complex II was essentially gutted by a fire on March 4, 2016, just before the emissions compliance deadline. This major fire prevented continuing operations of GLWA’s essential Complex II dewatering and biosolids incineration facilities. Faced with the three-fold challenge of repairing the fire damage while completing the new projects and maintaining required biosolids processing capacity, GLWA management organized a fire remediation response team and took immediate steps to maintain continuity of operations and to expedite repairs. Fifteen months later, our required daily biosolids processing has been restored, the fire repairs have been completed, the dryer equipment reliability issues have been resolved, the dryer train throughput for the first time has exceeded requirements, all eight Complex II incinerators meet emissions requirements, and the Complex I incinerators have been decommissioned.