City learns wastewater plant needs $32M upgrade

CELINA - The City of Celina needs to make a staggering $32 million in improvements at the wastewater treatment plant in order to eliminate overflows or bypasses into Beaver Creek and maintain its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit with the Ohio EPA.

City councilors learned more about what it will take to expand the wastewater treatment plant and increase capacity from Jones & Henry Engineers LTD of Toledo during a utilities committee meeting this week.

They also were informed that the most likely avenue for financial assistance to undertake the dauntingly expensive project is the Water Pollution Control Loan Fund administered by the Ohio EPA.

Excessive infiltration and inflow reduces wastewater treatment capacity during periods of heavy rain. When the plant cannot handle the high flow rate, influent bypasses directly into Beaver Creek. The plant has about seven bypasses a year. The bypasses average about 1 million gallons but have been as large as 7.7 million gallons.

Councilors in 2023 moved to authorize a $174,000 agreement with Jones & Henry Engineers for review of the city's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit and to perform an analysis of the wastewater treatment plant.

"In your guys' permit, there is what's called the compliance schedule … and that's orders from the EPA," explained Peter Latta, director of the engineering firm's Toledo office. "Those orders direct you to complete an NFA, which is a No Feasible Alternative."

The NFA, he said, is a report that studies the city's wastewater treatment plant and sewers and identifies means of eliminating bypasses. The NFA was submitted to the Ohio EPA in April.

"Following the completion of that, their expectation is that you proceed into the design of some improvement to eliminate this bypass," he continued.

Ohio EPA had initially wanted Celina to submit a permit to install for plant improvements in April 2026 and for construction to begin six months later in October. But Jones & Henry believe they have bought the city a little extra time.

"We requested a modified schedule because that schedule is a little aggressive, and we don't feel that in your guys' best interest you wanted to execute that schedule," Latta said. "So we proposed about a six-month delay in that. As of right now, the EPA has not objected to that revised schedule."

The plant

The wastewater plant underwent an expansion that was completed in January 1991. Since that time, one improvement was made in 1993, according to Troy Brehmer, the engineering firm's director of wastewater treatment.

"Some of the equipment is nearing the end of its useful life, and that equipment needs replaced," Brehmer said. "The structure is acceptable for continued operation, the mechanisms need replaced."

The plant is designed to process 3 million gallons a day (mgd) but has a wet weather rating of 8 to 10 mgd. The plant's overall rating needs bumped up to 4.25-4.5 mgd and its wet weather rating to 22 mgd, in order to eliminate bypasses to Beaver Creek.

"There's a plant rating, and that's what the 3 to 4.25 is," Latta explained. "Then there's a wet weather rating, which is your hydraulic capacity at the plant. The hydraulic capacity is limited to about 10 mgd, and we need to get to 22 mgd."

The overall recommendation from Jones & Henry Engineers is to expand the plant, replace outdated equipment and add a third oxidation ditch and two new clarifiers. This would eliminate the bypasses and enhance overall capacity, according to wastewater treatment plant superintendent Kerry Duncan.

"I think it's important to add here that … we are near capacity anyway, and the capacity increase allows Celina to grow economically by providing services for customers," he said. "It's hard to grow when you don't have the capacity to treat."

Latta also noted that the Ohio EPA had said it's going to be looking at the plant's permit limits on pollutants discharged into Beaver Creek.

"Permit limits are set based on the stream that you discharge to, and they're not certain if we increase your flow what that does to the stream water quality, and so they're looking at maybe keeping your loadings to the stream, which means that you have to treat to a little higher level of quality to be able to discharge," he said.

Latta believes that the prescribed improvements would enable the wastewater treatment plant to reach that higher level of effluent quality but cautioned that he doesn't know what type of limits Ohio EPA plans to set.

"In which case there is a possibility that we could end up having to add some tertiary treatment … on the back end to help further refine the process before it goes to the stream," he said.

Moving forward

If contracted further, Jones & Henry would launch the preliminary design phase.

"What we've proposed is starting out with preliminary design, which is taking the No Feasible Alternative report and advancing it, putting a lot more thought into it and refining the alternatives that we selected in the report and starting to build the design out of that," Latta said. "We'll take that and begin to analyze equipment selections, start to size some of the equipment and looking at what the improvement project is going to look like, come up with a better estimate for the project."

Under the revised project schedule, a permit to install for the planned improvements must be filed by Oct. 1, 2026, following by the initiation of construction on April 1, 2027, and completion of construction on April 1, 2029.

Asked about potential funding sources, Latta said a quick analysis revealed there's only a handful of programs for which the city would qualify.

"Because it is need-based and then there's also compliance," Latta said. "You've got the compliance side but you're a strong community which unfortunately works in your disfavor."

The Ohio EPA's WPCLF is likely the city's best bet, he said.

"As you're aware of, most likely, the wastewater department doesn't have a debt obligation currently. We paid off our debt obligation," Duncan said. "So that's a good thing going into a massive project like this."

City safety service director Tom Hitchcock said the city has been saving money but doesn't have enough to fund such a large-scale endeavor.

Councilors took no action at the conclusion of the commitee meeting but indicated they will resume discussion at future meetings. Council meets next at 7 p.m. June 23 in council chambers on the second floor of the city administration building.