Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility Plan

Section 1: Introduction/Purpose

The City of Meridian (City) is faced with the significant decision of how to best manage its wastewater in light of increasingly strict regulatory requirements and a fast-growing service population. Each of these factors will place increasing demands on the Meridian Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) and will require investments in the WRRF to maintain the City’s desired level of service expectations. Acknowledging the importance and magnitude of this investment, the City retained Brown and Caldwell (BC) to develop a long-term framework for investments in the Meridian WRRF that cost-effectively enables the City’s strategic priorities while limiting future risk. This framework is commonly referred to as a Facility Plan. The purpose of the Meridian WRRF Facility Plan (Plan) is to describe this long-term vision and bring increased clarity to nearer-term investments and to meet a required compliance activity as directed by the City’s NPDES permit.

The Idaho Administrative Code establishes the requirements of the facility planning process (Idaho Administrative Procedures Act [IDAPA] 58.01.16) that all facility plans must address the hydraulic and treatment capacity of future wastewater treatment system upgrades. In addition, all plans must address project financing as well as maintenance and operation considerations for the proposed modifications to meet the requirements to treat flows and loads from the current and often potential future service areas covered by the treatment facility. This Plan must be submitted to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (IDEQ) for approval prior to any design documents for any specific project related to the Plan.

As the City of Meridian provides wastewater treatment services to the residents and businesses within the Meridian service area, this plan describes the existing and future treatment requirements to continue to meet the demands of their customers. As such, the primary purpose of this document is to prepare and evaluate treatment system expansion alternatives and recommended options and planning level costs to guide the City in future capital improvements planning. The secondary purpose of the document is to prepare the documentation necessary for the City to present for regulatory authority approval.

The City needs to complete this project to determine wastewater expansion requirements that respond to unprecedented growth in the planning area in a cost-effective manner while also complying with challenging current and future regulatory requirements for phosphorus and ammonia.

Additional Information

Brown and Caldwell prepared the City of Meridian Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility Plan on December 19, 2018. 

For more information on the Collection System Master Plan, contact Assistant City Engineer Clint Dolsby.

Phone: 208-898-5500
Email: [email protected]