AECOM provided program management services and served as the owner’s representative for a new state-of-the-art water recycling plant under a design-build-operate approach for the city of Fillmore, California. AECOM also provided design and construction-phase services for a $15 million recycled water distribution system using the conventional design-bid-build delivery system.

AECOM’s services included all aspects of program management, including assistance with permitting, California Environmental Quality Act compliance, financing, contract documents, regulatory permitting, design oversight, construction administration and on-site construction observation.

The city contracted a design–build team to build, design and operate the new plant. The WRP uses membrane bioreactor technologies as the primary treatment processes to meet the water quality and environmental improvement goals of the city. The treated effluent flow from the WRP site is Title 22 compliant for reuse and disposal. The city is using conventional irrigation, subsurface drip irrigation, and percolation on public lands (parks, greenbelts and schools) for the disposal of the treated wastewater effluent.

The WRP was planned in order to meet the city’s projected wastewater flows through 2028 of 2.4 mgd.

Major facilities for the project included the following:

  • In-plant pump station
  • Coarse screening
  • Grit removal
  • Finer screening
  • Membrane bioreactor system
  • Ultraviolet disinfection
  • Primary treatment process
  • Recycled water storage tank
  • Recycled water pump station
  • Solids stabilization and production of Class B biosolids
  • Operations building and ultraviolet