Chiquita Water Reclamation Aeration Basins No. 3 and 4

Owner:

Santa Margarita Water District

Location:

San Juan Capistrano, California

Value:

$6,400,000

Completion:

2022

Designer:

Santa Margarita Water District

Contractor:

Kingman Construction

Butier Engineering, Inc. provided construction management services for the construction of the Chiquita Water Reclamation Plant (CWRP) Aeration Basins No. 3 and 4. The plant is one of the District’s facilities for treating domestic and industrial wastewater prior to discharging to the Pacific Ocean or for additional treatment to produce recycled water.

The scope of work included construction of the Aeration Basin No. 3 and No. 4, including expansion and significant modifications to the existing Aeration Basin No. 1 and 2 to provide the necessary capacity to maintain the growing service area. Additional work includes site civil infrastructure and grading; significant structural concrete, electrical backbone upgrades, course and fine aeration air system installation, and upgrades to include piping and blowers; installation of new waste activated sludge pumps and associated piping/valves; and incidentals for a complete usable facility. The existing facility was kept online without interruption, and shutdown periods were kept to a minimum due to minimal plant redundancy. Butier’s daily coordination with the Contractor and the District’s Operations personnel was critical to ensuring that there was no interruption to the treatment process.