College of Engineering Unit:
The city of Monroe, Oregon, with a current population of 650, anticipates an annual population growth of 0.73% and construction of brewpubs in the city. This growth will increase the biological oxygen demand (BOD) loading into the municipal wastewater which raises the need for improvements on the city’s wastewater treatment processes. The current wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) consists of three lagoons, a gravity discharge pipe, and a chlorination and dechlorination system. Our team has reviewed this old WWTP and have proposed to expand the primary pond of the current system and add a constructed wetlands component to Monroe’s treatment system. This improvement will be capable of removing BOD and TSS from the wastewater, meet discharge limits put forth by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) discharge permit, possibly nitrify and dentrify in the future.