10.22.2024
On August 20, 2024, the Town of Brattleboro held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Pleasant Valley Water Treatment Facility, marking the culmination of over 20 years of planning, design, and construction. Originally built in 1989, the previous facility was operating well beyond its useful life. The original building was found to have an inadequate structural design, which never resulted in a catastrophic failure because of the diligence of the operators to shovel the roof every winter since its construction. In addition, due to the age of the building, it did not comply with current energy and building codes. The primary regulatory deficiency focused on inadequate treatment capacity resulting from a rule change in 2011, which required capacity to be calculated with one filter unit out of service. This reduced the Town’s regulatory treatment capacity from 3 million gallons per day (MGD) to 2 MGD. The operators also struggled with high manganese in the spring and fall, which was difficult to remove.
Dufresne Group, along with a team of specialty subconsultants, provided engineering services through the preliminary, final design, and construction phases. The project included a full replacement of the treatment building and all components inside, the addition of a 3-bay garage for maintenance, rehabilitation of the existing raw water pump station and all equipment inside, elimination of the process waste lagoons, repairs to the raw water intake structure, and a system-wide SCADA upgrade. The upgraded facility features state-of-the-art improvements, including full SCADA integration for automated operations, with operational redundancy to protect against equipment failures; water-source heat pumps powered by the finished water storage tank (first of its kind in Vermont!), eliminating fossil fuels for heating and cooling; and advanced building envelope detailing that exceeds Vermont Commercial Building Energy Standards (CBES).
The new facility houses 4 mixed media filter units, bringing the regulatory capacity back to the original 3 MGD and significantly improving water quality by reducing turbidity spikes previously seen. The project also included enhanced treatment capabilities to address seasonal manganese spikes. This new facility ensures the continued delivery of safe, high-quality drinking water to the community for decades to come.
This project was funded by the Vermont Drinking Water State Revolving Fund via a 0% interest loan for 30 years with 50% subsidy. The project also received over $50,000 in funding via a Clean Energy Efficiency Rebate from Green Mountain Power related to the elimination of fossil fuels in heating and cooling the facility, and Efficiency Vermont incentives related to the heating system, variable frequency drives on the raw water pumps, and exceeding the CBES standards for air sealing.
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