Improvements O’Brien & Gere made to an upstate New York wastewater treatment plant earned the company the American Council of Engineering Companies New York (ACEC NY) highest award at ceremonies held in New York City. 

O’Brien & Gere’s evaluation, design and management of upgrades to the wastewater treatment plant for the City of Little Falls (NY) brought the plant into compliance with state and federal discharge permit limits, and saved the municipality nearly $700,000 in new construction costs in that it eliminated the need to treat and landfill solid waste. It also ruled out the need for a local manufacturer to construct a costly industrial pretreatment plant at its facility. This helped save jobs, and led to the manufacturer sharing plant upgrade costs with the City. 

O’Brien & Gere’s design included repairs to the plant’s biosolids incinerator, which eliminated the need for landfills. Constructing a biotower, enclosing it to protect it from the area’s harsh winters, and changing the media inside the tower increased the plant’s treatment capacity and eliminated the need for the manufacturer to build its own pretreatment plant.