FWSA owns, and the City of Winchester operates, the Opequon WRF required to achieve Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR). Start-up and training services were provided by O’Brien & Gere, along with specific equipment vendors, as part of the Opequon WRF Upgrade / Expansion Project for newly-constructed, major equipment systems. As part of continuing education and operator training, O’Brien & Gere furnished refresher training sessions, conducted for specific unit processes. The training focused on the main treatment units involved in the liquid treatment and specific operating scenarios in summer and winter and dry and wet weather conditions.

Training sessions focused on Biological Nutrient Removal reactors and clarifiers, but also included ancillary systems such as Chemical Feed, Primary Sludge Pumping, Return Activated Sludge Pumping, Internal Recycle Pumping, and Waste Activated Sludge Pumping. An Administrative review session was also included to correlate general O&M procedures, recordkeeping, and plant administration relative to the specific unit processes and permit compliance / monitoring / reporting.

Five follow-on BNR workshops were also conducted. As part of the BNR workshops, a basic spreadsheet model of the biological treatment processes was developed by O’Brien & Gere for use by plant operations staff. The spreadsheet model highlighted the different operating scenarios (seasonal variations, dry and wet weather flows).