$30 million dollars. That was the project cost for engineering design and construction services performed by O'Brien & Gere at this pharmaceutical manufacturing plant. The on-site wastewater pretreatment facility, which O'Brien & Gere designed, built, and operates, produces antibiotics by fermentation and generates 1.6 MGD of wastewater. Services provided include engineering design; material, labor, and supervision for site work; civil work; procurement of equipment and materials; equipment installation; field erection of equipment and materials, including piping, electrical, and instrumentation controls hardware and software; construction management; and equipment qualifications and start-up, including testing and performance acceptance qualifications.

After the plant was built, O’Brien & Gere was selected under a separate contract to provide contract operations and maintenance, including guaranteed energy costs. Utilizing computer controls, neutralization, and both anaerobic bulk volume fermenters and aerobic sequencing batch reactors to effect nitrification and denitrification, this plant treats the pharmaceutical waste stream prior to discharge into the local sewer system.