Project Description: The City of Temple operates a 30 MGD Conventional Water Treatment Facility in conjunction with an 11 MGD Membrane Plant. This plant was last expanded in 1990 and KPA served as the prime design firm for the expansion project. The addition of the Membrane Plant in 2004, designed by KPA, allowed portions of the Conventional Plant to be taken out of service for rehabilitation and improvements.

The City had experienced dead zones in two of their square clarifiers where the existing corner sweep assemblies were not able to consistently remove settled sludge. Additionally, three of the four existing clarifiers were experiencing inadequate mixing in the inlet stilling well and flocculation zone.

The City contracted with KPA Engineers to design modifications to address both of these issues along with replacing the existing drives on the flash mix and flocculation mixers. KPA converted the existing 80’ square clarifiers to 80’ diameter circular clarifiers by constructing sloped concrete fillers in the corners. The inadequate mixing was determined to be a result of short-circuiting as the flow entered the flocculation zone. KPA recommended welding plates on the side and bottom of the existing 12” Adjustable Gate Diffusers to divert flow in a radial direction. The end result is that the rehabilitated clarifiers are able to produce and maintain a thoroughly mixed center cone which has significantly enhanced the clarification process and operations.

Construction Cost: $376, 700