Indian Head Naval Support Facility: Water Treatment Plant ENR Upgrade

Naval Support Facility Indian Head was founded in 1890 as the Navy’s first established presence in southern Maryland. What began many years ago as a gun test facility on the Potomac River has evolved and expanded to include numerous scientific and response-force missions serving all branches of the military – Navy, Air Force, Army and Marines. Today’s military community on board Naval Support Facility Indian Head represents a diverse and strategically important mix of research and development activities, alongside operational support programs that are protecting the U.S. homeland from terrorist threats, as well as serving U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and Army forces deployed worldwide on a daily basis.

Total Maximum Daily Load pollution standards have been developed for the Chesapeake Bay. The primary pollutants of concern to be addressed by the new standards are nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, and sediment from surface runoff. The nutrients can cause algal/bacterial blooms and deplete oxygen levels in the water. In turn, the low oxygen levels in the water stress aquatic life. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working with states in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed to establish TMDL levels. To address these issues, the Navy has implemented Low Impact Development (LID) techniques for storm water management. NSF Indian Head’s sewage treatment plant has undergone significant renovations that will reduce nutrient loads and improve overall water quality in the treatment plant’s discharge.

The design-build contract required the replacement of significant portions of the existing plant and process while maintaining treatment capability. The Haskell Company teamed with Native Sons Ltd for the electrical and instrumentation portions of the project. Project components included site development, mechanical bar screen and grit removal, influent pump station, two (2) sequencing batch reactors, post EQ tank, six (6) effluent filters, UV disinfection, chemical storage and feed systems, re-aeration basin, office and laboratory building, 350 KW emergency generator, new high voltage electrical distribution system and instrumentation and was delivered on a fast track schedule.

The electrical distribution was derived from the existing 13kv overhead via a 500kva pad mounted transformer which fed the main at the transfer switch. The power was distributed through 2 new MCC’s and the Blower MCC which was replaced while maintaining blower operations. The existing plant includes a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system consisting of Wonderware SCADA software that is networked via Ethernet to the existing Master RTU. The plan required interfacing the existing SCADA system with the new area PLC’s to the plant process equipment via fiber. The SCADA system can be used by both operations and maintenance groups to monitor and control the system and generate the necessary reports. The PLC network will be used to perform the necessary automatic control of the process and to interface the controls within the system to allow plant operations to monitor and control the system as needed. The PLC and network additions and modifications were performed in phases with no interruption of plant operations. To the extent possible, conduits were embedded both for protection and to avoid interferences with process piping. Native Sons was actively involved in the design development with Brown & Caldwell to assure constructability and budget compliance and teamed with JE Richards for the electrical installations.