Withstanding the Test of Time

In 1988, an engineering team from HNTB Corp., headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., designed an industrial wastewater pretreatment facility for an auto parts factory. The new facility and wastewater treatment plant were constructed simultaneously and placed into operation in October 1989. In January 2001, HNTB took advantage of an opportunity to visit the treatment plant and compare the design criteria with the actual conditions based on a decade of operation. After reviewing conditions at the plant over 10 years of operation, plans were made to add a supervisory control and data-acquisition system to remotely read the process water meters, upgrade the existing graphic control panel and add automatic dial-up capability in the event of high alarm conditions. By taking the opportunity to compare expected results with actual results, the lessons learned can be applied to the future work to make sure similar facilities stand the test of time in terms of function, durability, maintenance, cost and efficiency.