Gannett Fleming Selected as Design-Builder for Transformative Water Reclamation Facility

To meet regulatory, economic, and demographic regional drivers, the Town of Clayton, North Carolina, is undertaking the largest capital project in its history.

Work has begun on the New Neuse River Water Reclamation Facility (WRF)project, a state-of-the-art treatment plant capable of handling 6 million gallons per day (MGD). Clayton selected Gannett Fleming to provide design-build bridging services for the project, which is expected to be completed in 2024. The firm’s work includes surveying, design, permitting, construction, commissioning, and startup support.

The new WRF will not only meet current and future demands, it will be better for the environment, equipped with more modern processes and equipment, and sized to meet the needs of local businesses and a growing community. Segmental design allows facility expansion to 10 MGD in the future.

The 78.5-acre facility will receive a combination of domestic and pretreated industrial wastewater. Its design includes odor control, screening/grit removal, flow equalization, five-stage biological treatment, tertiary filtration, ultraviolet (UV) disinfection, cascade reaeration, and solids treatment.

The new plant will treat the combined influent as required to comply with North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) requirements and meet or exceed the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit conditions for the plant’s outfall into the Neuse River.

The project builds on Gannett Fleming’s productive partnership with the Town of Clayton. In 2019, the firm successfully delivered the R. Steven Biggs Regional Wastewater Pretreatment Facility, designed to handle wastewater from Novo Nordisk’s Diabetes Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (DAPI) production facility and the region’s other industrial manufacturers.