A joint venture between McCarthy Building Companies Inc. and Sundt Construction Inc. was recently selected as general contractor for the $120 million Ocotillo Water Reclamation Facility(OWRF) Expansion and Process Improvement Projects for the City of Chandler. The project includes $100 million in new construction and $20 million in upgrades to the existing plant.

Located near the southwest corner of Queen Creek and Price roads in Chandler, the OWRF expansion project will include upgrades to the existing 10-mgd wastewater treatment plant and the construction of an expansion facility that will be built for a future capacity of 30-mgd. The new facility will utilize membrane bioreactor technology (MBR), which is the combination of activated sludge treatment together with a separation of the biological sludge by micro- or ultra-filtration membranes. The technology allows for a smaller footprint and reduced sludge production.

For years, the 10-mgd OWRF plant has been considered an innovator, as it recycles all its treated water. The water isplaced in storage lakes, recharged to the aquifer, sent to an industrial user or sent to an adjacent Indian community for agricultural use. It was named Wastewater Treatment Plant of the Year by the Arizona Water Association in 2010.

“We anticipate that this new facility will meet the growth needs for the City of Chandler well into the future,” said Frank Scopetti, senior vice president and business unit leader of McCarthy’s Water Services and Infrastructure team. “The expanded plant will also improve operations and maintenance of the existing10-mgd plant.”

“This is an important project for Chandler and will ensure our continued ability to serve our residential, business and industrial customers using state-of-the-art technology that helps conserve our valuable water resources,” Chandler’s Municipal Utilities Department Director Dave Siegel said. “McCarthy and Sundt have been great partners in the past and we look forward to working with them on this project.”

The project is expected to begin in January 2015 and be completed in December 2017.

McCarthy recently completed a large-scale expansion project at the City of Chandler Airport Water Reclamation Facility, taking the facility from a 15-mgd wastewater treatment plant to 22-mgd. The $105 million project, located at 905 E. Queen Creek Road in Chandler, was awarded a STAR designation as part of the Arizona Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s Voluntary Protection Program, which demonstrates exemplary and comprehensive safety and health management systems.

In addition to McCarthy’s work for the City of Chandler, the company has a number of other significant water/wastewater treatment plant projects underway in Arizona, Texas, Colorado, Nevada and California. Nationally, McCarthy’s Water Services team has completed more than 50 water/wastewater projects, totaling more than $2.4 billion in value.