Brown and Caldwell services

Brown and Caldwell is helping Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) develop one of the nation’s first integrated stormwater plans to optimize cost-effective low-impact development practices and `active” treatment facilities to satisfy NPDES, TMDL, and CSO requirements. This option allows SPU to consider improvement projects for sewage overflows and stormwater discharges at the same time to enhance water quality and potentially save significant costs. Since 2009, BC has supported SPU on the CSO Program and helped meet an aggressive schedule for submitting the draft Integrated Plan.

BC is leading the Program Management Team assisting Orange County Utilities (OCU) with establishing a sustainable Infrastructure Renewal/Replacement Program for gravity sewer, force main, pump station, water and reclaimed water systems valued at more than
$2 billion. The program strategy and robust implementation plan earned staff and management buy-in, while establishing a collaborative process to make key decisions about which assets to tackle and when, apply available funding to system needs in the best ways, and keep program priorities current and in-focus. The program has expedited condition assessment and renewal projects and established streamlined processes, financially sound plans, and effective tools and standards for infrastructure management and R/R implementation, reducing design and construction costs well into the future.

Design for Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District`s 21-foot diameter, 300-foot deep, 27 million gallon tunnel, the North 27th Street Inline Storage System. The project cost-effectively reduces separate sewer overflows for the district. Because the tunnel is integrated with existing deep tunnel storage systems, it also provides the district with the improved operational flexibility in dealing with high flow events.BC led the $65 million two-mile long deep tunnel design to support Milwaukee`s $1 billion Overflow Reduction Plan.

Remediation efforts at 49 U.S. Air Force bases was proving costly and slow with each site approached independently. BC`s remediation professionals applied Remedial Process Optimization (RPO) to form a single, core team that reviewed and optimized plans for all sites, streamlining planning and permitting and achieving $30 million in cost savings.

To meet existing remediation cleanup targets with a softer environmental touch, green remediation practices provide an alternative to traditional `pump and treat” and `dig and haul” strategies. Green remediation integrates environmental stewardship, economic viability and social responsibility in remediation activities. Brown and Caldwell is working with the U.S. Air Force at more than 30 sites using the Environmental Restoration Program Optimization (ERP-O) approach for evaluating existing remediation alternatives to improve their effectiveness, reduce a site’s clean-up costs and improve efficiency – all without increasing risks. At another Superfund site in New York, the EPA has selected the remedy and has required Brown and Caldwell to evaluate green remediation alternatives as part of the plan.

At Guam’s 70-year-old, 50-acre Ordot Dump, undocumented materials including unexploded ordnance and leachate discharge have frustrated closure efforts for years. Brown and Caldwell developed a prioritized plan to meet the looming 2013 closure deadline, achieve Subtitle D and Clean Water Act compliance, convert a portion of the site to a public park, and use landfill gas to generate up to 500 KW of power.

Design to expand a Mass. municipal solid waste landfill on 70 adjacent acres extended the life of the site by 20 years. Brown and Caldwell provides ongoing engineering, consulting and construction management services to the operator, Waste Management, including assisting in the closure of unlined portions of the landfill, the development of lined cells, the closure of lagoons used to store leachate and the implementation of a landfill gas collection and control system.

By treating much of the impacted soil at a 150-acre aggregate mining facility on site, Brown and Caldwell’s remediation plan cut transportation costs for the project by $1 million and saved precious time to meet an aggressive compliance deadline. Additional groundwater and soil remediation projects were implemented without impacting the schedule.

This massive project improves water quality for the Sacramento County Water Agency and protects the East Bay Municipal Utility District from future water shortages. The result of a historic water rights agreement between the agencies, the project provides 85 mgd for Sacramento year-round and up to 100 mgd for EBMUD under drought conditions. BC designed 8 miles of large diameter welded-steel pipeline, flow control and other structures.