Nutrient-Reduction and Cost-Recovery Program

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2013

Maintaining the water quality in the James River and the Chesapeake Bay is equally as important to the social and economic future of Chesterfield County as it is to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Nutrient discharges, specifically nitrogen and phosphorus, throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed have been shown to negatively impact the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers. Chesterfield County Utilities owns two wastewater treatment plants that discharge highly treated wastewater into the James River. These plants play a significant role in achieving water quality goals by consistently meeting all environmental regulations. Both plants have installed biological nutrient removal technologies with a capital cost of approximately $130 million to remove nutrients to better protect the James River and Chesapeake Bay. In addition to these capital costs, there are significant ongoing operational costs to remove nutrients from the wastewater. The Nutrient-Reduction and Cost-Recovery Program was developed by Chesterfield Utilities in partnership with our industrial customers to utilize nontraditional but proactive means of reducing the nutrient loadings in the wastewater coming to the plants. Nutrient reductions in the waste streams not only reduce operational costs, but reduce the nutrient loadings being discharged to the James River and ultimately the Chesapeake Bay. Instead of just passing on the cost of unfunded regulations to our industrial customers, Chesterfield Utilities made the decision early in the process to educate our industries on the new regulations. By partnering with them, this program was established to reduce nutrient loadings at their source and to find the most cost-effective means to treat nutrient wastes that could not be reduced. This innovative program can be used as a model for other localities throughout the Commonwealth of the Virginia and the country to cost effectively reduce nutrient pollutants and preserve our water resources for future generations.