By the late 1960s, America became aware that the discharge of partially treated and untreated wastewaters was choking waterways throughout the nation.  This prompted the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972, which mandated the upgrading of existing treatment plants to secondary treatment levels, and empowered the Federal government to begin contributing a major portion of the cost.

Hopewell, which until then had been serviced by a wastewater treatment plant built in the 1950s faced the same Federal requirements as cities across the country.  At the same time, five industries in the community, along with Fort Lee, were required to handle their own wastewater discharges.  Action was critical, since the water quality of Baileys Creek and the James River was quickly deteriorating.

After a detailed study, it became clear that the most economical way to meet the new requirements was to unite efforts and build a regional secondary wastewater treatment facility that would serve the needs of both residents and industries.  The City of Hopewell, five area industries and Fort Lee entered into an agreement whereby the City would build a plant using grants from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the state; the industries and the Corps of Engineers would finance any remaining costs.

Construction of the Hopewell Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility (HRWTF) began in 1975 and the plant was placed into operation in 1977 with the mission of reducing the oxygen consuming pollutants in the area's domestic and industrial wastewaters.  Three years of additional study and modifications finally resulted in a treatment plant with one of the highest compliance records in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Today the HRWTF handles about 35 million gallons of wastewater a day, coming from the City of Hopewell, Fort Lee, the Federal Corrections Institute, portions of Prince George County, the five major industries--Honeywell/Hopewell Plant, Smurfit-Stone (formally Stone Container), Honeywell/Churchill Plant, Hercules and the Virginia American Water Company.

To handle solids removed from the waste stream, the original design of the HRWTF included facilities for thermal conditioning (heat treatment) of combined thickened primary and waste activated sludge followed by vacuum filtration and multiple hearth incineration.  This system, which literally cooked the sludge, was complex and costly to operate, and produced difficult-to-control odors.

By 1991, wear and corrosion from years of high-temperature and pressure took their toll on the thermal conditioning system, and replacement or rehabilitation was necessary.  Before spending the substantial sums that would be involved, however, the HRWTF Commission decided to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of continuing with the existing system or replacing it with better technology.

Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., Hopewell's consulting engineer, first performed a comprehensive evaluation of solids handling and disposal alternatives, then concluded that replacing the existing facilities with dry solids centrifuges would be the most cost-effective approach.  This alternative presented many operational advantages such as reduced odor generation, improved reliability and ease of operation; capital costs were $10.66 million.  In May 1992 the Commission approved the initiation of design of the dry solids centrifuge installation.

The new centrifuges work like a giant spin cycle in a washing machine--water travels around the inside of the centrifuge, pushing the solids to the outside of the machine at an impact about 2,500 times the force of gravity.  After separation, the dry matter is burned in the plant's multiple hearth furnace.  The two giant centrifuges are installed in a new two-story dewatering building, which has space for a third unit, and also houses centrifuge feed pumps and centrate and drain pumps along with the incineration feed pumps.  The new facility began operation in May 1997, and initial results have been even better than expected, with increased efficiency resulting in lower operation and maintenance costs.