First UD Hawkins County Membrane Water Plant

Since 1946, the First Utility District of Hawkins County (FUD) has served the City of Church Hill and surrounding areas in upper east Tennessee.  During that time, new service areas have been added and regulations governing treatment have become increasingly stringent.  These factors made it difficult for the District’s existing plants to be in regulatory compliance and to meet demand, especially in periods of insufficient rain.

The State of Tennessee requires a public water system to address the need to expand its treatment capacity when it reaches 80 percent of design capacity based on average daily usage. When FUD reached this point, CTI evaluated alternatives and identified cost-effective solutions for serving the District's current and future customers. Factors in the alternatives evaluation included not only capital and operating costs, but also the advantages and disadvantages of each option and the ability to meet increasingly stringent treatment regulations.

CTI concluded that a state-of-the-art membrane treatment facility on the Holston River would best meet the District's water treatment needs.

Included in the total project are seven separate procurement and construction contracts with a total bid price of approximately $11 million.  More than 25% of this total was funded through grants for the project’s impact on job growth and economic development in the region.

The project was designed to allow for easy expansion to 6.0 mgd by fully populating the three membrane trains. The design also provides for future expansion to 10.0 mgd with the installation of two additional membrane trains, one additional raw water pump, one additional high service pump, and an additional 600,000-gallon clearwell.  Based on bid pricing, the incremental cost to add capacity to 10.0 mgd equates to $0.46 per gallon, about $2.2 million.