The Hite Creek Water Quality Treatment Center Expansion Project has been awarded an American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) National Engineering Excellence Recognition Award. The Louisville and Jefferson County Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD) had goals of expanding treatment capacity, accommodating future growth, and eliminating sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs) by expanding its Hite Creek Water Quality Treatment Center (WQTC). Expansion of the Hite Creek WQTC included rehabilitation or replacement of aging infrastructure, resulting in expanded treatment capacity from 6.0 million gallons per day (MGD) to 9.0 MGD. The resulting configuration will also accommodate a 24.0 MGD peak wet-weather flow, thereby eliminating SSOs upstream of the facility.
The Hite Creek project also created the first biosolids management capabilities among MSD’s regional facilities. The Hite Creek WQTC can now dewater sludge on-site, eliminating the monthly transfer of more than 312 truckloads of liquid sludge to the Morris Forman WQTC more than 20 miles away on the other side of the county. This project also received the 2023 ACEC Kentucky Engineering Excellence Grand Award and Project Excellence Award from the Kentucky-Tennessee Clean Water Professionals at the Water Professionals Conference in July 2022.