We completed a comprehensive facilities plan to consider significant wastewater treatment facility improvements for the Village of Mount Horeb. The design of the new facilities needed to be flexible to facilitate cost-effective compliance with an anticipated future phosphorus limit of 0.075 mg/L. The preliminary plan included retrofitting the existing traveling bridge sand filters with cloth disk filtration. The exiting filters were removed from service but the basins were retained. The hydraulics through the plant were also designed to allow for construction of future disk filters, when required for phosphorus compliance.

In addition to disk filtration, water quality trading (WQT) on adjacent land (approximately 100 acres) that the Village owns will also be used for compliance. A portion of this land is being used for construction of the new treatment facilities. The Village is also considering using a significant portion of the remainder of this land as a dog park. Converting the existing agricultural land to a dog park will provide water quality improvements, enabling the Village to register for phosphorus credits.

The Village’s Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permit was reissued  and requires compliance with the stringent phosphorus limit. Forward thinking and thoughtful evaluation will enable the Village to implement the necessary phosphorus reduction measures cost effectively, when required.