Clinton-Joanna Wastewater Treatment Plant Receives Second CDBG Grant Award

Upper Savannah COG Community Development staff prepared and submitted the grant application on behalf of Laurens County.

The grant award will help Laurens County continue the project that was awarded in August 2022 but came in over budget. The latest grant award will be Phase II of the project.

In June 2023, the project for the plant was bid for construction, including installation of a second 750,000-gallon sludge holding tank as an alternate bid item. However, due to the high bids the second tank was unable to be funded. As a result, the project was awarded with the construction of only one 750,000-gallon tank.

While the addition of the one 750,000-gallon tank was a considerable improvement from the old drying beds, it still did not entirely fulfill the biosolids handling needs of the plant. The original design for the plant included two 750,000-gallon tanks which would work in tandem with each other. Basically, one tank would be filled and then digest/age the sludge for land application. Once digestion in the first tank has begun, the second tank would then begin to be filled. The tanks would provide approximately 45 days of storage.

In the spring 2024 CDBG application round, funds were requested to continue upgrading the plant including the purchase and installation of the second sludge holding tank, aeration, mixers, pumps, controls, and other necessary fittings. Project cost is estimated to be $1,780,000, with $1.618,000 in CDBG funds and $162,000 in matching funds provided by Laurens County Water & Sewer Commission.

The proposed improvements consist of installing the 750,000-gallon tank. The drying beds were removed as part of the original scope in Phase I. The location is already cleared and will provide the space necessary to house the proposed second tank and its equipment, without acquisition and/or land clearing.

This additional tank will be the completion of the 2022 original scope, providing the Clinton-Joanna plant its necessary capacity to not only sustain its increasing wastewater volume, but to handle the facility’s max capacity.

The grant is one of 10 awarded statewide in the CDBG Community Infrastructure Spring 2024 Funding Round. It is the largest of the 10 grant awards.