Osceola Wastewater Treatment Plant

Story Construction crews are wrapping up their work at the new Osceola Wastewater Treatment Plant, which will be completed in 2023.

In August 2020, Story submitted a bid for – and was awarded – the third of six contracts for an entirely new wastewater treatment plant for the City of Osceola, with the entire plant totaling roughly $45 million. The new plant is being built in place of the existing one, with some components of the old plant being repurposed for storage or other uses.

Story’s scope of work included construction of a new headworks building, influent pump station, and overflow screw pump station. Story crews self-performed the cast-in place-concrete, buried piping, process piping and process equipment on the project. The influent pump station included a 30′ deep excavation, a sheet piling cofferdam, and a 40,000 pound crane pick.

“Some primary challenges associated with the design of the Osceola facility include poor soil conditions, groundwater associated with the site being near a floodplain, and having a large industrial user providing high strength waste to the facility,” said Brandon Cheney, an engineer in training for Veenstra & Kimm, Inc. Though the city is home to roughly 5,500 people, its wastewater stream is more like that of a city with 30,000 people due to the commercial industrial base in town. Some of those industrial businesses are sharing in the cost of the new facility.

Included in the overflow screw pump station scope of work was installation of the two screw pumps (pictured below), each of which are 6 feet in diameter and are rated for over 10,000 gallons per minute, or 15 million gallons per day. The overflow screw pumps will operate when the plant’s influent flow rate exceeds the plant’s capacity, discharging wastewater into holding ponds.

“The Story guys were great to work with,” added Donnie McCuddin, Osceola’s wastewater superintendent. “They have great attention to detail and enjoy a nice finished product.”

“Story’s Construction Production 2.0 system really kept the project on track and allowed the team to complete the project more efficiently,” added Cheney. “The team kept V & K informed of any delays due to the supply chain issues we are all facing so that these delays could be planned around.”

The Story team is wrapping up work in July as the other contracts are completed throughout the year.