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Alexandria Renew and partners honored with WEF award

Alexandria Renew and partners honored with WEF award

Alexandria Renew Enterprises transformed a landfill into a vibrant community asset with a regulation size multi-purpose athletic field


Chicago — Alexandria Renew Enterprises can now add Water Environment Federation (WEF) Project Excellence Award-winner to its already impressive list of accolades, which includes being the first utility in the U.S. to implement a full-scale mainstream deammonification system and the first utility in the world to use this technology to meet very low nitrogen limits.

AlexRenew, and its long-standing partners CH2M, Jacobs and the Joint Venture of Clark Construction/Ulliman Schutte on the State-of-the-Art Nitrogen Upgrade Program (SANUP), received the award at WEF’s 91st Annual Technical Exhibition & Conference in Chicago. The Project Excellence Awards evaluate the nominated project’s future value to the water sector; sustainability; innovations; and contributions to the well-being of surrounding communities, among other criteria.

The SANUP project aimed to address pending nutrient discharge regulations to protect the Chesapeake Bay, and renew a commitment to sustainability, innovation and the surrounding community. The program’s largest component, an 18 million-gallon storage facility topped with a public athletic field, stores primary effluent during nutrient peaks to balance the amount of nitrogen that goes into biological treatment processes.

“AlexRenew’s belief that their work is more than just treating wastewater truly underpinned the program’s efforts every step of the way,” said Rich Voigt, CH2M project manager. “Their commitment to sustainability and well-being of the community are values we share, and that’s what made this program such a rewarding one for CH2M to be a part of.”

Partnering with AlexRenew during the entire program, CH2M provided master planning and design, delivered engineering services during construction and helped incorporate sustainability throughout.

“The recognition for SANUP is a testament to the talented team behind its design and construction,” said Karen Pallansch, CEO of AlexRenew. “Their ingenuity is an example of how a wastewater utililty can use creativity and innovation to transform itself into a visible and active community partner.”

Transforming a landfill into a vibrant community asset with a regulation size multi-purpose athletic field not only improved the well-being of the Alexandria community – the program also delivered on a promise to bring the originality to transform our water and our world.

WEFTEC is North America’s largest water-quality technology and education event. Nearly 25,000 water professionals from around the world gathered in Chicago for networking opportunities, demonstrations of innovative products and equipment and a celebration of industry accomplishments in the past year.