Canadian covers for U.S. wastewater treatment building
White covers provide natural lighting without windows.
The Village of Bartlett, Illinois,
handles wastewater for 26,000
people residing in three different
counties, 40 miles outside
Chicago. Their treatment plant is considered
a medium to large size treatment
facility. The Village purchased
four steel-framed polyethylene membrane
covered structures to cover the
aerobic digesters at their wastewater
treatment plant from Saskatchewan-based
Cover-All Building Systems.
The four Cover-All Legend buildings
are 62 ft. by 62 ft. in dimension and
each covers two sludge tanks. “One of
the problems we had in the past was
controlling the temperature during the
winter as well as containing odors,”
says Wastewater Supervisor Ron
Johnson. “Since we have had the Cover-
All buildings we’ve been able to hold
the heat in during the winter so the bacteria
can do their job and we no longer
have odor complaints from nearby residential
areas. The aerobic digesters take
in sludge from two parts of our facility.
One part is the waste activated sludge
from the activated sludge system, and
the other is the primary sludge from the
primary clarifiers. The basic operation
of the clarifiers is to stabilize the organic
matter in the sludge. From here we
take it to a sludge press and put it onto
farm fields.”
Cover-All buildings were chosen
because of their performance in moist
and corrosive environments. The galvanized
steel-frame system is clad
with a triple-coated anti-corrosion barrier
along with a Gatorshield coating.
Cover-All buildings have clear-span
widths ranging from 18 ft. to 160 ft., to
any length and are pre-engineered in
accordance with the structural requirements
of all four model building codes
in the United States. The polyolefin
characteristic of the DuraWeave membrane
is not biodegradable, is inert to
corrosive and ammonia gases, and is
backed by a 15 year pro-rata warranty.
Each of the buildings was designed
with a side access so it could be
opened up to lower a hoist down within
the tank, clean the digesters or
install equipment.
Another benefit with this installation
is the translucent quality of the
fabric membrane. “We don’t need any
lighting in the buildings, nor do we
require the installation of explosion
proof fixtures or personnel needing to
change light bulbs. The white cover
provides natural light inside the building,
even on gray and overcast days,”
says Johnson.
