NEW ROCHELLE – The largest public works project in Westchester County’s history, the $250,000 million upgrade to the New Rochelle Water Resource Recovery Facility, has been completed on time and under budget.
The upgrades mean a 50 percent larger wastewater capacity for New Rochelle, Mamaroneck, Larchmont and Pelham, “plus a substantially cleaner Long Island County,” said County Executive Robert Astorino.
The upgrades included improvements to every process to meet new permitting requirements. A new two-stage biological aerated filtration system has reduced nitrogen discharge to the Long Island Sound by nearly 87 percent, from 2,000 pounds per day to some 250 pounds per day.
The project also includes ultra violet light disinfection systems that replaced chlorine disinfection, and upgrades to the headworks and secondary treatment system to increase the plant’s capacity from 13.6 million gallons per day to 20.6 million gallons per day, a 51 percent improvement.
As part of the ribbon cutting ceremony, a bench outside the process control building was dedicated to the memory of Louise Doyle, a longtime county employee who died last year.
Ceremonial ribbon cutting on Wednesday
