Alexandria
Sanitation Authority (ASA)
The
Alexandria Sanitation Authority (ASA) Advanced Wastewater
Treatment Facility is a 54 MGD wastewater
treatment facility located in Alexandria, Virginia. The facility
serves about 350,000 people in the City of Alexandria and adjacent
portions of Fairfax County. The plant discharges high quality
effluent to the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. Because
of the sensitivity of this ecosystem, ASA and other facilities
that discharge into the Bay face ever increasing regulation.
Sustainability
has always been a way of thinking in ASA’s
day-to-day operations as it strives to be a sustainable utility.
This goal has led ASA to develop and apply tools to incorporate
sustainability into the future planning and decision-making
process as it faces a facility upgrade to meet more stringent
nutrient removal regulations. This process is being used to
define the sustainability principles and advance the culture
of sustainability within ASA’s staff.
Planning
Tools
As
ASA faces important choices in selecting the next facility
upgrade, the goal is to incorporate sustainability into the
planning and decision-making process to ensure that the final
choice minimizes the overall environmental footprint while
providing the best treatment alternative and aligning with
ASA’s organizational
strategies and values. The tools being used include a decision-making
model that evaluates alternatives within a framework of criteria
that reflects ASA’s strategies and values. Figure 1 illustrates
the decision matrix, which is based on ASA’s Five Key
Strategies: People, Environmental Leadership, Efficiency, Community
Awareness and Fiscal Responsibility. These strategies are further
refined into sub-strategies that then provide
measurable and well-defined goals against which the different
alternatives can be scored and compared. Sustainability principles
have been incorporated into all the elements of the decision
matrix to reflect ASA as a sustainable organization – from
the land it uses, the people it employs, the financial decisions
it makes and its contributions to the community through education
and beneficial re-use of products.
Planning
Process
The
planning process has been geared to the thinking-and-learning
culture of ASA’s organization. One of the important goals
has been to train and educate ASA’s staff to incorporate
sustainability not only during the current future planning
phase but in all decision-making activities. The planning process
is being conducted in six steps. Figure 2 illustrates the six
steps and the work being conducted at each of these stages.
Workshops are an integral part of each of the steps and these
are being characterized by a hands-on approach that engages
all participants and promotes communication, understanding
and contribution. The goal is that at the end of the process
the final product be a plan of action that is understood and
endorsed by all within the organization.
Status
of Work and Schedule
The
future planning process is currently under way with the final
workshop scheduled for January 28, 2008. The decision-model
criteria have been defined and weighted and the model has
been developed. Current work is focusing on developing technologically-feasible
alternatives that will help ASA meet current and future regulations.
These alternatives will then be scored and analyzed using
the decision-model and the alternative that best balances
ASA’s
treatment and sustainability goals will be selected for implementation.
Final selection of the alternative to be implemented is scheduled
for March 2008. A Basis of Design report will be generated
by May 2008 and the facility upgrade design will begin in
the summer of 2008.
The
final paper will describe the tools developed and the planning
process as implemented at ASA. A summary of results and lessons
learned will also be included. |
