OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2016. The Joint Water Commission (JWC) — the primary drinking water supplier in Washington County, Oregon, owned in partnership by the Cities of Hillsboro, Beaverton, Forest Grove and the Tualatin Valley Water District — has selected CH2M to deliver a multi-year water treatment facility plan and expansion project for the JWC Water Treatment Plant. The project addresses long-term capacity and seismic resiliency needs while bringing the capacity of the plant to 85 million gallons per day (mgd) within the next three years.

“The JWC Water Treatment Plant provides a critical water supply source to western Washington County customers,” said CH2M Global Water Business Group President Peter Nicol. “CH2M is excited to work with the JWC on its expansion project to secure additional capacity from the plant and provide life safety improvements and increased reliability in the event of an earthquake.”

The primary objective of the expansion project is to increase the plant’s capacity to meet the increased potable water demands for the communities, agencies and cities that utilize the water supply of JWC. The project also involves preparing a treatment system facility plan for an ultimate plant capacity of 105-mgd. The facility plan is the first step in the project and will lay the foundation for at least the next 50 years of improvements through its initial improvements and ultimate facility definement. These near-term enhancements will be designed and implemented to obtain the 85-mgd plant capacity goal by mid-2019.  

Within the first four months of the project, CH2M staff developed alternatives and provided advice during the decision making process that defined the facility upgrades needed to accomplish the plan, and helped the JWC select a construction contractor, who will deliver the project using the Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) delivery model to assure a timely project implementation.

CH2M has successfully completed previous work for JWC partners. Insight from these past projects will allow CH2M to maximize existing facilities in the expansion project and improve plant efficiencies. The firm has planned a collaborative decision process utilizing engineering and operations staff, which will help craft the design decisions to address the capacity and water quality goals while ensuring cost and schedule efficiencies are considered. 

The JWC is responsible for treating, transmitting and storing potable water for more than 365,000 customers. The JWC Water Treatment Plant is the largest conventional water treatment plant in Oregon.