OBSERVER Photo by Jo Ward. Director of Public Works Randy Woodbury discusses the resolutions pertaining to phase three of the reconstruction at the Wastewater Treatment Plant at Tuesday’s Common Council Meeting.

The city of Dunkirk’s Wastewater Treatment Plant is heading into phase three of its upgrades and reconstruction.

According to Director of Public Works Randy Woodbury, the first two phases mostly addressed areas of the plant that were broken and needed repair. Phase three will focus on expansion and upgrades to the facility.

A series of resolutions presented at Tuesday’s Common Council Workshop, would allow city of Dunkirk Mayor Wilfred Rosas, to authorize and execute various construction contracts at the plant.

The resolutions discussed involved BECC Electric’s bid of $168,275 to work on the electrical side of the construction and STC Construction’s bid of $2.1 million to work on the physical construction of the third phase. The last resolution presented, basically tied the first two together into a single project. These three items passed unanimously at the Common Council Meeting later in the evening.

“This construction will increase the efficiency of the plant, injecting air into the wastewater, which is what turns the wastewater into something harmless so it can be discharged into Lake Erie,” Woodbury stated. “Right now, that is a big electrical cost so the general contractors will be taking fine bubble diffusers and making them ultra fine.”

“They’re going to put blowers and motors in there that don’t have any mechanical bearings, the shafts actually run on air, so there is basically zero friction,” Woodbury added. “We’re going to see a large savings of electricity through this general contract. This phase will give us increased capacity especially with Athenex coming.”

Woodbury went on the comment that in addition to the changes, the city will also be able to remove a decaying lime silo on the roof of one of the buildings at the plant as well.