More innovative wastewater treatment technology is crucial to meet the needs of

Portlands growing population. Ever since the date of its construction of 1952, the Portland
city has been improving and expanding the plant. In 1969, the size as well as the process of
the plant was expanded and changed to adapt to the modern technology. In the following
decade, secondary treatment and twin belt presses and anaerobic digesters were added to
efficiently treat the wastewater (1). The expansions of the plant with systems that
accommodate anoxic flow process were added in 1993 which made Columbia Boulevard
Water Treatment Plant one of the biggest plants to convert to this process (1). This anoxic
flow eliminates unwanted biomass/microorganisms and minimizes the need to use chlorine
while efficiently increasing the output of secondary treatment from 120 to 200 million gallons
per day (2).
Projects following the anoxic flow, such as Chemically-Enhanced Primary Treatment
(CEPT) in 2012, upgraded the plants facility to
Figure 3. Detailed process of
CEPT allow more wastewater to flow to the supplemental primary sedimentation tanks used
during the rainy weather. CEPT increased the efficiency of the treatment process by making
solid particles in the wastewater to clump together and settling faster thus making it easier

to process (4).

Not only does CBWTP plan to innovate on faster treatment process, but also on the
reuse of biogas as well. CBWTP burns off about 23 percent of the biogas produced, but with
approval of city council in 2015, a facility to convert biogas into compressed natural gas
vehicle fuel will be created. By harnessing energy from biogas,a byproduct of solids
treatment that is not being utilized, it is possible to offset the CO 2 that would have been
emitted by electric utility providing power to the treatment plant (5). This would efficiently
reduce the biowaste produced by allowing the plant to re-use nearly all of the 600 million
cubic feet of biogas it produces annually (5).

This innovative way to recycle the biogas as an alternative for vehicle fuel would have a
profound impact on both economy and environment. This project will reduce diesel fuel use
and cut greenhouse gas emissions. It would cost about $10 million to design and build a
biogas processing and storage facility and a vehicle fueling station at the CBWTP for a
benefit worth millions of dollars more (6). This project is planned to start next year so that
the facility could be operational by the year 2017.