A $1.39 million low-interest loan from Ohio EPA will help Bowling Green finance improvements to the
ultraviolet disinfection system at its wastewater treatment plant. The project will increase the plant’s
treatment capacity and eliminate bypassing of partially treated sewage into Poe Ditch. The loan comes
from Ohio EPA’s Water Pollution Control Loan Fund. The 3.7 percent interest loan will save the city an
estimated $300,000 over the 20-year life of the loan.
The city has excessive sources of storm water, called infiltration and inflow, in its sanitary sewer
system. Heavy flows during storms exceed the plant’s treatment capacity and results in basement backups
and overflows into the ditch, which is a tributary of the North Branch of the Portage River.
During wet weather, flows of more than 12 to 14 million gallons a day of partially treated wastewater
bypass the treatment plant’s filtration and UV disinfection processes. When Ohio EPA renewed the city’s
wastewater discharge permit in 2008, it required the city to upgrade the UV system by March 31, 2010.
This, along with a previous project that improved filters, will enable the plant to capture and treat
wet weather flows up to 30 million gallons per day.
The project involves replacing a 12-million-gallon medium pressure UV disinfection system with a
high-intensity, low-pressure self-cleaning UV disinfection system. Construction began this summer and
will be completed by March 2010.