Fiesta Village advanced wastewater treatment plant wins Florida Water Environment Association Award for eleventh time

 FORT WASHINGTON, PA. — The Fiesta Village advanced wastewater treatment plant (AWTP) in Lee County, Fla., received the Florida Water Environment Association’s 2011 Earle B. Phelps Award in the advanced wastewater treatment plant category. The award honors outstanding wastewater treatment plants in Florida that have maintained the highest levels of pollutants removal. The 5-mgd Fiesta Village AWTP, owned and operated by Lee County Utilities, has won the Phelps Award 10 previous times, most recently in 2009.

Established in 1985, the Fiesta Village facility processes wastewater for the South Ft. Myers and Cypress Lakes areas to be either used for reclaimed water or put back into nature to become part of the water cycle. The use of reclaimed water helps to reduce the demand on potable water supplies to meet irrigation needs.

The Fiesta Village AWTP uses the TETRA Denite system from Severn Trent Services. The Denite system is a fixed-film biological denitrification process that also serves as a deep bed filtration system capable of removing suspended solids to virtually any final effluent requirement. The system integrates well with other plant treatment processes to provide superior total nitrogen and phosphorous removal.

Seventeen of the last 19 Earle B. Phelps Award winners have used the TETRA filtration technology. The Earle B. Phelps Award was established in 1964, with awards given in three categories: advanced treatment; advanced secondary facilities; and secondary treatment facilities. Plant size also is considered, with nominees being evaluated against facilities of the same relative size and treatment type.