2011 National Water Conference; Washington, D

As communities grow, onsite systems often need to be replaced with community-scale wastewater management systems. Wastewater management includes four components: Collecting wastewater from individual sources, renovating wastewater to prevent human and environmental harm, returning the treated water back into the environment, and providing oversight to ensure the system is both fully operational and financially sound. Local officials have many options when planning for wastewater infrastructure improvements. However, these same officials often do not have enough information to make informed decisions among the various options. The authors assembled 19 factsheets and created an wastewater planning spreadsheet model. This spreadsheet is intended to provide cost information about the various collection, treatment and dispersal methods that are commonly used in small communities. For each of these methods, cost information will be provided about the initial capital cost as well as the anticipated long-term cost of maintenance and energy. The user must realize that this spreadsheet is a planning tool and not a design tool. One of the objectives in building this spreadsheet was to provide assistance to the planner in communicating with consulting engineers, soils professionals, construction managers and financial personnel about the wastewater management options that are available. The use of this spreadsheet should be limited to daily wastewater flows of 75,000 gallons per day or less. Approximations of cost are based on 2009 dollars.