The Urban Community of Le Mans, a city in western France, has chosen OTV (Générale des Eaux/Vivendi) to build and operate a new wastewater treatment plant. The construction contract amounts to some 43 million euros (about US$ 47 million) and the operation contract to 4.4 million euros (about US $ 4,8 million) per year over 12 years making a total of 96 million euros (about US$ 104.6 million).

With a capacity of 315,000 PE the plant will treat wastewater from Le Mans and 7 neighbouring municipalities. The facilities will feature several OTV’s compact processes such as MULTIFLOTM for lamella primary settling and 20 BIOSTYRTM units of 114m2 each for wastewater nitrification/denitrification while an ACTIFLOTM ballasted flocs lamella settler will perform phosphorus removal in tertiary treatment.

The new WWTP will take place on the site of the existing facilities. Only the sludge treatment will be kept and adapted to the new equipment with the PYROFLUIDTM furnace fitted with a smoke treatment unit. Thanks to an adequate planning, the works will be conducted without disrupting the running of the existing plant.

Beyond water quality, the new plant will also improve the overall environment of the site since green and wooded areas will take place in the space to be made available by the use of compact processes.

Contact, Sonia Gauthier : sgauthier@otv.fr