Large wastewater expansion project moves one step closer to construction

Updated November 15, 2019
Large wastewater expansion project moves one step closer to construction

Your Roseville utilities help purify millions of gallons of wastewater every day at two treatment facilities. This infrastructure ensures that when you flush the toilet, do a load of laundry or take a shower, that water is purified before it’s placed back into the environment.

This early November was an important milestone as City Council approved the construction and design agreements for two large improvements happening at our Pleasant Grove Wastewater Treatment Plant (PGWWTP). The project components include:

  • Increasing treatment capacity at the plant to purify more water to help meet the future demands.
  • Developing an energy recovery project that will allow us to build a waste-to-energy plant that will produce electricity for onsite use and Compressed Natural Gas to fuel our garbage truck fleet.

The construction costs for the project is estimated at $78 million. Though nearly 10 percent of the funding comes in the way of grants and forgivable loans.

Purifying more water, generating energy

Roseville Environmental Utilities (EU) is breaking ground on this project in 2020. The treatment capacity expansion will help prepare for regional growth by increasing plant capacity from 9.5 million gallons per day to 12 million gallons per day.

Not only will this project help with the treatment process, it includes other benefits that help the environment and create energy resources.

Known as the Roseville Energy Recovery Project, EU a component of this project includes anaerobic digestion, which is a process to stabilize solids from the treatment process and the waste is then used to produce methane gas and electricity.

To boost energy production at the PGWWTP, the project includes the development of receiving facility to receive energy-laden foods (like Fats, Oils and Grease collected from restaurant grease interceptors) to process in the anaerobic digesters.

Project benefits

The expansion at the PGWWTP will yield significant benefits to customers and the environment in both the near- and long-term.

  • Helps meet efficiency and suitability goals and provides project funding opportunities to reduce impact on Roseville utility customers.
  • Produces environmental benefit in reducing carbon emission (equal to what can be stored in 2,100 acres of forest), producing clean power (equal to powering 740 homes), and reducing the amount of waste that would be landfilled.
  • Project processes generate renewable power resources that provide long-term financial benefits Roseville utility customers.

Regional project for West Placer County

Although this plant resides in the City of Roseville, the Pleasant Grove facility is a regional plant, servicing Roseville residents and businesses as well as portions of Placer County and the City of Rocklin.

This joint-venture is funded by the partners that comprise the South Placer Wastewater Authority, which includes Roseville, along with Placer County and the South Placer Municipal Utilities District. The construction costs is about $78 million – of which, EU has secured about 10 percent in grant funding/forgivable loans to offset this large capital improvement project.


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