Pipe Progress Fall-Winter 1997 -- Feature - Hyperion: A Titan Treatment Plant in Los Angeles

Hyperion: A Titan Treatment Plant in L.A.

Project Data

Little did the small California town of Los Angeles know how different things would be after the first rail lines reached there in 1876.
With competing railroads offering fares as low as $1 from the Midwest to Los Angeles, the city's population grew from less than 6,000 in 1870 to 50,000 in 1890. By 1900, it doubled to 100,000. Whether anyone realized it, Los Angeles was on its way to becoming a business and cultural metropolis.

Construction of a port in L.A. was finished in 1914, the same year the Panama Canal opened. Los Angeles soon became a major international seaport, it continued developing as an oil producer, and Hollywood's film industry began to blossom. Other businesses emerged, and during World War II waves of new residents flocked to the city for work in airplane factories, shipyards and other war-related industries. By the end of 1945, Los Angeles had 1.5 million people; by 1960, 2.5 million; and by 1990, 3.4 million.

Along the way, however, the increasing pressures exerted by the growing urban sprawl resulted in serious pollution problems, tarnishing the luster of L.A.'s glittering image. As early as the 1880s, for example, pollutants were discharged into Santa Monica Bay, and continued pollution significantly reduced the diversity and vitality of the bay's marine life.

As a result of civil lawsuits filed in 1977 by the Environmental Protection Agency, the City of Los Angeles was obliged to comply with the two most costly requirements of the 1972 Clean Water Act: secondary treatment of all wastewater and a complete ban on ocean-dumping of concentrated sewage sludge.

Under a 1980 consent decree mandating that these requirements be met by 1998, the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works initiated a massive, deadline-intensive project to expand and upgrade its Hyperion Treatment Plant. The Hyperion complex, located on 144 acres in Playa del Rey, is by far the largest of the city's four wastewater treatment facilities. With almost 800 employees, it is one of the largest treatment plants in the United States.

The Los Angeles Department of Public Works serves nearly 4 million people and more than 100,000 businesses in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, San Fernando, Culver City, El Segundo, Glendale, and Los Angeles County. L.A.'s four wastewater treatment plants treat an average of 420 MGD of wastewater within this 600-square-mile service area.

Currently in design or construction at the Hyperion facility are new secondary treatment systems, the rehabilitation of existing process facilities, and solids handling programs that will recycle renewable resources while protecting the quality of the area's water, land, and air.

Upon completion of Hyperion's Full Secondary Facilities in December 1998, all sewage will be treated to a secondary level prior to its reuse or discharge to the Pacific Ocean. Hyperion's capacity at that time will be 450 MGD - enough to meet the city's needs to 2010 and beyond.

Built as a simple screening facility in 1925 and first modernized in 1950, the Hyperion Treatment Plant has received numerous national, regional, state, and local awards. Its contributions to cleaning up Santa Monica Bay were first recognized in 1991 when the plant received the Water Environment Federation Outstanding Achievement in Water Pollution Control Award.

The Hyperion upgrade/expansion utilized AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe on six large contracts. Work on these jobs was made especially difficult since the extensive construction activities could not disrupt existing service. In addition, construction space has been and remains extremely tight.

Underground piping has been installed at Hyperion since 1925, but documentation of the many buried utilities does not exist. Thus, the potential for encountering and damaging in-service piping was a constant hazard.

Specifications developed by the owner and the design engineering team of L.A.-based Daniel Mann Johnson and Mendenhall and Black & Veatch's Los Angeles Office utilized ductile iron pipe because of its durability, corrosion resistance, strength, and performance track record. Ductile iron pipe was the owner's preference for maintenance and future repairs concerns.

Here is a look at recent contracts on which AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe was used:

Full Secondary Facilities, Phase I (C-109)
Begun in 1991 and completed in 1996 by contractor Kiewit Pacific Company of Santa Fe Springs, California, this $200-million-plus project provides secondary treatment to 200 MGD of wastewater, which allows discharging of cleaner water into the Pacific Ocean. Phase I included site work preparations and construction of oxygen reactors, final clarifiers, cryogenic facilities, an operations center, a disinfection and service water facility, and a 64 MGD pumping plant to provide effluent to the West Basin Water Reclamation Plant.

Full Secondary Facilities, Phase II (C -117)
Begun in January 1996 by the Tutor-Saliba-Perini-Scott Joint Venture, this project is the final phase of construction for the Hyperion Full Secondary program, which will achieve the city' s goal of providing full secondary treatment for all flows by January 1999. The $149-million job also will allow the city to meet the requirements of state and federal regulations as well as the requirements of the amended consent decree between the EPA, the State of California, and the City of Los Angeles.

It includes construction of five oxygen reactor modules and five circular clarifier batteries consisting of four tanks each, expansion of the cryogenic facility, and the installation of distributed control system equipment to control all secondary facilities' wastewater treatment processes.

Because of the tight space and construction schedule, "Deliveries have to be coordinated tightly," said Dale Denney, project manager for Scott Mechanical of Gardena, California, a member of the Tutor-Saliba-Perini-Scott Joint Venture. "American Cast Iron Pipe Company is very cooperative in doing whatever it takes to get the product to the site. They have shown a genuine effort to keep the customer happy, and they have gone out of their way if problems arose."

Waste Activated Sludge (WAS) Thickening Facility Begun in 1993 and scheduled for completion in December 1997 by Kiewit Pacific, this $68-million facility houses 12 centrifuges that dewater/thicken waste activated sludge from the high purity oxygen activated sludge secondary treatment process. Its capacity can be expanded to 24 centrifuges. The WAS Thickening Facility, which discharges the thickened sludge to anaerobic digesters, was designed to ultimately handle sludge from plant flows of up to 550 MGD.

The WAS Thickening Facility is a 118,220-square-foot, three-story structure, topped by a mechanical penthouse. The concrete basement, 20 feet under grade, houses pumps, compressors, and approximately 18,000 feet of large- and small-diameter piping, virtually all of it AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe .

"The majority of the pipe installed in the WAS basement was in very restricted work areas with restricted access and tight tolerances due to the congestion," said Kiewit Pacific Project Manager Tom Shelby. "The basement was extremely congested compared with most other installations. Pipe deliveries were timely and consisted of the materials Kiewit Pacific ordered. American was able to accommodate changes to the production schedule quickly and accurately."

Digester Screening Facilities (Elements 1 & 2) Kiewit Pacific began this $20-million project in August 1992 and finished it in July 1994. This work combined the Digester Cleaning Facility and Sludge Screening Facility to produce a drier screened sludge.

Technical Support Facility and Primary Batteries Modernization, Unit II Begun in 1995 by Minneapolis-based M.A. Mortenson Company and scheduled for completion in April 1998, this work will cost approximately $73 million. The technical support facility will house Hyperion engineering staff personnel and the plant manager, liquid/solids treatment and systems support personnel, and state-of-the-art laboratory and technical facilities. Modernization of the primary batteries includes construction of three new primary tanks, modifications to existing influent and effluent channels, modifications/expansion of the effluent pumping plant wet well and the modernization of piping and control systems. Because of many unforeseen conditions, numerous piping changes were made during this phase of Hyperion's upgrade. AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe and fittings used on the project allowed adaptations to a variety of unforeseen conditions prevalent on C-112, said Pat Paulson, project manager for subcontractor Harris Contracting Company of St. Paul, Minnesota .

"Considering the number of changes on this project, AMERICAN provided exceptional service," Paulson said. "AMERICAN's product quality was first-class, providing dependable installations.

"AMERICAN products performed as expected. A product that performs as expected may be considered uncommon in comparison to many products that sometimes promise what they can't deliver. In comparison to steel or concrete pipe, Ductile Iron pipe is easier to modify and install without sacrificing strength and dependability."

"Harris Contracting has enjoyed many successful years using AMERICAN products," Paulson said. "We look forward to working with AMERICAN in the future."

*DICE II (Dewatering Centrifuge Expansion, Phase II) - Contractor Ziebarth and Alper of Huntington Beach, California, began work on this facility in September 1995 and is scheduled to complete it in June 1998. This project will provide for the upgrade and expansion of biosolids dewa-tering capability from an existing capacity of 3,300 gpm to 7,000 gpm, and the replacement of existing centrifuges with six new high solids units.
Hyperion photo
A Pacific sunset glimmers on the final clarifiers of the $200 million Full Secondary Facilities, Phase I, project. The facilities, completed in 1996, provide secondary treatment to 200 million gallons of wastewater daily, allowing for cleaner discharge into the ocean. With completion of the second phase of the Full Secondary Facilities by January 1999, all of Hyperion's wastewater flows will be treated to full secondary standards.

Hyperion photo 2

Five AMERICAN Ductile Iron 20-inch pipelines parallel each other in a tunnel under Hyperion's Technical Support Facility, providing a glimpse of the complexity of the project's pipe installation. "Considering the number of changes on this project, AMERICAN provided exceptional service," said Pat Paulson, project manager for subcontractor Harris Contracting Company of St. Paul, Minnesota. "AMERICAN's product quality was first-class, providing dependable installations."

Hyperion photo 3
The most exacting of manufacturing requirements were needed for the AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe shown here in a pump station within Hyperion's Waste Activated Sludge Thickening Facility. AMERICAN's Customer Service Department communicated with contractor Kiewit Pacific on a daily basis to ensure accuracy of orders and deliveries. "AMERICAN was able to accommodate changes to the production schedule quickly and accurately," said Kiewit Pacific Project Manager Tom Shelby.

Hyperion photo 4
AMERICAN 54-inch Lok -Ring® wall pipe is shown here exiting secondary clarifiers being built during the $149-million second phase of the Full Secondary Facilities job due for completion by January 1999. "American Cast Iron Pipe Company is very cooperative in doing whatever it takes to get the product to the site," said Dale Denney, project manager for Scott Mechanical of Gardena, California, a member of the Tutor-Saliba-Perini-Scott Joint Venture.

Hyperion photo 4
Twin AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipelines shown here serve as temporary lines from the Waste Activated Sludge Facility to the completed first half of the Full Secondary Facilities. The Full Secondary Facilities' second phase is scheduled for completion in December 1998.

Hyperion photo 5
The tight working conditions are evident in this shot of AMERICAN 54-inch Lok-Ring® pipe being install by Scott Mechanical on the C-117 project at Hyperion. Extremely tight work areas and deadlines, along with the need to continue uninterrupted service, made for unusually difficult construction conditions.

Owner: City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works

Projects/Contractors: Hyperion Treatment Plant, Playa del Rey, California; six contracts included Full Secondary Facilities Expansion Phase I (C-109), Kiewit Pacific Company, Santa Fe Springs, California; Full Secondary Facilities Expansion Phase II (C-117), Tutor-Saliba - Perini-Scott Joint Venture; Waste Activated Sludge Thickening, Chemical Feed and Storage Facility (C-111), Kiewit Pacific; Digester Screening Facilities, Elements 1 and 2 (C-164), Kiewit Pacific; Technical Support Facility and Primary Batteries Modernization Unit II (C-112), M.A. Mortenson Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota; subcontractor: Harris Contracting Company, St. Paul, Minnesota; and DICE II (Dewatering Centrifuge Expansion, Phase II), Ziebarth and Alper, Huntington Beach, California

Design Engineers: Daniel Mann Johnson & Mendenhall of Los Angeles and Black & Veatch, Los Angeles Office

Material: Approximately 7,000 tons of AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe and fittings

Customer Service Representative: For C-109, Barbara Mims; C-164, Cathy Whitten; C-111, Anne Lee; C-112 and C-117, Kathy Frederick; and Dice II, Joy McClain

Drafter Larry Brown

Sales Engineer: For C-109 and C-164, Keith Sowell; For all others, Terry Wallen

To Top of Page

Little did the small California town of Los Angeles know how different things would be after the first rail lines reached there in 1876. With competing railroads offering fares as low as $1 from the Midwest to Los Angeles, the city's population grew from less than 6,000 in 1870 to 50,000 in 1890. By 1900, it doubled to 100,000. Whether anyone realized it, Los Angeles was on its way to becoming a business and cultural metropolis. Construction of a port in L.A. was finished in 1914, the same year the Panama Canal opened. Los Angeles soon became a major international seaport, it continued developing as an oil producer, and Hollywood's film industry began to blossom. Other businesses emerged, and during World War II waves of new residents flocked to the city for work in airplane factories, shipyards and other war-related industries. By the end of 1945, Los Angeles had 1.5 million people; by 1960, 2.5 million; and by 1990, 3.4 million. Along the way, however, the increasing pressures exerted by the growing urban sprawl resulted in serious pollution problems, tarnishing the luster of L.A.'s glittering image. As early as the 1880s, for example, pollutants were discharged into Santa Monica Bay, and continued pollution significantly reduced the diversity and vitality of the bay's marine life. As a result of civil lawsuits filed in 1977 by the Environmental Protection Agency, the City of Los Angeles was obliged to comply with the two most costly requirements of the 1972 Clean Water Act: secondary treatment of all wastewater and a complete ban on ocean-dumping of concentrated sewage sludge. Under a 1980 consent decree mandating that these requirements be met by 1998, the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works initiated a massive, deadline-intensive project to expand and upgrade its Hyperion Treatment Plant. The Hyperion complex, located on 144 acres in Playa del Rey, is by far the largest of the city's four wastewater treatment facilities. With almost 800 employees, it is one of the largest treatment plants in the United States. The Los Angeles Department of Public Works serves nearly 4 million people and more than 100,000 businesses in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, San Fernando, Culver City, El Segundo, Glendale, and Los Angeles County. L.A.'s four wastewater treatment plants treat an average of 420 MGD of wastewater within this 600-square-mile service area. Currently in design or construction at the Hyperion facility are new secondary treatment systems, the rehabilitation of existing process facilities, and solids handling programs that will recycle renewable resources while protecting the quality of the area's water, land, and air. Upon completion of Hyperion's Full Secondary Facilities in December 1998, all sewage will be treated to a secondary level prior to its reuse or discharge to the Pacific Ocean. Hyperion's capacity at that time will be 450 MGD - enough to meet the city's needs to 2010 and beyond. Built as a simple screening facility in 1925 and first modernized in 1950, the Hyperion Treatment Plant has received numerous national, regional, state, and local awards. Its contributions to cleaning up Santa Monica Bay were first recognized in 1991 when the plant received the Water Environment Federation Outstanding Achievement in Water Pollution Control Award. The Hyperion upgrade/expansion utilized AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe on six large contracts. Work on these jobs was made especially difficult since the extensive construction activities could not disrupt existing service. In addition, construction space has been and remains extremely tight. Underground piping has been installed at Hyperion since 1925, but documentation of the many buried utilities does not exist. Thus, the potential for encountering and damaging in-service piping was a constant hazard. Specifications developed by the owner and the design engineering team of L.A.-based Daniel Mann Johnson and Mendenhall and Black & Veatch's Los Angeles Office utilized ductile iron pipe because of its durability, corrosion resistance, strength, and performance track record. Ductile iron pipe was the owner's preference for maintenance and future repairs concerns. Here is a look at recent contracts on which AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe was used: Full Secondary Facilities, Phase I (C-109) Begun in 1991 and completed in 1996 by contractor Kiewit Pacific Company of Santa Fe Springs, California, this $200-million-plus project provides secondary treatment to 200 MGD of wastewater, which allows discharging of cleaner water into the Pacific Ocean. Phase I included site work preparations and construction of oxygen reactors, final clarifiers, cryogenic facilities, an operations center, a disinfection and service water facility, and a 64 MGD pumping plant to provide effluent to the West Basin Water Reclamation Plant. Full Secondary Facilities, Phase II (C -117) Begun in January 1996 by the Tutor-Saliba-Perini-Scott Joint Venture, this project is the final phase of construction for the Hyperion Full Secondary program, which will achieve the city' s goal of providing full secondary treatment for all flows by January 1999. The $149-million job also will allow the city to meet the requirements of state and federal regulations as well as the requirements of the amended consent decree between the EPA, the State of California, and the City of Los Angeles. It includes construction of five oxygen reactor modules and five circular clarifier batteries consisting of four tanks each, expansion of the cryogenic facility, and the installation of distributed control system equipment to control all secondary facilities' wastewater treatment processes. Because of the tight space and construction schedule, "Deliveries have to be coordinated tightly," said Dale Denney, project manager for Scott Mechanical of Gardena, California, a member of the Tutor-Saliba-Perini-Scott Joint Venture. "American Cast Iron Pipe Company is very cooperative in doing whatever it takes to get the product to the site. They have shown a genuine effort to keep the customer happy, and they have gone out of their way if problems arose." Waste Activated Sludge (WAS) Thickening Facility Begun in 1993 and scheduled for completion in December 1997 by Kiewit Pacific, this $68-million facility houses 12 centrifuges that dewater/thicken waste activated sludge from the high purity oxygen activated sludge secondary treatment process. Its capacity can be expanded to 24 centrifuges. The WAS Thickening Facility, which discharges the thickened sludge to anaerobic digesters, was designed to ultimately handle sludge from plant flows of up to 550 MGD. The WAS Thickening Facility is a 118,220-square-foot, three-story structure, topped by a mechanical penthouse. The concrete basement, 20 feet under grade, houses pumps, compressors, and approximately 18,000 feet of large- and small-diameter piping, virtually all of it AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe . "The majority of the pipe installed in the WAS basement was in very restricted work areas with restricted access and tight tolerances due to the congestion," said Kiewit Pacific Project Manager Tom Shelby. "The basement was extremely congested compared with most other installations. Pipe deliveries were timely and consisted of the materials Kiewit Pacific ordered. American was able to accommodate changes to the production schedule quickly and accurately." Digester Screening Facilities (Elements 1 & 2) Kiewit Pacific began this $20-million project in August 1992 and finished it in July 1994. This work combined the Digester Cleaning Facility and Sludge Screening Facility to produce a drier screened sludge. Technical Support Facility and Primary Batteries Modernization, Unit II Begun in 1995 by Minneapolis-based M.A. Mortenson Company and scheduled for completion in April 1998, this work will cost approximately $73 million. The technical support facility will house Hyperion engineering staff personnel and the plant manager, liquid/solids treatment and systems support personnel, and state-of-the-art laboratory and technical facilities. Modernization of the primary batteries includes construction of three new primary tanks, modifications to existing influent and effluent channels, modifications/expansion of the effluent pumping plant wet well and the modernization of piping and control systems. Because of many unforeseen conditions, numerous piping changes were made during this phase of Hyperion's upgrade. AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe and fittings used on the project allowed adaptations to a variety of unforeseen conditions prevalent on C-112, said Pat Paulson, project manager for subcontractor Harris Contracting Company of St. Paul, Minnesota . "Considering the number of changes on this project, AMERICAN provided exceptional service," Paulson said. "AMERICAN's product quality was first-class, providing dependable installations. "AMERICAN products performed as expected. A product that performs as expected may be considered uncommon in comparison to many products that sometimes promise what they can't deliver. In comparison to steel or concrete pipe, Ductile Iron pipe is easier to modify and install without sacrificing strength and dependability." "Harris Contracting has enjoyed many successful years using AMERICAN products," Paulson said. "We look forward to working with AMERICAN in the future." *DICE II (Dewatering Centrifuge Expansion, Phase II) - Contractor Ziebarth and Alper of Huntington Beach, California, began work on this facility in September 1995 and is scheduled to complete it in June 1998. This project will provide for the upgrade and expansion of biosolids dewa-tering capability from an existing capacity of 3,300 gpm to 7,000 gpm, and the replacement of existing centrifuges with six new high solids units.	A Pacific sunset glimmers on the final clarifiers of the $200 million Full Secondary Facilities, Phase I, project. The facilities, completed in 1996, provide secondary treatment to 200 million gallons of wastewater daily, allowing for cleaner discharge into the ocean. With completion of the second phase of the Full Secondary Facilities by January 1999, all of Hyperion's wastewater flows will be treated to full secondary standards. Five AMERICAN Ductile Iron 20-inch pipelines parallel each other in a tunnel under Hyperion's Technical Support Facility, providing a glimpse of the complexity of the project's pipe installation. "Considering the number of changes on this project, AMERICAN provided exceptional service," said Pat Paulson, project manager for subcontractor Harris Contracting Company of St. Paul, Minnesota. "AMERICAN's product quality was first-class, providing dependable installations."
	The most exacting of manufacturing requirements were needed for the AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe shown here in a pump station within Hyperion's Waste Activated Sludge Thickening Facility. AMERICAN's Customer Service Department communicated with contractor Kiewit Pacific on a daily basis to ensure accuracy of orders and deliveries. "AMERICAN was able to accommodate changes to the production schedule quickly and accurately," said Kiewit Pacific Project Manager Tom Shelby.
	AMERICAN 54-inch Lok -Ring® wall pipe is shown here exiting secondary clarifiers being built during the $149-million second phase of the Full Secondary Facilities job due for completion by January 1999. "American Cast Iron Pipe Company is very cooperative in doing whatever it takes to get the product to the site," said Dale Denney, project manager for Scott Mechanical of Gardena, California, a member of the Tutor-Saliba-Perini-Scott Joint Venture.
	Twin AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipelines shown here serve as temporary lines from the Waste Activated Sludge Facility to the completed first half of the Full Secondary Facilities. The Full Secondary Facilities' second phase is scheduled for completion in December 1998.
	The tight working conditions are evident in this shot of AMERICAN 54-inch Lok-Ring® pipe being install by Scott Mechanical on the C-117 project at Hyperion. Extremely tight work areas and deadlines, along with the need to continue uninterrupted service, made for unusually difficult construction conditions.

Owner:	City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works
Projects/Contractors:	Hyperion Treatment Plant, Playa del Rey, California; six contracts included Full Secondary Facilities Expansion Phase I (C-109), Kiewit Pacific Company, Santa Fe Springs, California; Full Secondary Facilities Expansion Phase II (C-117), Tutor-Saliba - Perini-Scott Joint Venture; Waste Activated Sludge Thickening, Chemical Feed and Storage Facility (C-111), Kiewit Pacific; Digester Screening Facilities, Elements 1 and 2 (C-164), Kiewit Pacific; Technical Support Facility and Primary Batteries Modernization Unit II (C-112), M.A. Mortenson Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota; subcontractor: Harris Contracting Company, St. Paul, Minnesota; and DICE II (Dewatering Centrifuge Expansion, Phase II), Ziebarth and Alper, Huntington Beach, California
Design Engineers:	Daniel Mann Johnson & Mendenhall of Los Angeles and Black & Veatch, Los Angeles Office
Material:	Approximately 7,000 tons of AMERICAN Ductile Iron pipe and fittings
Customer Service Representative:	For C-109, Barbara Mims; C-164, Cathy Whitten; C-111, Anne Lee; C-112 and C-117, Kathy Frederick; and Dice II, Joy McClain
Drafter	Larry Brown
Sales Engineer:	For C-109 and C-164, Keith Sowell; For all others, Terry Wallen