How a Tulsa Plant Won Platinum Status During an Upgrade

A major plant upgrade didn’t keep the team at a Tulsa clean-water plant from meeting permit limits and earning a Platinum Peak Performance Award.

Sep 14, 2016 | by Trude Witham |

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How a Tulsa Plant Won Platinum Status During an Upgrade — The team at the Lower Bird Creek facility includes, from left, back row, John Hines, operator; Falan Versaw, storekeeper; Tom Collins, Kenny Friend and Manny Verges, operators; and Eric DeAlba, mechanic; front row, Shawn Glen, plant superintendent; and Zane Briggs, operations supervisor.

How a Tulsa Plant Won Platinum Status During an Upgrade — Plant operator Kenny Friend measures a sludge blanket in a clarifier with a Sludge Judge tool (Nasco).

How a Tulsa Plant Won Platinum Status During an Upgrade — Shawn Glen, plant superintendent.

How a Tulsa Plant Won Platinum Status During an Upgrade — Kenny Friend (left) and Manny Verges check the dissolved oxygen level in the oxidation ditch.

How a Tulsa Plant Won Platinum Status During an Upgrade — Eric DeAlba, right, plant mechanic, checks the oil in a clarifier drive as Kenny Friend, operator, assists.

How a Tulsa Plant Won Platinum Status During an Upgrade — The entrance of the City of Tulsa’s Lower Bird Creek Water Pollution Control Facility.

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A major upgrade was a long time coming for the Lower Bird Creek Water Pollution Control Facility.The 20-year-old facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, needed new headworks to solve a debris removal issue, plus a circular clarifier and new SCADA system. Completed in June 2012, the upgrade also doubled plant capacity from 2 mgd to 4 mgd to meet city growth and take in additional wastewater from the city of Catoosa.Several years of plant construction presented challenges for the operators. These included taking the oxidation ditch out of service for 30 days and diverting flow to equalization basins while keeping the biomass

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