Water usage in residential properties is typically high. Usage from toilets, laundries, showers and cooling towers make up the bulk of consumption. The Helena is a new 600 apartment upscale building located in Midtown, Manhattan.

Dagher Engineering designed a black water treatment plant that implemented the safe reuse of the building’s wastewater. Instead of being discarded into the city’s sewer system, the black water treatment plant makes the reclaimed water safe for use in toilets, drip irrigation systems, and most importantly, the building’s cooling towers.

The plant employs a state of the art membrane bioreactor that processes wastewater through a primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment system in order to obtain potable water quality. Likewise, storm water is also collected and reclaimed, in an effort to maximize water conservation. Careful noise and ventilation considerations were employed to ensure the seamless operation of the plant located in the direct vicinity of apartments.

The plant reclaims an average of 50,000 gallons of water per day. This crucial project decreases both potable water consumption and the environmental impact associated with sending wastewater to the city’s sewage system.