Conroe to add odor control system at plant
Conroe approved a permanent odor control system for its Central Wastewater Treatment Plant, but city officials say the plant always will have a lingering smell.
The council awarded a $738,000 bid Thursday to Willis-based C3 Constructors for the odor control system at the plant.
Earlier this year the city installed covers on the plant’s headworks to address the odor after residents whose homes back up to the plant complained of the smell.
The headworks include the chambers that remove large solids and debris that interfere with treatment processes.
Norm McGuire, assistant city administrator and director of public works, said that debris is organic and produces a strong odor.
In January 2020, council approved a redesign of the plant — which removed odor control devices — to reduce the cost to $59 million from $64 million.
The plant sits on 25 acres of a 50-acre greenbelt off Ed Kharbat Drive just south of downtown and has a capacity of 6 million gallons a day but can be expanded to process up to 12 mil lion gallons.
The plant began operations last summer.
Mayor Pro Tem Curt Maddux said he is continuing to get calls regarding the smell.
“There is still an odor,” Maddux said.
McGuire said staff is injecting odor-fighting solutions under the covers on the heads. While the smell is managed most of the time, McGuire said minor equipment failure has caused upticks in the odor occasionally.
“When the chemical units are working, they work pretty good,” McGuire said. “It’s effective but are there problems with it? There are.”
Because the plant treats wastewater, odor will always be a part of the process.
McGuire said the permanent system approved by the council is a “much better treatment” that will remove over 90 percent of the smell.
“It’s hard for anybody to guarantee 100 percent removal (of odor),” McGuire said. “But we are very confident this is the path forward.”