Upgrade at Cox Creek treatment plant is done

for Anne Arundel to upgrade the sewage plant — bounded on all sides by the Herbert Wagner Power Generating Plant, water, wetlands and power transmission mains — in about a quarter of the space that would normally be required for similar improvements.

The site’s limited space prolonged the construction process, said Thor Young, project design manager.

Work on environmental improvements at the plant first broke ground in 2010, and was initially expected to take about three years from start to finish.

But workers could only complete one project at a time, because the plant had to continue operations throughout construction.

The Cox Creek facility, which processes waste from about 38,500 homes and businesses in northern Anne Arundel, is the county’s oldest and serves the largest area.

Tom Zolper, a spokesman for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which pushed for the flush fee, said the group expects to see significant water quality improvements now that the plant’s environmental upgrades, and those at other large wastewater facilities in the state, are complete.

“It’s kind of cool to think that as much as the bay has progressed because of the plants cleaned up so far, these new plants going online are going to double the improvements,”

Zolper said.

Anne Arundel has already made improvements to wastewater plants in Broadwater, Maryland City and Patuxent.

Only upgrades to the Mayo water reclamation facility, the county’s smallest, are left to finish.

Phipps said that project should be done in the next few months. [e-mail]