CPWQA Facility Spotlight

Welcome to the CPWQA Facility Spotlight. Currently we are featuring the Borough of Hanover WWTP.

The Hanover Area Regional Wastewater Treatment Facility (WWTF) is owned and operated by the Borough of Hanover.  The Hanover Area Regional WWTF serves the Borough of Hanover, areas of Penn Township in York County, the Borough of McSherrystown, and areas of Conewago Township in Adams County.  The Hanover Area Regional WWTF also receives sanitary and process waste from the Hanover Municipal Water Treatment Plant.

The Hanover Area Regional WWTF has an annual average permitted hydraulic capacity of 5.60 million gallons per day (mgd), a maximum month permitted hydraulic capacity of 7.28 mg, and a maximum month permitted organic loading capacity of 13,731 pounds biochemical oxygen demand (BOD)/day.  The WWTF discharges treated effluent to the South Branch of the Conewago Creek and Plum Creek, from outfalls 001 and 002 respectively, under NPDES Permit No. PA0026875.

The WWTF's treatment process includes two mechanical fine (3/8-inch) screens, a vortex grit chamber, three primary clarifiers, three extended aeration oxidation ditches, ferrous sulfate (i.e odophos) addition for total phosphorus removal, four final clarifiers, WesTech continuous backwash up flow denitrification filters, chlorine gas disinfection, and sulfur dioxide dichlorination.  The oxidation ditches are designed to operate in either intermittent aeration operation or simultaneous nitrification/denitrification mode for nitrogen removal.

Solids from the primary clarifiers are pumped to a two-stage high-rate mesophilic anaerobic digestion process, while waste-activated sludge (WAS) from the final clarifiers is first pumped to dissolve air flotation (DAF) thickeners and then pumped to the two-stage high-rate anerobic digestion process.  Stabilized biosolids are pumped from the secondary anaerobic digester to one of two centrifuges for dewatering.  The Borough beneficially uses stabilized class B biosolids through a self-managed land application program that uses Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection approved farm fields.