Veolia Water, a partner of the Paris wastewater treatment authority, SIAAP (Syndicat Interdépartemental pour l'Assainissement de l'Agglomération Parisienne), took part on June 29 in the official opening of the nitrification treatment facility at Seine Aval (Achères) by Mr Jean-Louis Borloo, the French Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Planning. Maurice Ouzoulias, Chairman of SIAAP was also present at the ceremony.
Improving the Water Quality of the Seine. The New Nitrogen Pollution Treatment Facility at Seine aval (Achères)
Credit : SIAAP\Le Bar floreal\C. Pottier
The Largest Wastewater Plant in Europe
The Seine Aval wastewater treatment plant - the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world - treats the wastewater of 75% of the people living in the Greater Paris region, i.e. 1.7 million cubic meters a day. The building of this new facility embodies SIAAP's objectives of meeting, in the short term, EU environmental requirements as laid out by the European Directive on Urban Wastewater.
The new facility is the result of three sources of funding, from SIAAP (40%), the Seine-Normandy Water Agency (40%) and the French administrative region Île-de-France (20%) to a total of €500 million. The whole project was managed by OTV France (the design and build subsidiary of Veolia Water Solution & Technologies (VWS)).
Credit : Claude Cieutat
Leading Technology
One of the technologies that the new nitrification treatment facility uses is BIOSTYR®, developed by Veolia Water Solutions & Technologies (VWS). It removes the ammoniacal nitrogen contained in the water. This nitrogen treatment process reproduces a natural phenomenon on an industrial scale by converting ammonia to nitrate (nitrification). The plant comprises 84 BIOSTYR filters with a record total filtration surface of 15,000 m2. Never before implemented on such a scale, this process can treat 24 m³/s of effluent and up to 52 m³/s during exceptional storm conditions.
The treated water is used to sustain an energy recovery turbine to produce electricity and is partially denitrified during an additional biofiltration stage (Suez).
The building of this new plant is already helping to considerably improve the quality of the effluent into the Seine.
Taking Into Account the Human Factor Throughout the Entire Design Process
In constructing this new facility, and in line with requests made by SIAAP, Veolia Water took into consideration the human factor throughout the entire project and at every stage of its design from its construction to visits to the facility. This was why during the construction work, which employed up to 1,000 workers at any given time (3,500 workers all in all), a road diversion was set up to make the movement of traffic safer, plans also included reducing sound pollution through the use of new materials, and light rays were dimmed from 20h for the better comfort of both the project's staff and residents.
The facility's design has also taken into account ergonomic factors to ensure better posture and comfort for those working there in order to improve productivity.
Particular care was given to designing the interior of the building for both the comfort of those who work there as well as future visitors on educational tours of the facility.
The plant blends into its surroundings thanks to its architecture and the management by SIAAP of 45 hectares of landscaped green areas comprising of more than 27,000 trees and shrubs.
An Architecture That Takes Into Account Current Environmental Issues
Luc Weizmann, architect
The facilities housing the nitrification treatment facility are of a compact design; the facility is enclosed and odour-controlled to prevent noise, visual and odour pollution. Top quality construction materials have been used in its construction such as polished concrete, wood, steel and glass in order to ensure the aesthetic value of the building.
With a view to being more energy efficient, part of the electricity supply will be produced by the water as it falls from the exit of the discharge canal.
Finally, an educational tour of the building for members of the general public has been incorporated into the plans to underline the environmental issues involved in treating wastewater.