Large-Scale Wastewater Treatment Plants

AUC designs and delivers large-scale wastewater treatment plants using both concrete and steel construction. For projects in the 1 MGD to 2 MGD range, steel treatment systems can provide a viable alternative to traditional concrete plants while supporting phased expansion, large-capacity clarifiers, and long-term wastewater infrastructure planning.

Wastewater Infrastructure for Growing Communities

Growing communities and development corridors need wastewater infrastructure that can keep pace with demand. As projects move from early phases to full buildout, treatment capacity affects occupancy, revenue timing, regulatory planning, and long-term service reliability.

AUC delivers larger-capacity wastewater treatment solutions for:

• Municipalities and MUDs
• Developers and master-planned community teams
• Build-to-rent developers and operators
• Engineering firms and utility operators
• Projects in ETJs and fast-growing service areas

Larger capacity doesn’t require a single, build-all-at-once commitment. Municipal and development customers can use phased treatment solutions to bring capacity online as demand increases. AUC helps customers evaluate permanent wastewater infrastructure, considering the project’s actual flow range, growth schedule, available site, treatment goals, and operating plan.

Steel and Concrete Solutions for Large Wastewater Plants

While concrete remains a common choice for municipal wastewater infrastructure, steel treatment plants have become an increasingly attractive option for certain projects. AUC has experience delivering steel wastewater treatment plants in the 1 MGD to 2 MGD range, providing owners, engineers, municipalities, and MUDs with additional flexibility when evaluating long-term treatment infrastructure.

Concrete may be the right fit when a project calls for conventional civil construction, large permanent basins, or traditional municipal infrastructure standards. Steel may be a better fit when project teams need faster deployment, phased capacity, modular expansion, reduced construction complexity, or a more adaptable path to growth.

For projects where modifications or expansion are important, modular steel units can help capacity grow as wastewater demand increases.

Clarifier Systems for Larger Treatment Capacity

Clarifier capacity plays a central role in higher-flow wastewater treatment. A wastewater clarifier uses gravity to separate suspended solids from wastewater, and the right clarifier configuration can affect capacity, solids collection, durability, and long-term treatment performance.

AUC recently expanded its offerings with the acquisition of key assets from WAWCON, Inc., a prominent manufacturer of clarifier internals. AUC now supports steel and concrete clarifier designs with diameters exceeding 57 feet, including pier-supported internals, gear-driven systems, hopper-bottom, concentric, and large-diameter configurations for larger treatment applications.

Large clarifiers can help connect modular growth to larger plant planning. A phased project may begin with a smaller steel treatment configuration and add treatment units as flow increases. AUC can pair those units with a larger clarifier, allowing the overall plant to scale with increasing wastewater demand while operating as a larger, integrated treatment system.

AUC’s concentric wastewater treatment plant configurations integrate a central clarifier with surrounding treatment chambers, helping maximize treatment capacity while making efficient use of available site space.

Large-Capacity Project Experience

For customers evaluating large-scale wastewater treatment options, the Freeport project demonstrates both treatment capacity and clarifier expertise.

When Freeport, a Gulf Coast community, needed to expand its wastewater treatment capacity, AUC designed a parallel concentric-circle clarifier next to the legacy plant, which continued operating during construction, minimizing service disruption. The project demonstrates AUC’s ability to deliver larger-capacity treatment infrastructure while coordinating expansion around existing operating facilities.

Built for Texas. Designed to Scale.

Houston-based AUC has completed more than 2,000 treatment plants, serves communities across more than 25 states, and brings more than half a century of experience to water and wastewater treatment projects. AUC works with municipalities, MUDs, developers, engineers, and utility operators throughout Texas and brings familiarity with TCEQ requirements, phased infrastructure planning, and long-term wastewater system development.