Fountain Valley : Sanitation Districts Say It’s Time to Deodorize

A $16.5-million contract for odor control has been awarded in an effort to control the emanations from two sewage treatment facilities in Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach.

The Orange County Sanitation Districts now spend more than $1.5 million a year on odor control, but the new contract was awarded to help “make things more pleasant for nearby residents,” said districts’ spokeswoman Corinne Clawson.

“As we grew larger and communities built around the plants, we began to feel the responsibility to be good neighbors,” she said.

The company under contract, Advanco Constructors of Upland, will install aluminum geodesic domes to cover 22 open primary-treatment water basins and air scrubbers to clean the air within the domes before it is released into the atmosphere.

The decision to spend the money on odor control followed a yearlong study of plant odors. The sanitation districts serve 2 million people in a 425-square-mile section of northwestern Orange County. The Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach plants process 250 million gallons of waste water daily from residential, commercial and industrial sources.