Wright-Pierce News

Wright-Pierce Earns Engineering Excellence Award for Innovative, Sustainable Water Facility Design

State of the art technology recycles water, reduces chemical use, and saves in energy and operational costs.

Wright-Pierce earned an Engineering Excellence Award from The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Maine for the innovative design of the recently completed Mirror Lake water treatment facility upgrade project in Rockport, Maine. Owned and operated by Aqua Maine, Inc., it is the first large-scale membrane filtration facility for a public water supply in the state of Maine.

The $7.2 million facility upgrade was designed by Wright-Pierce to comply, for decades to come, with increasingly stringent state and federal regulations. It is a model of sustainable design using an innovative microfiltration membrane technology that removes organics and pathogens from the Mirror Lake water source, rather than treating the raw water with only a chemical disinfection process. 

Energy and operational cost saving features include low pressure membranes resulting in reduced pumping costs, and an electrical system charged by solar-powered thermal and photovoltaic roof panels that will offset 75,000 kWh of purchased electricity annually. Large, south facing windows provide added passive solar heating and natural lighting.  In addition, wastes generated from the filter cleaning process are treated and recycled on site to create a "zero waste discharge facility." 

The project was completed in August, 2010. As a "shovel ready" project it qualified for approximately $1.75 million in federal stimulus funds, and $44,000 in grant funding from Efficiency Maine.