(Left to Right: H2M’s Project Managers – Timothy Nordberg, P.E., Christopher Weiss, P.E., Town of Riverhead Supervisor – Laura Jens-Smith, Town of Riverhead Sewer District Superintendent – Michael Reichel, and H2M’s President/CEO – Rich Humann, P.E.)
MELVILLE, NY —
The American Council of Engineering Companies of New York (ACEC NY) hosted their 51st annual Engineering Excellence Awards Gala on April 7, 2018 at the Hilton Midtown in New York City.
Awards were presented to projects that encompass both the public and private sector in the following categories: studies, research, and consulting services; building/technology systems; structural systems; surveying and mapping technology; environmental; waste and storm water; water resources; transportation; energy; industrial and manufacturing processes and facilities; and special projects. Submitted projects are judged on rigorous set of criteria including complexity, innovation, and value to society. The projects are then granted either a Silver, Gold, Platinum, or Diamond Award.
H2M architects + engineers (H2M) submitted a total of eight projects this year and proudly received a Diamond Award for their Wastewater Reuse project with the Town of Riverhead.
The Town of Riverhead wanted to improve their wastewater treatment plant facility, which is situated on a sole source drinking water aquifer and nationally significant ecological estuary. Thus the inception of the 15 year Riverhead Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF) upgrade project that H2M spearheaded. Being the first of its kind in New York meant H2M and the Town of Riverhead had to determine what the standards would be, prove the standards could be met, and get the standards approved by the regulating agency, all before the project could be moved to the full scale design phase.
The entire facility was designed with the concept of “choose to reuse” in mind. This focused the drive to repurpose and retrofit existing structures with new equipment to maximize the system’s upgrade potential and capacity without increasing the facility’s overall property. The completion of the project increased the flow capacity of the WRFF and enhanced the benefits to the overall well-being of the coastal community by reducing the total nitrogen discharge by 50 percent. Furthermore by diverting one third of the effluent discharge from the Peconic River to the golf course for irrigation use, up to 100 million gallons a year of groundwater will not be pumped from the sole source drinking water aquifer.
H2M is honored to have attended such a distinguished event and to have been recognized with such a prestigious award.
ACEC New York is a proactive coalition of 270 firms representing every discipline of engineering related to the built environment — civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, environmental, geotechnical — and affiliated companies. Their shared goals are to further the business interests of their membership, enhance the quality and safety of the environment we all live and work in, and help ensure the vitality of our communities. For more information, visit www.acecny.org
Celebrating 85 years, H2M is a full-service consulting and design firm offering the expertise of more than 390 architects, engineers (water supply, civil/site, structural, M/E/P, wastewater and environmental), planners, designers, inspectors, surveyors and scientists. H2M is proud of its long history of client service and consistent ability to meet architectural, engineering, and environmental challenges head on. H2M offers a practical approach, with creative results.
