Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., of Richmond, Va., is a finalist in the American Council of Engineering Companies’ (ACEC) 44th annual Engineering Excellence Awards competition for the Proctors Creek Reuse Water Pump Station in Chesterfield County, Va.

To meet new emissions regulations at its Chesterfield County power station, Dominion Virginia Power installed an air scrubber. Obtaining the large volume of water needed for the scrubbers, however, was costly. At the same time, the County was facing new limits on effluent from its nearby wastewater treatment plant. To solve both problems, Malcolm Pirnie helped develop a system that reuses as much as 9.5 million gallons of the wastewater plant’s treated flow each day as process water for the scrubbers. The solution reduces the volume of nitrogen and phosphorous released into the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and lowers Dominion’s sulfur dioxide emissions.

The project is among 163 engineering projects from throughout the nation that are being recognized by ACEC as preeminent engineering achievements for 2009.