Otopeni City Hall continues its efforts for the responsible management of wastewater

In an immediate effort to minimize the impact on the community, the City Hall of Otopeni has assumed the responsibility of identifying and applying effective solutions to ensure an adequate management of the collection and evacuation of wastewater in the city of Otopeni, promptly responding to solve this problem that affects the metropolitan area.

Thus, by approving Additional Act no. 6 / 15.01.2024 which provides for the extension of the Contract for delegating the management of public water supply and sewerage services in the city of Otopeni through concession no. 21847/22.12.2006, the local operator has undertaken to implement an investment program with an estimated value of 13.7 million euros, with the strategic objective of expanding and modernizing the sewage treatment plant, City Hall representatives announce.

Approximately 6.7 million euros will be invested for the integration of last-generation sustainable technologies in order to ensure a complete treatment and purification of the wastewater in the city of Otopeni.

Moreover, on 25.03.2024, the contract for the design and execution of the expansion and modernization of the sewage treatment plant was signed, the completion of the works being estimated in 2027.

Based on the signed contract, the request documentation for the Water Management Authorization with the Plan of Measures to comply with the purification process was completed.

At the same time, the procedure for the purchase by Otopeni City Hall of a 1,773 sq m plot of land needed for the expansion of the waste water treatment plant and in order to start the procedures for obtaining the Urban Planning Certificate, the necessary approvals and the Building Authorization was expedited.

In the meantime, Otopeni City Hall together with the local operator have initiated a series of measures to ensure a more efficient treatment until the completion of the modernization and expansion of the treatment plant:

a hypochlorite dosing facility (for disinfection) and odorization on the station’s effluent was purchased;

o new blowers were installed to improve the process in the biological stage;

o laboratory equipment was purchased for water quality monitoring in order to optimize the purification process;

a system has been integrated that contributes to the reduction of odors and the dissolution of fats.

At the same time, the operator is making sustained efforts to accelerate the procurement process for other laboratory equipment, as well as the technologies needed to implement the SCADA digital monitoring system of the water and sewage service in order to improve the purification processes.

On the other hand, in partnership with ANIF, the Otopeni City Hall initiated a campaign to control and monitor the evacuation points on the territory of the city of Otopeni, thus once again underlining the commitment to complying with the rules and regulations in the field. Among the measures taken are:

• Identification of waste water discharge points in the network of drainage channels made without ANIF’s approval and/or which are not contractually regulated by ANIF and ordering their entry into legality or shielding them; only in the period January – March 2024, some irregularities were detected and they are being resolved;

• Establishing a program for monitoring the quality of treated wastewater and storm water discharged into the network of drainage channels on the territory of the city of Otopeni for each discharge point, the beneficiary of which has a contractual relationship with ANIF and is not under the responsibility of the Otopeni City Hall ;

• Permanent verification of the results of the analysis bulletins of the quality of discharged wastewater for each discharge point and ordering, as the case may be, either the sanctioning of those responsible/informing the water regulatory authority in order to establish and apply the contraventional sanction, or the abolition of the discharge points.

• Permanent monitoring and sanctioning of illegal discharges in the network of drainage channels;

• Identification and sanctioning of illegal discharges of sewage into the sewerage network and drainage canals on the territory of the city of Otopeni.

Through these multiple control and monitoring measures and in continuous collaboration with relevant authorities, Otopeni City Hall wants to ensure an improvement in the wastewater treatment process on the territory of its city, but also to minimize the discomfort of the affected residents in a while as quickly as possible.