A signature water treatment project by a Huntsville engineering firm has earned Alabama’s highest engineering honor .

Garver Engineering’s Tuscumbia Water Treatment Plant and Supply Improvements project is being inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame, joining less than 50 other projects in achieving the recognition since its inception in 1987. The plant, which in 2012 began treating the city’s raw water supply from Big Spring, was the first in the state to use a blended series membrane process.

The project is being honored for the significant impact it has made on technological and economic development in northwest Alabama. The project won the Grand Conceptor Award from the American Council of Engineering Companies of Alabama in 2013 and was a finalist for a national award. The induction ceremony was held in Huntsville.

“This was a landmark project for both Garver and for the City of Tuscumbia,” said Garver Senior Project Manager Kevin Mullins. “When the local utility was having a hard-water condition, we worked together to correct it with the most advanced technologies, and it’s been benefiting its residents ever since.”

Dr. Steve Jones, Garver’s director of water services and its membrane technologist, said the state-of-the-art process includes pretreatment to handle seasonal suspended solids loadings, membranes to trim dissolved solids and free chlorine disinfection for primary disinfection.

Garver provided project design, funding and bond issue assistance, construction management, and operational support in replacing a 60-year-old plant that had outlived its usefulness. The new plant is almost double the size of the previous plant.

“The city knew improvements were needed to address aging equipment and to accommodate increased peak demands and future growth,” said Garver Project Manager Kyle Kruger. “Our design approach not only utilized advanced treatment specific to their needs, but it also provided infrastructure for current demands, readily expandable to meet future capacity.”