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In January 2005, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's (NEORSD's) Board of Trustees approved a long-term Residuals Management Plan for its three wastewater treatment plants. This Plan recommended replacement of the existing multiple hearth biosolids (sewage sludge) incinerators located at the Southerly Wastewater Treatment Center (WWTC) with new state-ofthe-art fluidized bed incinerators.Southerly's fluidized bed incineration project originally consisted of the construction of a new Biosolids Handling and Incineration Building to house three new fluidized bed incineration systems, nine new high solids dewatering centrifuges, and a biosolids truck loading facility.In August 2008, an independent group of biosolids management experts was asked by the NEORSD to determine whether fluidized bed incineration was still the most viable, costeffective way to manage Southerly's biosolids on a long-term basis.This paper presents detailed information on the Independent Expert analyses, findings, and recommendations developed during a Validation Workshop, information on the Southerly WWTC's new renewable energy system and the positive impact that this project will have on reducing Southerly's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD) is starting to replace four multiple hearth incinerators (MHIs) at its Southerly Wastewater Treatment Center (WWTC), located in Cuyahoga Heights, Ohio (Cleveland Metropolitan Area) with three new fluidized bed incinerators (FBIs). The plan is to replace the 46 year old MHIs with 3-100 dtpd capacity FBIs. Design work for this project, which started in 2006,did not include power generation with energy recovered from the incinerators. In August of 2008, NEORSD leadership determined that the facility should include energy recovery to produce green electrical power form the biosolids processed, at the recommendation of an independent Validation Panel. This directive was issued to fulfill the NEORSD's mission of protecting the environment and providing cost effective wastewater treatment for their stakeholders.The Validation Panel consisted seven independent biosolids management expert that assessed the NEORSD's proposed long-term biosolids handling program for Southerly, including a fresh look at the incineration project as well as other options. The project was already in preliminary design for the shutdown of the plant's thermal conditioning system and construction of new dewatering and incineration processes. The panel confirmed the NEORSD's plan for biosolids handling, and recommended the integration of the green power facilities into the overall design.With this change, the Southerly Renewable Energy Project was modified to include waste heat boilers (WHBs) to produce steam that would be used to produce electricity using a steam turbine generator. This modified work included auxiliary facilities including water treatment, condensate handling, and controls. This paper summarizes the challenges, benefits, and "lessons learned" in implementing the green power features of the Southerly Renewable Energy Project.

Residuals" is the term commonly used to identify grit, screenings, skimmings, and biosolids removed from wastewater at Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs) and ash from biosolids incinerators.The management of wastewater residuals has always been an issue of concern for POTWs, especially since the disposal costs substantially contribute to the overall costs of operating and maintaining a POTW. Moreover, many utilities find it difficult to track all of the costs associated with residuals management. Thus, representative utility-wide costs from which to benchmark operations are also difficult to find. This paper provides detailed information concerning the costs that the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (hereinafter "District") incurred from 1996 -2001 in conjunction with the disposal of residuals generated at its Easterly, Southerly and Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs).