Okaloosa County Water & Sewer (OCWS) selected Constantine Engineering to provide design engineering and services during construction for the Bob Sikes Water Reclamation Facility Expansion and Improvements project. This project expanded the treatment capacity of the existing Bob Sikes WRF from 0.3 million gallons per day (mgd) to 1.0 mgd; and converted the existing steel package plant treatment basins into new membrane bioreactor (MBD) treatment units. The expanded WRF was designed to treat the wastewater to meet the stringent federal and state regulations for public access reuse water irrigation.

The original facility was a small activated sludge facility, while the expanded WRF upgrade provides an average daily flow of 1.0 mgd and a peak hydraulic flow of 3.5 mgd. The upgraded Bob Sikes WRF has the capability to convey treated effluent to surrounding developments and subdivisions for public access irrigation of common areas, residential lawns, flower gardens, and other landscaping and water features. As part of the development order process for new subdivisions, the County requires developers to construct public access reuse water piping and distribution system facilities to accept and convey the treated effluent from the upgraded WRF. This requirement will maximize the distribution of reuse water in this portion of the County and minimize the withdrawal of valuable water from the sand and gravel aquifer. 

Water reuse from highly treated effluents is  a popular method of conserving water resources since it eliminates a point source discharge to a stream or lake that may already be struggling from pollution or nutrient overloading; and since the reuse water offsets water that would otherwise have to be withdrawn from limited potable sources – this matter becomes extremely significant during dry weather and in areas where raw water sources are scarce for public water supplies.