The multi-million Union-Rome Township sewage system is right on target with the tentative start up date to be in June or July of next year.

“Everything is going well,” Gary Criswell, assistant administrator of the Union-Rome Sewer District. “The entire plant is under roof.”

The project, which began in October of 2007, will use micro-filtration membrane sheets made from chlorinated polyethylene with micron-sized pores. Treated water permeates through the membrane sheets with contaminants trapped on the other side. The technology comes from Kubota Corp. of Japan, which has been using it since the 1960s. However, the Kubota system was only introduced to the United States seven years ago.

Shook Construction is handling the building as well as the demolition of the old plant after the new facility is up and running. Demolition work is expected to continue through October of 2009, Criswell said.

The township’s system will be the fourth or fifth in the state to use the Kubota system, according to Tim Porter, administrator of the district.

In 2002, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency declared that the current plant did not meet the National Pollution Discharge Environmental System standards because there was a harmful amount of ammonia discharged into the Ohio.

The current plant treats about 1 million gallons of sewage a day. The new plant is expected to double that capacity.

Funding for the $23 million project comes from the EPA. The plant will maintain the same level of manpower as the current facility, Criswell said.