On 2 October 2026, investigative outlet NGL.media reported that Lvivvodokanal, the municipal water utility of the Lviv city council, awarded three design contracts worth a combined UAH 8.2 million to a Kharkiv-based private company, Intechengineering, to draft the renovation of aerotanks at the city's wastewater treatment facilities NGL.media. The publication also tied Intechengineering's owner to long-standing business interests in Russia, a sensitive issue in wartime Ukraine where Russian forces have publicly threatened to strike critical urban infrastructure.
Key takeaways
- Lvivvodokanal commissioned three design contracts, totaling UAH 8.2 million, to draft aerotank renovation work NGL.media.
- Each contract was won by Intechengineering, a Kharkiv firm registered in 2018 with no prior public-procurement history NGL.media.
- The Lviv plants process about 400,000 cubic metres of wastewater per day and were built in the 1960s–70s NGL.media.
- Owner Mykhailo Tits is identified as a co-founder of the Ukrainian-Russian consortium RPE Ecopolymer, whose Russian arm continues to operate in the Kaluga region NGL.media.
What happened: the contract trail
The NGL.media investigation, published on 2 October 2026, traced three Lvivvodokanal procurements issued last year for the drafting of aerotank renovations at the city's wastewater treatment plants NGL.media. In all three cases the winner was Intechengineering, registered in Kharkiv in 2018 and making its first appearance in public procurement NGL.media. The three Lvivvodokanal contracts, totaling UAH 8.2 million, are described in the report as the first budget-financed orders in the company's history NGL.media.
Intechengineering's 70-year-old director and owner, Mykhailo Tits, is named in the report as a co-founder of RPE Ecopolymer, a Ukrainian-Russian consortium active in water-disposal and wastewater-treatment equipment since 1991, whose Russian manufacturing plant in the Kaluga region is still operating NGL.media. The publication also reports that Ecopolymer's long-term president, Yurii Meshengisser, kept his Russian company after the start of the full-scale invasion and expanded its activity, with reported equipment tests in Lipetsk in 2024 and assembly work in Krasnoyarsk in 2025 NGL.media. NGL.media says it held the story for four months at the request of Ukrainian security forces, who became interested in Lvivvodokanal's contracting arrangements NGL.media.
What the plants look like
According to the report, Lviv's wastewater treatment plants date to the 1960s–70s and run a two-stage train: mechanical cleansing using screens and primary settling tanks to strip solids and fats, followed by biological cleansing in aerotanks where microorganisms break down organic matter, then secondary settling before treated water is discharged to the Poltva River NGL.media. About 400,000 cubic metres of wastewater per day pass through this system NGL.media. The three Lvivvodokanal contracts target the aerotank stage of that train — the core of the biological step — and the work is described as a draft design, not a build contract NGL.media.
| Item | Reported value |
|---|---|
| Combined contract value, three aerotank design lots | UAH 8.2 million |
| Number of Lvivvodokanal design lots awarded | 3 |
| Average daily wastewater flow at Lviv plants | ~400,000 m³/day |
| Original plant construction period | 1960s–70s |
| Treatment stages reported | Mechanical (screens, primary settling) → biological (aerotanks, secondary settling) → discharge to Poltva River |
Specification read
For a buyer or engineer reading this, the headline number to scale is the plant flow: NGL.media reports roughly 400,000 m³/day of wastewater through Lviv's mechanical-plus-biological train, which converts to about 400 MLD of hydraulic load on the aeration stage that the three design contracts target NGL.media. The reported scope is the aerotanks — the biological reactor stage of a conventional activated-sludge line sitting between primary settling and secondary clarification — so any supplier engaging on this kind of 1960s–70s Eastern European municipal plant is being asked to redesign the aeration basin and its diffuser grid rather than to add a new tertiary or membrane step. The source does not report influent BOD/COD, designed PE, or effluent limits, so capacity sizing and discharge compliance cannot be derived from the article. If your plant matches this profile — a 1960s–70s Eastern European municipal works, ~400,000 m³/day, mechanical plus biological activated-sludge train, biological stage due for aerotank and aeration-system overhaul — then the procurement question is who holds the design competence for retrofitting aeration basins in legacy activated-sludge plants. For adjacent reading on similar legacy municipal retrofit scopes, see the Municipal sector hub and the Advanced Nutrient Removal Treatment Construction Companies: 2026 Engineering Buyer's Guide. For a comparable aeration-stage retrofit on a different influent type, the Data Center Cooling Blowdown Treatment in Novosibirsk, Russia (2026 Guide) outlines the design variables buyers are asked to specify.
FAQ
What exactly was contracted in Lviv?
Three Lvivvodokanal lots for the draft design of aerotank renovations at the city's wastewater treatment plants, awarded to a single Kharkiv firm for a combined UAH 8.2 million NGL.media.
How big is the Lviv plant the design work targets?
About 400,000 m³/day flows through a mechanical-plus-biological train built in the 1960s–70s, discharging to the Poltva River; the design contracts cover the aerotank stage of that train NGL.media.
Why is the contractor's history being scrutinised?
According to the report, the contractor's owner co-founded a Ukrainian-Russian wastewater-equipment consortium whose Russian manufacturing arm in the Kaluga region is still operating, and the report's editors say they delayed publication at the request of security forces reviewing the utility's contracts NGL.media.
What is the next step for buyers reading this?
No build tender has been reported; the contracts are for draft design only, and influent/effluent design parameters were not reported, so any supply engagement would start from a retrofit brief for legacy activated-sludge aeration rather than from published capacity or compliance numbers NGL.media.
