Problem

The Bethpage (N.Y.) Water District metered caustic soda with diaphragm pumps, but accuracy drifted between maintenance periods and the check valves needed routine service.

Solution

The district replaced the pumps with the CTS Valveless Piston Pump system from Fluid Metering. The only moving part, a rotating and reciprocating ceramic piston, controls all fluid functions. The sapphire-hard ceramic internals provide drift-free accuracy of better than 1 percent for millions of cycles without recalibration.

Result

Downtime was almost eliminated. The system uses less power and has a smaller footprint than the original pumps. 800/223-3388; www.fmipump.com.

Retrofit vitalizes pump stations

Problem

The Town of Wolcott, Conn., needed to rehabilitate four pumps in two aging pump stations. “They are deep can stations, making it difficult to mobilize materials and modify the piping,” says administrator for sewer and water Phil Olmstead. “It also was crucial not to disturb the integrity of the steel chamber’s shell, which welding could do.”

Solution

Without any modifications, Smith & Loveless After Market replaced the pumps with vertical 4B2A S&L non-clog pumps on stands. The units, which dropped in and were bolted in place, have oversized stainless steel shafts, bronze mechanical seal housings, and cast iron balanced impellers. The combination, with NEMA-rated premium efficient motors, limits the potential of mechanical seal failure.

Result

One pump station increased efficiency a minimum of 9 percent and the other by 5 percent. 800/898-9122; www.smithandlove less.com.

“Electricity has increased by 40 percent, chemical costs are up, and even the price for biosolids land applicators has increased. Still, our division has reduced overall cost for those three from $18.2 million to $15.2 million in five years,” Coughenour says. “We expect to reduce it by another $1 million this year. We’re trying to craft the entire plant to optimize each step.”

The 230 mgd regional facility serves three million people in Phoenix, Glendale, Scottsdale, Tempe and Mesa. It uses single-stage nitrogen removal, single-stage anaerobic digestion, chloramination for disinfection, and a revamped solar drying biosolids operation. “We’re looking at this in a little different way,” Coughenour says.

Headworks

Process enhancements begin at the headworks. Centrate ammonia from the digested sludge dewatering centrifuges is nitrified to nitrate or nitrite at the Centrate Treatment Facility and recycled to the headworks. The nitrate/nitrite is used up prior to reaching the aeration basin, reducing soluble COD and cutting total nitrogen loading on the aerators by 15 percent. It also serves as an odor control chemical at no cost in the headworks and primary clarifiers. That step alone saves the plant $40,000 a year.

A small dose of ferric chloride in the headworks helps meet sulfide-related air-quality permit limits and causes small particles to come together and settle out in the primary clarifiers.

Primary clarifiers

The primary clarifiers were updated several years ago to remove much of the plant’s BOD load before the aeration phase to reduce the use of blowers. Spiral scrapers and Stamford baffles (NEFCO) were added, along with energy dissipating center wells. Intermittent high-rate pumping was replaced by continuous slow-rate pumping. Density meters and VFDs maintain primary sludge density at about 3 percent.

“The only sludge blankets we have are in the cones, and that is just enough to thicken it to 3 percent,” says Coughenour. “We are able to stop acid hydrolysis from occurring in the clarifiers, preventing soluble COD from increasing. With centrate treatment and ferric chloride, we’re getting about 80 percent solids removal, almost 60 percent COD removal and 15 percent soluble COD removal.”

In the last five years, while the amount of suspended solids and COD coming into the plant has increased sharply, the amount going into the aerators has decreased. “That efficiency has probably saved $600,000 a year,” he notes.

Controlling DO

A sophisticated aerator DO control strategy relies on a number of blowers. “The most efficient are the Atlas Copco blowers that have inlet and discharge guide veins,” Coughenour notes.

The plant also uses first-pass and fourth-pass anoxic zones in the aerators, allowing for proper treatment with less oxygen and less blower use. Oxygen is added in the center of the aerator, where ammonia is nitrified and BOD is oxidized, to maintain dissolved oxygen at 2.0 mg/l. About 7 percent of the primary effluent is added to the fourth-pass anoxic zone.

“The fourth-pass feed allows us to pass a small amount of ammonia for chloramination,” he says. “Operating the fourth-pass of the aerator, the mixed liquor channel, and the secondary clarifier as anoxic, causes endogenous denitrification, lowering our total nitrogen and freeing up significantly more oxygen.”

He says the plant started using the denitrification-nitrification-denitrification strategy in the mid-1990s and has been refining it ever since. “We are using roughly 600 kWh per million gallons here for blowers, as opposed to 900 kWh at our 23rd Avenue plant,” Coughenour says. Phoenix Water Services has transferred about 10 mgd of flow from 23rd Avenue to take advantage of the savings at 91st Avenue.

Unusual water reclamation

About half of the plant’s effluent is piped 50 miles to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station, the largest nuclear plant in the country and the only one not on a lake or river. It uses the effluent for condensing steam into water in its cooling towers. At peak times, about 80 mgd of effluent goes to Palo Verde.

Because it doesn’t have to be chlorinated, wastewater destined for Palo Verde is treated in an older part of the plant. It flows by gravity to the power plant. “We saved $50,000 the last two months because we didn’t have to pump the water, and we reduced our chlorine cost by $50,000,” says Coughenour.

Help from wetlands

The plant recently finished a $34 million U.S. EPA-funded Tres Rios Constructed Wetlands Demonstration Project on 750 acres along the Salt River. That cost compares to an estimated $625 million for a plant upgrade.

The first 500 acres are treatment cells called Flow Regulating Wetlands. Water leaving the cells must meet all discharge permit requirements. Currently receiving 45 mgd of treated secondary effluent, the wetlands are designed to accept up to 400 mgd.

“91st Avenue reduces primary effluent total nitrogen from about 50 mg/l to about 6 mg/l,” says Coughenour. “The wetlands further reduce it to 3 mg/l.”

91st Avenue uses sodium bisulfite to dechlorinate effluent prior to discharge, but chlorine is removed naturally in the wetlands. “Total chlorine residual of 2 mg/l enters the wetlands, and it’s all gone before it gets halfway through.”

Chlorine analyzers are gathering data and calculating decay rates to determine if peak flows will still be fully dechlorinated. Coughenour believes that as the wetlands mature, they will still remove all chlorine even if the wetlands accept 100 percent of the plant’s effluent.

The last 250 acres are called the Overbank Wetlands where a city park will be built. “It will be a great place for people to come and enjoy the environment,” says Coughenour.

Handling biosolids

Plant efficiencies extend to the management of biosolids. Development has taken over much of the property where the plant’s biosolids were land-applied. “We decided to see if we could resurrect a solar drying program we had used many years ago.”

Being in the Sonoran Desert presents some advantages in drying biosolids. No greenhouses are needed, the biosolids are just placed on asphalt pads.

“We are drying 20 percent solids cake and getting about 75 percent of the water out using Brown Bear tractors for aeration,” he says. “We’ve reduced what we pay for land application to $1.9 million a year. Five years ago we were spending more than $5 million. We believe we’ll be able to reduce it to less than $1 million.”

Solar drying creates a product that is essentially Class A. Eliminating odors and vector attraction problems allows land application closer to homes and businesses. “Instead of land-applying 60 to 80 miles away, we are doing it 40 to 50 miles from the plant,” Coughenour says. “We’re taking trucks off the highway and producing a product that is more attractive to farmers. Demand is growing.”

Strategic view

Incremental change has been an effective approach at 91st Avenue. “We’re trying to manage lots of different chemical and energy applications,” says Coughenour. “We just improved our power monitoring, and the operators have been able to use that to limit when equipment is turned on to reduce our energy bill. That is producing substantial savings.”

The staff is using that new ability to find other opportunities to limit equipment and energy use during times of low flow. “Innovation is part of our mission,” he adds. “Not just to stagnate and accept what’s happened before.”

“They just had a really simple, static website,” says Karen Sorensen, Internet projects coordinator. With a background in multimedia design and corporate training, Sorensen was brought on to amp up the website (www.jcw.org).

“They were very excited when I came on board to make the website as interactive as possible,” Sorensen says. She quickly revamped the site to include more educational information and new interactive games for kids of all ages have been highly popular.

The MicroMatch game “puts the player in the shoes of a wastewater worker with the challenge of identifying various microbes as quickly as possible,” says Sorensen. It’s modeled after the old TV game show, Concentration.

The game board is made up of rows of squares. When a square is clicked, it uncovers an image of a microbe. The player then clicks on another square, revealing another microbe. The point is to uncover two microbes that match. Once that happens, those squares disappear, revealing part of an image behind the board. As all the squares are matched, the full image is revealed. Sorensen worked with local freelance programmer Joe Minenna to create the template and design.

Well-rounded education

Getting more citizens to visit the website has been a bonus, and the games have helped. “Our monthly Web traffic statistics indicate that our education section consistently ranks high among visitors, particularly with MicroMatch,” Sorensen says.

With easy-to-understand information available on the site, the public can learn the ins and outs of the wastewater treatment plants and their processes. Tim O’Donnell, assistant plant superintendent, observes: “MicroMatch teaches kids what kind of biology is going on in the wastewater process.”

Besides the information on the website, JCW uses plant tours as a teaching method. “Our tours are supported by our website, including its games,” explains Sorensen. “It’s easy to go on a tour of a wastewater plant, but how much of that information is retained?

“The learning process can actually begin before the tour. A game such as our MicroMatch can introduce basic concepts. After the tour, playing the game reinforces vital information, in this case, the distinct visual characteristics of live microbes.”

Operator input

Another game now in the works simulates operating on an aeration tank. “The player is once again in the shoes of a wastewater operator and tries to control the amount of oxygen in the tank’s ‘microbiological soup,’ successfully speeding the growth of microorganisms, which results in sedimentation,” says Sorensen.

She notes that managing this challenging process is one reason why JCW has earned numerous Gold Peak Performance Awards from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies.

The wastewater treatment plant staff played an integral part in developing the games. Sorensen says: “The operators are a wealth of information — no two ways about it. They were really open and flexible and very pleasant to be with as I asked them questions. They taught me the whole process in a way that I didn’t find in any book.”

Operators provided additional information for the website, including a glossary of wastewater terms and a microbes information sheet complete with images of each microbe. And not to be overlooked, a Tic-Tac-Toilet game is a fun twist on traditional tic-tac-toe.

Public knowledge

Building the community’s knowledge of wastewater goes beyond interactive games. Lori Sand, director of communications for JCW, observes: “Continuing education helps build an ongoing relationship with our customers which is of a value to us because we want people to understand what it is that we do, why it’s important to them and just to have that relationship with us as we go down that path.”

Sand believes, when the decision-makers are forced to make budget cuts, it is important that the public is informed so they understand the need to keep funds available for the treatment plant and its endeavors.

O’Donnell notes, “It comes down to money — bottom line. The more they know, the more we can do.”

The interactive games on the JCW website make learning more fun for kids and adults. “It’s amazing how much folks don’t know what happens once they flush the toilet,” says Sorensen. “Keeping them up to date about our multi-faceted industry makes them realize just how much of a value we are to them.”

Each 12-foot-deep cell held 5 million gallons, but the primary cell had six feet of sludge in areas. “We were losing quite a bit of detention time and had no idea because we didn’t use a Sludge Judge (Nasco),” says chief operator Mike Ruden.

The complete-mix cell had 20 submerged coarse-bubble diffusers and the partial-mix cell had four, but dissolved oxygen still hovered about 6 mg/l in winter. The third cell was the quiet zone.

The city hired DeWild Grant Reckert and Associates Co., consulting engineers in Rock Rapids, to upgrade the plant. They selected the LemTec biological treatment process from Lemna Technologies, a combination of aerobic and anaerobic cells followed by a polishing reactor. Since its installation, the plant has achieved year-round effluent readings of 4 mg/l BOD and TSS, 2 mg/l ammonia, and 6 mg/l DO. The city has the only LemTec system in northwest Iowa.

Laying the groundwork

The 317,000 gpd (design) treatment plant handles on average 250,000 gpd from 300 homes within the city’s one square mile. Remsen has 1,700 residents. “To meet new requirements, the plant needed a redundant system,” says Keith Miller of Lemna Technologies. “We redesigned cells 1 and 2 to mirror each other and treat the split flow from the plant after it passed through a 1/4-inch bar screen at the headworks.”

Two baffles divide each cell into complete mix, partial mix and settling. Then the wastewater moves to the polishing reactor and disinfection. The baffles also reduce short-circuiting. To prepare for the system, Ruden’s staff drained the lagoon, removed the aerators, and land-applied the sludge. They squeegeed the bentonite clay liner in the first two cells, checked for leaks and found none.

Workers from Penro Construction of Pender, Neb., then installed four Lemna mixers and 24 fine-bubble submerged diffusers in the complete-mix zones and 28 in the partial-mix zones. Each zone has a 30 hp Gardner Denver blower. A third unit serves as backup. “This is not an economical process,” says Ruden. “Our electric bill went from $800 to $1,700 the first month. Activating the UV system increased it to $4,000 a month, but we’re getting the desired result.”

Attached growth

Simultaneously, Penro workers decommissioned the third cell, then used the space to pour the 60-foot-long polishing reactor basin with two 7.5-foot-square by 10-foot-deep treatment zones. Workers also poured the open basin for the UV3000B disinfection system from Trojan Technologies and installed and plumbed the 3-foot-wide by 2-inch-deep stainless steel channel.

Stacks of 6-foot-square, 8-foot-tall treatment modules arrived with hooks welded to the tops for lifting them into the basin. The modules, assembled from honeycomb-like layers alternating 90 degrees to each other, are secured by a threaded rod.

“Both reactor zones have six stacks of 48-density modules to treat BOD and ammonia,” says Rhett Arens of Lemna Technologies. Depending on the performance requirements, zones can be designed with two different media densities for cross-use on BOD or ammonia. Units are attached to an air rack, fed by an airline controlled by a ball valve at the aeration header. Each polishing zone is dedicated to a treatment cell.

To enhance system kinetics, retain heat, control odor, and prevent algae growth in the two cells, Penro workers assembled the LemTec insulated modular cover as soon as the water returned to operating levels. They fastened the 6- by 40-foot sections together on shore, floated them across using winches, and anchored the ends with cables and deadmen.

Snug and warm

“The first cell was covered last January during a particularly cold winter,” says Ruden. “When the men finished, they were working in ice and subzero temperatures.”

Within days, Ruden saw a rise in water temperature as the black cover absorbed and transferred heat. With the second cell covered, water temperatures rose to 43 degrees. The lowest temperature Ruden recorded that winter was 41 degrees.

The disinfection system went online in August. Effluent runs from the polishing reactor to a collection box, which slows the flow before releasing it into the channel with 10 banks of four energy-efficient amalgam lamps on either side.

“The agent from the Department of National Resources arrived just after the UV system went online,” says Ruden. “I grabbed a sample and held it next to a beaker of tap water for him. He couldn’t tell the difference and was really impressed.” The sample Ruden pulled on E. coli showed less than 16 colonies per 100 ml.

Sensitivity monitors on the lights indicate when they need cleaning, at which time Ruden pulls them out and squirts them with diluted muriatic acid. “It’s just like washing a window,” he says.

Plant maintenance

Besides sampling and testing the effluent, Ruden removes buildup on the treatment modules with occasional blasts of air. “The units are like king-sized trickling filters where bacteria collect on the rocks,” he says. “If air won’t dislodge the scum, we lift out the modules and power wash them or disassemble the layers to clean them.”

It is too soon for Ruden to tell how often he will have to clean the sludge in the polishing reactor. “It leaves a lot of suspended solids, so right now I’m backwashing it twice a year,” he says. “I’m not complaining. The reactor is a key component to us meeting our ammonia permit limits.”

Three 4,000-gallon fiberglass-reinforced plastic closed-vessel tanks inside the building stored ferrous chloride, which is pumped into the sludge being conveyed from Southport to the city’s Belmont plant to control odors caused by hydrogen sulfide.

By June 2010, the 9-foot-diameter, 12-foot-tall chemical storage tanks had significantly exceeded their design life and had developed small cracks that allowed the corrosive chemical to leak out. In addition, small spills from tank filling had corroded the concrete floors beneath and walkways around the tanks. Two chemical metering pumps and various other metal HVAC, plumbing and electrical equipment were also badly corroded and needed replacement.

Repair, not replace

CH2M HILL designed and executed the overhaul. Project manager Matthew Thomas thought it made sense to gut the corroded metal parts to make way for repair and coating of the concrete floor, instead of tearing the whole building down. “It’s a separate building, only used for storage, so we could take it offline and keep operations going,” Thomas says.

Because the building would remain a chemical storage unit, it was imperative to protect the new concrete from more spill-related corrosion. Traditional epoxy paint was deemed too thin to protect adequately. Heavier-duty epoxies were considered, but adhesion to the concrete substrate around joints and cracks was a concern.

The city and CH2M HILL had experience with SprayWall polyurethane from Sprayroq and chose that product. “Because it’s sprayed on so thick, we could almost make a kind of bathtub effect in our containment area and seal it up,” says Thomas.

Time critical

“Time constraints were a primary consideration,” Thomas recalls. “We were trying to limit the shutdown to a few months in spring, when we could get everything installed and finished and bring the tanks back online before the weather got too warm. SprayWall could be applied in one to two days after surface preparation.”

That consisted of cleaning the concrete floor and concrete block walls, then repairing all corrosion damage. Most of the concrete had only surface pitting, but a few spots had a couple of inches of material missing. Crews used a cement mortar patching compound to smooth the surface before grooves were cut to aid coating adhesion.

Patching took about a week, and the material cured for 28 days. Because the polyurethane requires a clean, dry substrate to adhere and cure properly, a portable dehumidifier was used to stabilize the room after the patch had cured.

Sprayroq director of business development Chip Johnson, P.E., working with Thomas and Conco Spray Solutions, a Sprayroq Certified Partner, planned a 480-square-foot application. Based on stress and deflection factors calculated to accommodate three new 8-foot-diameter tanks, Johnson settled on a coating thickness of 250 mils.

He specified grooves in the surface every 48 inches to ensure proper adhesion, and a 12-inch vertical wall tie-in to be built after the tanks were installed. The original wall had to be knocked out to enable tank replacement. The cost estimate for the application was $12,000.

One spray day

The Conco team completed the main floor and sidewalls application in a single spray pass in one workday. For slip protection, sand was sprinkled across the coating surface before it cured on the walkways around the tanks.

An area of concern was the fill station, where trucks pump the chemical into the tanks. Some minor spillage there is unavoidable, so a collection box was installed and lined with SprayWall to contain any spills and limit surface damage.

Since part of the containment wall was missing, it was easy for the spray applicators to monitor coating thickness for accuracy. They also sprayed a sample and left it for the construction manager. Cure time on the initial application was six hours.

After the new tanks were installed and the wall section rebuilt, the crews returned to coat the new section. They covered the wall all the way to the top, creating one solid coating to contain any future leaks when the tanks show their age. The second application adhered seamlessly to the first. No special equipment was needed other than what Conco usually uses to maintain consistent temperature and humidity during application.

Jay Thorne, deputy project manager for the Department of Public Works, believes the new floor will be easier to clean, but he was happiest about the future savings from the rehabilitation. The corroded equipment would have had to be replaced in any case, but without the coating, he says, “We would have had to replace the building as well as the equipment, rather than having the project become part of a long-term solution.”

One plant dealing with that issue is the Medford Regional Wastewater Reclamation Facility in Central Point, Ore. It faces a state Department of Environmental Quality requirement to reduce thermal loading to its receiving stream, the Rogue River. Rather than actually cool its effluent, the facility is looking to reduce heat load to the river by planting trees along the banks to create cooling shade.

Medford’s story is of interest not just because of the thermal issue itself but because it represents another case of looking beyond the treatment plant for reductions in pollutants of various kinds.

For example, the State of Wisconsin has a phosphorus rule that says treatment plants can deal with phosphorus permit levels not just by changing their own processes but by undertaking watershed-based activities, like encouraging farmers to adopt cropping practices that reduce runoff into receiving streams.

And in the eastern states, where nitrogen is a huge issue (notably around the Chesapeake Bay), there is activity on trading of nitrogen credits in addition to better nitrogen-removal treatment processes.

Dennis Baker, manager of the Water Reclamation Division for the City of Medford, talked about his organization’s river shading program in an interview with Treatment Plant Operator.

TPO: Please tell us about Medford and its surroundings.

Baker: Medford is in south central Oregon, about 30 miles north of the California border. It has a population of about 70,000. The Rogue River runs just outside the city, and it supports a lot of sporting and outdoor activities. The timber industry used to be huge here; it has dwindled quite a bit, although it is still a significant employer.

Agriculture is growing. Pears are a big crop in the river valley, and our wine industry is getting larger every year. The Rogue River has a lot of salmon in it. It’s a good-sized river and is classified as a Wild and Scenic River. It has some rapids and is a pretty spectacular waterway. Fishing is huge in the area.

TPO: How would you describe your treatment plant and its process?

Baker: We are a regional plant that takes wastewater from the City of Medford as well as Central Point, Jacksonville, Phoenix, Talent, Eagle Point, and unincorporated areas of Jackson County. We have an average design dry-weather flow of 20 mgd and currently average about 17 mgd. The existing plant was built in the late 1960s and has been through a lot of changes, but the core of it is still pretty much intact.

We have preliminary treatment with bar screens, followed by aerated grit basins and primary sedimentation. Then we send the flow to a biotower, after which it goes into activated sludge with fine-bubble aeration. That’s followed by secondary settling, disinfection and discharge to the river.

We have two permit cycles. The winter cycle is 30 mg/l BOD and TSS, and our summer cycle is 10 mg/l BOD and 20 mg/l TSS, with an ammonia limit of 13 mg/l.

TPO: What is the history of the thermal loading issue?

Baker: It goes back about five years to when the DEQ first looked at TMDLs (total maximum daily loadings) on the rivers and at fish habitats in general across the state. For the major rivers, they came up with TMDLs for several constituents, but the main one concerning us on the Rogue was temperature.

TPO: Why the concern about your plant? Does your effluent account for a large share of the river’s flow at the outfall?

Baker: Not really. According to DEQ requirements, there are only a couple of weeks out of the year where we would currently be discharging any excess thermal load, and then it’s only about one-third of a degree Fahrenheit that we’re above the limit. The time of year of note is in October, if the river flow is in the Q7-10 stage — which means the lowest-flow seven consecutive days in a 10-year period — we would be over our limit by about one-third of a degree. We’re not a massive thermal load, but we are in fact a load, and the goal is to mitigate all loads if possible. Being over is being over.

As the population increases over time, our thermal impact will increase, and that is factored into our load compliance schedule.

TPO: Do you have salmon spawning in the river at those times of year?

Baker: Yes, that time of year is during the spawning season for the salmon, and is the driving concern.

TPO: What is the timetable for complying with this permit provision?

Baker: We have a 10-year compliance schedule in our new permit to get to a minimum of 177 million kilocalories per day (or thermal credits), with an end goal of about 300 million thermal credits over 20 years.

TPO: What options were explored before you chose the shading program?

Baker: We looked at a cooling tower, but the trouble was that during the time of year in question, there isn’t enough differential between the air temperature and the water temperature to get any kind of cooling that way. Then we thought about mechanical chillers, which would definitely work, but when we costed that out, it was in the neighborhood of $15 million.

Then there are some old lagoons next door to us that belong to our sister organization, Rogue Valley Sewer Services. The thought was that we could excavate those out. The engineering work showed they would need to be dug from their current depth of about 12 feet to about 30 feet. Then we could send a certain amount of effluent over there, allow it to cool, and discharge it from the bottom — essentially taking advantage of geothermal cooling. However, that again would cost some $15 million, not counting upkeep on the transfer and discharge pumping systems we would have needed.

TPO: How did the idea of shading the river come up?

Baker: Temperature trading was actually the option favored by the DEQ. We’re partnering with a group called The Freshwater Trust to implement the program. They’ve been around for about 30 years doing environmental projects. When all is said and done, the cost of the temperature trading program is about $8 million.

TPO: How will this project actually work?

Baker: It’s a 20-year program. We have a 10-year contract with The Freshwater Trust with a 10-year renewal. They will go out and determine the areas on the Rogue River and its tributaries where geographically it would be worthwhile to add shading. Then they have to negotiate with the landowners to get easements. There will be payments to the landowners for the use of the land. Then they will have to clear off whatever brush is there and plant native tree species that over time will grow tall enough to offer enough shading to provide mitigation credits.

The choice of trees will be a mix of cottonwood, alder, willow and maple. The varieties planted will be dictated by site-specific conditions.

TPO: How is it possible to measure the impact of this shading on river temperature?

Baker: There is a computer program called Shade-A-Lator where you plug in various data and it will give back the amount of heat mitigation you can generate from a given tree planting program.

TPO: Do you have a feel for the scope of the planting program that will be required to reach the goal?

Baker: It’s estimated we will have to add shading to about 25 to 30 miles of river. It’s a pretty daunting task. All the field work will be done by The Freshwater Trust, since we don’t have the staff or expertise in-house to undertake a project like that. The area where we can operate starts at River Mile 62, which is 62 miles upstream from where the Rogue discharges to the ocean, and extends about 100 miles upstream from that point to our location.

In addition, we can do work on about 300 miles of tributaries to the Rogue, although these offer a much lower kilocalorie yield. We’re going to look at the highest-yield areas first and try to work on those that give us the most kilocalories of mitigation per individual project.

TPO: How soon will work begin?

Baker: We’ve got approval from our city council and we have a contract signed with The Freshwater Trust. So now that we have our new NPDES permit, which was issued in mid-December, we’ll be able to get started.

TPO: How will this effort be paid for?

Baker: We’ll pay as we go. We have worked very diligently to avoid incurring debt, so our projects are solely based on the resources we have. Our rates are among the lowest in the state. We’re pretty frugal, and with a conservative financial approach we have been able to maintain a surplus of project money. So we’re able to do this without having to go out for bonds or loans.

TPO: Is there any precedent for this type of project in Oregon?

Baker: Clean Water Services, which takes care of Washington County, one of the state’s most populous areas, has done a program similar to this to meet their temperature requirements. We are the first agency in the state to do this with a partner and only the second agency (after Clean Water Services) to have a trading program. It’s a big trial for us and a big trial for The Freshwater Trust, which was the only organization that responded when we issued our request for proposals.

We have had a pretty good level of support and interest from the community at large. The program is looked on very favorably, in part because I think it does make sense, the landowners will receive improvements to their property with the clearing of invasive brush and the planting of native trees, plus a certain level of financial support for participating. So we feel we have a pretty good chance of getting this done.

Pump Solutions Group appointed Karl Buscher to the newly created position of senior vice president-PSG Commercial. Buscher brings 20 years experience to his position, including business-to-business sales and marketing.

CSI Adds Factory Representative

CSI Controls, manufacturer of control panels for the water and wastewater industries, added DC Sales as its wholesale factory sales representative for Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas.

Extech Instruments Relocates to New Hampshire

Extech Instruments relocated its headquarters to a new facility in Nashua, N.H. The location will house administrative and corporate offices, customer service and technical support, marketing and sales, quality control, NIST calibration laboratories, repair services and a warehouse, as well as FLIR’s infrared training center.

Grand Rapids Named Hach Fan Favorite

The City of Grand Rapids, Mich., wastewater treatment facility won Hach’s See the BIG Picture Fan Favorite contest. It will receive $40,000 in Hach equipment. Grand Rapids treats an average of 49 mgd from a collection system that includes more than 1,000 miles of maintained sewer pipe and 262,000 customers.

Godwin Donates to National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Pump manufacturer Godwin made a donation to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The organization works to eliminate domestic violence, empower battered adults and children, promotes and unifies direct service programs, alerts and educates the public and promotes partnerships.

WEF Names O’Neill Deputy Executive Director

The Water Environment Federation promoted Dr. Eileen O’Neill to deputy executive director and Matthew Ries to chief technical officer. Serving as WEF’s chief technical officer, O’Neill joined the federation in 1991 as manager of industrial programs. Ries joined WEF in 2005 as managing director of technical and educational services.

Synagro Donates $25,000 to Park Restoration

Synagro Technologies Inc. presented the Hawaii Softball Foundation with $25,000 in support of the restoration of the Sand Island Recreation Park softball fields as well as new equipment for 25 members of the youth softball team.

But here and there, around the country, treatment plant teams are proving it doesn’t take all that to make their grounds more beautiful, more sustainable, and more friendly to birds, fish and wildlife.

All it really takes is some energy, some dedication, some ingenuity, and a little creative scrounging. Two small-town treatment plants highlighted recently in our “PlantScapes” column prove the point.

Artistic tendencies

Last month we featured the 3 mgd treatment plant in Perry, Ga., where assistant plant manager Chad McMurrian got the ball rolling by painting a canvas showing the main operations building. It was the creative spark that led to creation of a nature walk for plant team members and the public.

The project came together little by little as team members found the time and as materials became available. Today a 200-yard-long trail 15 feet to 25 feet wide wraps its way through magnolias, oaks, birches and maples to the plant’s receiving stream, Big Indian Creek.

There’s a deer feeder with a motion-activated wildlife camera, a tire swing for kids, some duck houses and, perhaps best of all, a pond with goldfish and koi, fed by final effluent on its way to the creek.

The team spent no money on materials or labor. Everything came from scavenged items or donations, and volunteers did all the work. Now the staff leads tours of the area for the public and students as part of its clean-water education initiatives.

Better with age?

Meanwhile in Clifton, Colo. (see the story in this issue), the team at the 2.5 mgd clean-water plant transformed a former biosolids lagoon site into a wildlife habitat and a sustainable agricultural area that includes a vineyard. Nearly four acres are producing grapes, and another 10 acres may be added. The grapes are harvested and processed into wine by a local vintner. Money from sale of the grapes helps offset maintenance costs.

Other land is planted with upland tall grasses, trees and shrubs to establish a sustainable habitat with a variety of species, including ducks and pheasants. This project was more complicated — it relied on grants from various sources, along with labor from inmates at a minimum-security correctional institute.

But extensive volunteer labor was involved, and that included landscaping work on the part of the treatment plant team. In the words of plant manager Brian Woods, “If you want something bad enough, you’ll see that it gets done.”

Can you do it?

Now, these two efforts are in many ways exceptional. The projects took a lot of work and a lot of time, and it’s easy to see why operators at many plants would shy away from such endeavors. They put their all into their regular duties, and they want to spend their spare time with their families and personal recreation choices.

On the other hand, the clean-water profession tends to attract people who care about the environment, and that includes their plant surroundings. So, what is it worth to make that treatment plant look like something more than a few rectangular and circular structures at the end of a road on the fringe of town?

Maybe it’s a sign with ornamental plantings around it. Perhaps a “birdscaped” property with strategically placed feeders and suet bags and perennial plants that in winter provide seeds favored by birds.

Even if you lack the energy or people power to emulate teams like those in Perry and Clifton, surely there is something you can do. Every little bit does in fact help. Feel free to share stories about PlantScaping work you have done — big projects or small. We’ll be glad to share your accomplishments with TPO readers. Send me a note to editor@tpo mag.com, and I promise to respond.

To the Editor:

Our wastewater treatment plant staff enjoys your articles on the various plants in the USA. The write-up on the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority’s Big Coppitt Regional Water Reclamation Facility, headlined “Bug-Driven Performance” (TPO, January 2012) was excellent, but it grated us a little bit, like scratching your fingernails across a chalkboard.

Why? Bugs! The majority of treatment at a plant like Big Coppitt is done by microorganisms that are not bugs, but rather bacteria. As mentioned in the article, indicator organisms are looked at, such as those that appear on the Tetra Tech chart shown in the article, but that’s just what they are — indicator microorganisms.

Our lab technician also makes adjustments based on what is seen in the microscope — just one of the parameters in a properly managed treatment plant. Tom Pfiester should change his informal title from “bug farmer” to “microorganism generator.” Or is that too long of a title? Just a thought!

Joe Borowitz

Operator Trainer

Watchtower Wastewater Treatment Plant

Wallkill, N.Y.

When the two sanitation districts in Clifton merged in 2006, they agreed to build a new 2.5 mgd extended-aeration activated sludge treatment plant and reclaim the land once occupied by the three lagoon systems that had served both districts for 54 years.

Plant manager Brian Woods says that from the beginning, they wanted a vineyard as the focal point of the 37-acre reclaimed area. So far, nearly four acres are producing grapes, and another 10 acres may be added. The grapes are harvested and processed by a local vintner into a Cabernet varietal. Money from sale of the grapes will help offset maintenance costs.

Paying it back

“We expect a payback of our original investment in the vineyard within six or seven years,” says Woods. Plant personnel water the grapes and do the mowing to keep the rows clean, but the vintner does the spraying, trimming, trellising and picking the grapes.

The plant has partnered with other agriculture producers who also provide revenue. A local farmer also harvests more than 17 acres of alfalfa hay, and another five acres next to the plant, owned by the sanitation district, may also be converted into crops.

It was no small task to decommission, reclaim and restore the lagoon property. About 20 percent of the more than 100,000 cubic yards of sludge removed was processed through the new plant, dewatered and dried. A clay liner had to be removed. After treatment to meet Class A compost requirements, the biosolids were used for soil amendment and to create berms and other landscaping to form a deepwater pond and wetlands.

Upland tall grasses, trees and shrubs were planted over many acres to establish a sustainable wildlife habitat that attracts a variety of species, including ducks and pheasants. Irrigation water travels in a stream that meanders through the wildlife area to the Colorado River. Although the area is not open to public hunting, the district takes part with the state Division of Wildlife in an upland bird release program, and supervised youth hunting is allowed.

Many funding sources

Paying for the reclamation project wasn’t easy. “We have had a tremendous amount of resources that we used from a lot of different areas,” says Woods. For example, a grant from the Division of Wildlife covered the costs to build the ponds and construct the wetlands along the riparian corridor to the river.

A grant from the National Resources Conservation Service paid for the on-site irrigation system, the pond liner, and more than 7,000 wetland plants, trees, shrubs and grasses. The grants totaled $200,000. For the lagoon reclamation, the district provided a dollar-for-dollar match for a $500,000 Energy Impact Grant through the state Department of Local Affairs.

“The Conservation Service grant was based on water conservation, because our irrigation process slows and stops the deposition of selenium into the river,” says Woods. All the irrigation is done with four water cannons. “We don’t have a gravity irrigation system available to us, so the grant also paid for the drip and spray system used in the vineyard, and the standpipes and underground distribution for irrigation on the alfalfa fields,” says Woods.

Volunteer support

Labor to install pipes, poles and wires, and to plant all the grapes came with help from inmates at a minimum-security correctional institute. Other tasks fell to volunteers fulfilling community service obligations. “Our own staff handled landscaping around our plant construction,” says Woods. “As we hired and trained the staff while the plant was being built, they helped with the landscaping during slow periods.”

Woods and others at the district managed the project. “The result was that we took $155,000 and landscaped four times the area for which those dollars were originally allocated,” Woods says. “The whole project came in under budget. If you want something bad enough, you’ll see that it gets done.”