The Salem (Ohio) reports that the Salem Utilities Commission faces decisions after studying options for managing biosolids from the city’s wastewater treatment process. Options were the topic of a recent work session.
At present, the city does not have biosolids storage facilities at the treatment plant and contracts with Synagro to dewater and transport the material. When possible, the material is land-applied, but during wet seasons it must be hauled to a landfill. The landfill the city had been using closed in June, and the nearest alternative is twice the distance, according to the newspaper.
Commission members were told that would increase hauling costs by $197,000 over the remaining 17 months of the contract with Synagro. The story said utilities superintendent Don Weingart suggested the commission look at building a storage pad on the plant site to hold material until it could be land-applied. To build a facility with 75 days of storage would cost about $450,000. “After planned improvements to the wastewater treatment plant, the capacity would increase to about 251 days,” the news story said. “The total cost for the pad, dewatering and land applying totaled $654,944.”
Other options would have the city buy trucks and use its own employees to haul the material to the landfill ($535,000), or discontinue land application and have Synagro haul all the biosolids to the landfill ($397,000).
