More on plant names
I’ve been involved for years in the discussions about what to call wastewater treatment plants. In 1995, I took over what was then the New York City Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Clean Water.
It was renamed from the Bureau of Water Pollution Control (which had water pollution control plants) to reflect the Clean Water Act. Unfortunately, no one told the public, and we constantly got calls about dirty water in people’s taps. We changed the name to the Bureau of Wastewater Treatment.
In later discussion at the Water Environment Federation and with members, I suggested that Shadow Traffic in New York City had the answer: Water Plant — which is what they call the North River Water Pollution Control Plant. I still think as wastewater treatment, water reclamation and water treatment get closer together, water plant is the best for all.
Robert E. Adamski, P.E.
Enjoys the ‘Visitors’
I enjoy the “Visitors” feature in TPO magazine. Over the years, we’ve had some “close encounters” with wildlife at the Urbana-Champaign Sanitary District. Like many wastewater plants we have white-tailed deer, geese, groundhogs, and an occasional red fox. Most of our encounters have involved some type of rescue operation.
Years ago a deer was stuck in the sludge on the drying pad. After we helped it out, it was too weak to run away, and it died some time during the night. Once we had a large snapping turtle in an aeration tank that was offline. The tank was filled with plant water, and he even had a large pipe he could sun himself on. We tried catching him in a net and a trap with beef liver, but we failed. Most likely, he died during the winter.
We had a muskrat in the same tank, so we placed a board at an angle to act as a ramp. We didn’t see him after we put up the ramp, so we assume he was able to climb out. One year we had raccoons in the attic of the administration building. I felt a simple solution would be to go up into the attic, grab them by the tail, and let them loose. Good plan, but for some reason we had no volunteers — no one ever listens to the lab guy!
Happily, we’ve had success in many other animal rescues. Once, a beaver was swimming in one of the clarifiers. We used a landing net duct-taped to a long pole and were able to catch him in the weir. We turned him loose in the creek. One time six baby ducks were caught in a channel. Only two were still alive, but we caught them in a bucket and turned them loose in the creek.
A few years ago, we had a red-tailed hawk with a broken wing walking around the plant. The question was: How do you pick up an injured hawk who likes to hiss at you when you get close to him? And what do you do with him after you catch him?
We made a call to the University of Illinois veterinary hospital, and they said they would accept the hawk — if we could bring him in. My supervisor, Jim Royer, took an old lab coat, walked over to the hawk, put it over the bird, and picked him up! He handed the hawk to me. My co-worker, Wade Lagle, drove to the animal hospital. We called a few days later, and they said they were able to put a pin in his wing, and he was doing fine. He couldn’t be released in the wild, but they had contact with raptor shelters.
Our last adventure was a snake swimming in a secondary clarifier. We were able to catch him in a net as he swam in the weir. It was a fox snake about 3 feet long. We turned him loose in some tall grass by the creek. Who said wastewater treatment is boring?
Thanks,
Rod Meikamp
Laboratory Technician
Urbana-Champaign (Ill.) Sanitary District
