How do you make your wastewater treatment plant energy efficient? It’s estimated that upwards of 60% of a plant’s operating expenses are electricity costs. The EPA believes that around 4% of all U.S. electricity usage occurs in wastewater treatment. It also results in over 45 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Before taking any steps to improve your plant’s efficiency, look into an energy audit. It will help you create a blueprint of what equipment uses the most energy. That gives you the important first step into figuring out where to upgrade equipment and technology in order to cut costs.

Once you’ve completed an audit, pay attention to energy use from one week to the next. Are there extreme increases in usage? Do they happen as expected in the morning rush when people are getting to school or work and again at night when people return home? Those increases are expected. If you’re seeing a drastic increase at 2 a.m., there could be a problem that needs to be addressed.

While upgrades and changes to your water treatment system can cost some money, you can’t automatically dismiss it due to the cost. Over the next months and years, the money you’ve spent is likely to be paid back just in savings on your plant’s electricity bills. These are some of the areas of concern and changes you should consider making.

Add an On-Site Renewable Energy Source

Have you thought about investing in a renewable energy source at your plant? Solar and wind are possible options. With grants and solar rebates, it’s possible to pay very little to have this type of system installed.

In a sunny location, solar panels can draw the energy from the UV rays and convert it to electricity. Wind turbines do the same. How well they work depends on your location. If your water treatment plant is located in an area where the sun shines most days, solar energy is a must. Even in areas where there’s a mix of sunny days and rainy ones, you will generate some energy on rainy days, too.

Prineville, Oregon, decided to upgrade the water treatment plant with solar panels. They worked out an arrangement with the city to slash power bills in half. Westlake Solar Panels installed panels on seven acres at the wastewater treatment plant without a charge. In return, Westlake will provide a lower electricity rate that is low enough to cut the wastewater treatment plant’s electricity bills from an average of $200,000 a year to $100,000.

Not every day is windy, but a higher elevation or valley may have consistent breezes. Those winds can turn the blades on a wind turbine and create some of the power needed to run a wastewater treatment plant. If it’s windy in your area, wind turbines are beneficial at cutting electricity bills.

Rhode Island’s Field’s Point Wastewater Treatment Facility received a grant to study wind power. The plant spends about $2.5 million each year on electricity. By spending $14 million installing three wind turbines, estimates were that the plant would save over $1 million each year and also reduce greenhouse gases.

Check for Leaks and Malfunctions and Make Repairs ASAP

You don’t want wastewater lines leaking all over. It lowers pressure and can affect efficiency. It’s also messy and takes extra work to clean up leaks. Broken or malfunctioning equipment is also going to impact efficiency. There’s another important factor to consider. You could be fined if you released untreated wastewater into the environment.

You should be checking your equipment regularly to make sure things are working as expected. If repairs are needed, delaying them can impact productivity, use more electricity, and end up costing you more. A strong maintenance team is a great defense here. If you have a team who are experienced in diagnosing, troubleshooting, and determining when a piece of equipment has outlived its usefulness, you’ll have someone who can quickly get your equipment back up and running and let you know when it’s time to upgrade to something new.

Purchase Systems Controls That Use SCADA Feedback

Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) is a system that analyzes equipment in a plant and uses the data it gathers to tell systems controls what to do using that real-time information. With SCADA managing controls, it makes sure flow rates and pumps and other equipment are in sync to prevent overflows. If something is way off, it can set off alarms and alert workers.

Suffolk County Department of Public Works installed a SCADA system to manage the sewer system in Long Island. Doing so saved the county more than $180,000 each year. In just one year, the system helped Suffolk County reduce emergency calls and allow technicians to stop having to travel miles to inspect over 80 pump stations each day.

Update Lighting Fixtures

Some older wastewater treatment plants still use fluorescent lighting and fixtures that use up far more electricity than necessary. If you upgrade your plant’s lighting to energy-efficient LED fixtures, you can save a lot of money.

Oklahoma’s A.B. Jewell Water Treatment Plant upgraded hundreds of fluorescent, metal halide, and high-pressured sodium light fixtures to LED ones. That cut energy consumption by almost 450,000 kWh each year resulting in an annual savings of $22,000. Plus, the new light fixtures and bulbs were still working perfectly five years later, so maintenance costs were minimal.

Installing Newer HVAC Systems

Some plants have also turned to trapping methane from the water treatment process and using methane for heating. It can drastically reduce heating bills for plants that rely on more expensive heating fuels. Geothermal heating is another option.

In Appleton, Wisconsin, the wastewater treatment plant was heated with cost-effective natural gas. The plant upgraded to a biogas boiler in 2019 and is saving $100,000 in heating costs. It dropped natural gas usage by up to 90%. The cost of the new biogas boiler was just shy of $800,000 and they received a $167,000 rebate for the upgrade. In the end, it’s expected that the savings will pay off the cost of the boiler upgrade in just six years.

Upgrade Aged Water Treatment Equipment

Is upgrading worth the expense? If your equipment is older, there are three reasons to consider an upgrade. One, today’s technology helps plants run at optimal efficiency while using as little electricity as possible. Two, it helps prevent plant overload that leads to raw sewage getting released to the nearby river or lake. Three, older equipment is more likely to break down, which can lead to expected downtime and costly repairs.

Even newer equipment may not suit your needs. If there’s been a rush of growth in your area, you may be straining your system with more homes and businesses than your system was designed to manage. Newer equipment will meet the increased demand.

Older equipment hasn’t been designed to reduce electricity consumption. Newer pumps and blowers help to cut electricity bills. Entire components can increase productivity when needed and turn things off during slower times.

In Green Bay, Wisconsin, they updated the blowers on their aeration equipment in two plants. By switching to energy-efficient blowers, they cut electricity usage in half. The Albert Lea Wastewater Treatment Plant in Minnesota installed a combined heat-power system and saved around $100,000 every year.

Even a small change at your wastewater treatment plant can make a huge difference. Lakeside can help you plan the right upgrades to cut your power bills and help your plant run at optimal efficiency. Reach us by phone or email to discuss your energy-efficiency goals.

Stop and think about what wastewater treatment processes do. It’s not surprising that plants release noxious odors. The goal is to remove fecal matter, urine, and other waste products from the wastewater to make sure it’s clean before it’s released to lakes, ponds, rivers, or storage tanks where it’s reused by homes and businesses. The very nature of wastewater makes it a smelly venture.

While wastewater treatment plants do smell, it’s important to reduce those smells for several reasons. First, you don’t want people who live nearby to constantly complain to the town or city about the odors. Second, those odors are linked to harmful gases being released during the treatment process. Odor management helps protect the environment.

To best understand how to take care of problems with unpleasant odors, you have to look at each step of a wastewater treatment process. Figure out the best ways to reduce odors along the way.

The Steps to Wastewater Treatment

The exact steps to wastewater treatment depend on a plant’s design. Most follow these steps.

#1 – Screening: Wastewater that comes in from the sewer or is dropped off at a septage station is screened to remove things like plastic wrappers, tampon applicators, grease, rags, and other objects that could clog equipment.

#2 – Pumping: Once the wastewater is screened, it’s pumped to the next station for grit removal.

#3 – Grit Removal: Grit removal systems separate grit like sand where it sinks to the bottom of the vessel and is removed and trucked to landfills or compost piles.

#4 – Primary Settling: After grit is removed, the wastewater is moved to clarifiers where it sits so that sludge can settle at the bottom and grease floats to the top. Grease is skimmed away and joins the sludge in digesters. Some plants use chemicals to start removing phosphorus from the wastewater. The remaining water leaves the tank.

#5 – Aeration: The wastewater that remains is aerated so that microorganisms can start feeding on the pollutants.

#6 – Secondary Settling: As microorganisms finish their job, the wastewater goes to a secondary settling tank or lagoon and any remaining sludge goes to the bottom where it’s pumped out and goes back to aeration tanks.

#7 – Filtration: Wastewater is almost fully treated at this point. Any contaminants that remain are captured in the filtration materials. Filters are regularly rinsed out and that liquid goes back to the start of the wastewater treatment plant.

#8 – Disinfection: The final step in wastewater treatment involves the use of disinfection to kill remaining bacteria to 98% or higher. Ultraviolet disinfection is common and brings the now clean water to the levels needed to release it back to the environment or public water storage tanks. Before water goes back into rivers, ponds, and lakes, it may be aerated one more time to boost oxygen levels.

What Causes the Odor and How Do You Stop It?

Sewer and septic water smells anyway. As anaerobic digestion of the waste takes place, the organisms that break down the waste release certain gases like hydrogen sulfide and methane. These gases do not smell pleasant. Some liken it to the smell of a really rotten egg.

To understand what causes the foul odor, you need to understand what happens to the sludge removed during wastewater treatment. Here’s what happens to the sludge that’s removed from wastewater.

#1 – Sludge is separated and goes through anaerobic digestion. It’s heated to a certain temperature and uses anaerobic bacteria to break it down. In this process, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and methane are produced and add to the smells found in a wastewater treatment plant.

#2 – Once the anaerobic digestion process ends, sludge is pumped from the digester onto a belt that allows water to drain. The water (filtrate) goes into tanks that will sit for several months before going to a site to be spread onto land. Remaining solids go to a facility where it’s composted and sometimes used to fertilize the soil.

If an anaerobic digester is sealed off with a cover or similar enclosure, the smell can’t go far. If the digestion tanks are open, that smell will permeate the air. The smell can travel, so people who live nearby may complain. It’s not too different from the way a farm that spreads liquid manure on fields ends up making an entire neighborhood smell of the manure. It’s important, but people do not like it. You may also know the foul odors that come from a manhole when you walk past on a hot summer’s day.

The odors can seem worse on some days over others. On a windy day, neighbors may notice the smell more. On a hot, humid day, the smell will likely seem worse.

Your first goal is to find where the odors are worse and address those issues. Consult with a wastewater treatment expert if you’re having problems narrowing it down. Sometimes, equipment upgrades and the installation of biofilters or carbon filters within ductwork systems can help reduce odors. Deodorizing systems can also help.

Be aware that masking the odor won’t stop it. You’re still going to find the odor leads to complaints from time to time. It’s most likely that you’ll hear the bulk of the complaints in the spring and summer when people want to open their windows and let fresh air into the home.

Benefits to Covering Your Wastewater Lagoons and Tanks and Other Equipment

Start with the screw pumps you use to move wastewater from plant lift stations or to return sludge from clarifiers back to aeration tanks. Open screw pumps will allow odors to escape. You should consider if enclosed screw pumps are better for your odor reduction goals.

If you put a cover over the open tanks and lagoons at your wastewater treatment plant, there’s a second benefit to consider. You could trap the gas that’s released and use it for biogas. That biogas can lower your plant’s heating costs by using it to fuel your heating system. You gain twice the benefits as you slash your heating bills and eliminate odors that may have locals complaining.

When you cover your open tanks and lagoons, there’s a second benefit. Less water is lost to evaporation. This reduces the quantity of chemicals your plant needs to use in the wastewater treatment process. You’ll save money on the cost of chemicals, too.

Covers are a smart investment, but they’re not a one-size-fits-all solution. Covers may be made of metals like aluminum or steel or fiberglass. Some float on the surface, some are retractable, and some are flexible and made from geomembranes. They have to be airtight and designed to stand up to your area’s weather. You need to be able to remove them in a timely manner for testing, repairs, and emergencies. To know which best fits your needs, you need to talk to an expert in wastewater treatment plant design and installation.

Is it time to upgrade your wastewater treatment plant? Are you looking at making changes that help lower energy costs and make the people in your district happier with your dedication to quality and costs at the same? Contact our experts for advice. Lakeside Equipment has been in the wastewater treatment industry for close to 100 years. We’ll assure you achieve your goals.

Most people look at wastewater treatment and sewage treatment as being the same thing. They are, but it’s not that easy. While there are similarities, sewage treatment is a part of the wastewater treatment process. It’s handled differently. To understand the differences, it helps to understand precisely what wastewater is.

Why does it matter? The overall wastewater treatment process has to clean the water of chemicals, food particles, and grit. It also has to remove human waste, which is where sewage treatment comes in.

Wastewater Contains Black Water and Gray Water

Wastewater is made up of black water and gray water. These two types of wastewater go to the same facility for treatment, but they’re different and require different steps. Start by understanding the differences between gray water and black water.

What’s black water? Every toilet flush goes into the sewer lines or the private septic system. The water from that toilet is called black water. It’s human waste, water, and toilet paper.

There may be cleaners, too. People may have bleach tabs, toilet sanitizers, and other toilet cleaning products. While it shouldn’t contain additional items like wrappers, menstrual pads, and other trash, sometimes it does.

Gray water is the other part of wastewater. Gray water comes from dishwashers, washing machines, showers, sinks, and bathtubs also goes into those sewer lines and septic systems. It’s the water from washing things, but it also contains cleaners like soap, shampoo, and detergents. There’s also grease from washing dishes by hand or in a dishwasher.

Industrial firms may have gray water from running machines. For example, a company that extrudes plastic may run water over the materials to quickly cool or set the plastic coatings. The water will have the chemicals and small particles of plastic, so it can’t simply go back into a body of water. First, it has to be cleaned.

You also have dairy treatment plants, food processors, and breweries that add to the wastewater mix. They all release wastewater that contains high levels of biological and chemical pollutants that add additional strain on wastewater treatment plants. Municipalities need to carefully plan their wastewater treatment system to handle the wastewater that’s received.

What’s in Wastewater That Has to Be Treated?

Wastewater and sewage contain a variety of components that have to be treated. Here are the different things that are treated during wastewater and sewage treatments.

• Inorganic Materials: Inorganic materials include metals and minerals. How do they end up in wastewater? They leach from pipes that carry water, and they come from cleaning products.
• Nutrients: You also have nutrients like nitrates, nitrogen, and phosphate. If you live near a lake with algae blooms, that’s the result of too many nutrients winding up in the lake water. The nutrients cause the algae to flourish, which uses up oxygen that the aquatic life relies on.
• Organic Matter: Organic matter, like food particles, are also common. You wash dishes, and small pieces of food go down the drain. They rot and can cause harm if they end up in ponds or lakes because they use up oxygen to help the organic matter decompose.
• Organisms: There are several organisms found in wastewater. If a pet owner flushes the cat’s waste in the toilet and that waste has roundworms in it, you now have roundworms in the wastewater. Bacteria and other microorganisms are also found in it.
• Pathogens: Plants must kill bacteria, parasites, and viruses to remove them from wastewater before returning to homes, businesses, or bodies of water. These pathogens include things like cholera, E. coli, and norovirus. When COVID-19 hit, wastewater treatment plants were finding that virus in wastewater, too.

How Gray Water is Handled at a Wastewater Treatment Plant

Wastewater comes into a treatment plant through sewer lines or at a septage acceptance plant. If the wastewater is being trucked in, septic trucks drive up to the septage acceptance plant and unload the materials pumped from septic systems into the facility.

Pretreatment occurs as wastewater enters the treatment plant. Here, screens catch debris and trash from the wastewater. It goes to the grit removal, which is equally important. If sand and gritty particles get into pumps and valves, it can damage that equipment and lead to costly repairs or replacements and valves.

Wastewater treatment plants may use self-contained units that take care of the screening and grit removal at the same time. The Raptor Complete Plant is ideal for the pretreatment of septage and wastewater from the sewer lines. You can add a grease trap to it to help remove extra grease before the primary treatment begins.

From the grit chamber, wastewater goes to a clarification tank to start primary treatment. The wastewater sits for several hours to allow solids to sink to the bottom of the tank. Grease floats to the top, where it’s skimmed away. Scrapers keep moving over the bottom so that the sludge is transferred to pumps and removed from the wastewater.

The wastewater starts going through the secondary treatment process. Oxygen is added to the leftover water to help stir it up and get oxygen to begin breaking down any particles of waste or organic materials that didn’t sink to the bottom. Again, the wastewater moves to a clarification tank to allow the remaining sludge to settle, get scraped to pumps, where it goes to sewage treatment.

Tertiary treatment is the third step. Chemicals are added to remove phosphorus from the remaining wastewater. Chlorine is used to help kill bacteria that remain after the other two treatment steps. Water goes through filters and may be exposed to UV rays to remove the chlorine before the water returns to bodies of water or storage tanks.

How Black Water is Handled at a Wastewater Treatment Plant

The sludge that’s removed from clarification tanks goes through sewage treatment. Anaerobic digesters break down the sludge, and carbon dioxide and methane are removed and captured during that process. That biogas can be used to provide electricity and heat.

What happens to the fecal matter that’s left behind? It varies from one area to the next. It could be dried, ground, and turned into fertilizer. Anaerobic digestion removes bacteria, so it’s safe to use. Workers move the remaining sludge to trucks where it’s sent to a landfill to become part of the soil. It could also be incinerated. If it’s burned, the methane gas can heat the wastewater treatment plant, which is a cost-effective option for many municipalities.

Careful Planning Creates a Comprehensive Wastewater Treatment Plant

When deciding on the equipment a wastewater treatment plant requires, it’s important to know how much wastewater flows each day. Some hours will have a higher flow rate than others. When people get home from work, have dinner, do dishes, and take baths and showers, the wastewater flowing into the sewer lines increases.

You need to consider where the wastewater is coming from. If you have breweries that lack their own wastewater treatment systems, you’ll have a lot of extra wastewater coming in on brewing days. It’s essential to plan for these increases. Plant managers need to be prepared for the increases.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by hiring an expert to design your wastewater treatment system. Talk to Lakeside Equipment. With close to 100 years in the business, we can help you develop a system that treats both wastewater and sewer water. We work closely with you to help you stay on budget without cutting corners and ending up with an inefficient system.

An effective commercial sewage lift station design has to match your industry’s needs. Often, it’s a pump system put in to move sewage to the sewers, but there’s a problem. The sewer line is at a higher elevation than the pipes leaving the business. For example, a hotel may have dozens of bathrooms with wastewater going to the lowest elevation, often a basement wet well, and then out to the nearby sewer.

When you have wastewater at a lower elevation that needs to travel to a higher elevation, the best solution is a sewage lift station. The lift station needs to be designed to meet needs and efficiently move the sewage along its route. You don’t want clogs to create issues. How do you determine what is the most effective commercial sewage lift station design?

Factors to Consider

When choosing your commercial sewage lift station design, what should you consider? These are the key points to consider when designing the lift station.

#1- Flow Capacity

Start with the flow capacity. You’re going to have peaks where more wastewater is leaving than usual. If you own an office building, toilets and sinks will get more use during office hours. At night, the flow decreases. You have to play your sewage lift station to match the peak flow rates. Leaving some extra room for the unexpected is a smart idea.

Flow capacity is calculated by going over all of the fixtures in the commercial building or area. You have to look at the max load for each of those fixtures. If you have 20 toilets and each toilet flush sends five gallons of water to the sewage lift station, there’s the chance that you’ll get 100 gallons of wastewater hitting the lift station at once. Add sinks, dishwashers, washing machines, etc. to that figure. While it’s unlikely they’d all run simultaneously, it’s better to plan accordingly than have a lift station that isn’t prepared for the peak flow rate.

#2 – Force Main

You now have the peak flow rate. You have to take that and consider the velocity of the force main, which is the pressurized pipe that handles the sewer pump’s discharge. You want to keep that velocity to two to five feet per second. This is important as it keeps solids from settling without creating head loss. It also helps you decide the minimum pipe size to prevent clogging of the force main.

Force main pressure may have the velocity change rapidly. If that happens, you end up with a rapid increase in water pressure known as water hammer. Water hammer can damage valves and lead to costly repairs. Making sure the water pressure on valves and other components is within the correct psi range is essential for force main pressure.

#3 – System Head

Head loss occurs when there is friction in pipes or components like the elbows. Friction can make it harder for a pump to cool down, resulting in unnecessary wear and tear. You want to avoid head loss. To do this, you want to plan for the system head curve. If you make the pipe length and elbows too small, it can lead to head loss. If you consider the vertical lift that the wastewater must be able to travel, you keep wear and tear to a minimum and reduce the need for unexpected maintenance.

#4 – Wet Well

All of the commercial wastewater may collect in a covered wet well. That wet well collects the wastewater that needs to be pumped to the sewer lines. Knowing the right size for this wet well is also essential. In the Water Pollution Control Federation’s manual, rules state sewer pumps shouldn’t run less than 5 minutes or more than 30 minutes. Your wet well needs to be large enough so that the pump falls within these discharge rates.

#5 – Area Regulations

Towns, cities, and municipalities all have regulations you must follow. These regulations are in place to prevent wastewater from overloading a wastewater treatment plant, which increases the risk of raw sewage going into bodies of water before there is enough time to treat it. You don’t want to design a lift station that increases flow so much that it impacts the effectiveness of downstream lift stations.

You may be required to design a sewage lift station that accommodates several decades of use. That means planning for growth and expansion, which also benefits you because you have a system that will not need replacing in a few years. You save money on future expansions and improvements.

#6 – The Site

You have to choose a site that considers the impact on the environment. If you’re building a commercial sewage lift station near a wetland, you could cause harm. Any flooding would also impact your lift station. You need to be near a power supply, have a site that drains well, and be located in an area where the odors won’t cause issues with residents. If there may be issues with the smell, you need to consider odor control in your design.

Types of Sewage Lift Stations

A typical sewage lift station has a wet well with a pump and piping. The pump pushes wastewater uphill to the gravity sewer manhole. Wastewater travels into the wet well for the pump to push out when the water level is high enough.

Submersible pumps are one option. The pump sits on the floor of the wet well. The impellers draw the wastewater through the pump and into the piping, heading to the sewer. A screw pump is an alternative that suits many commercial facilities’ needs due to the lift, low maintenance requirements, and efficiency.

Why Choose Screw Pumps?

Screw pumps are the best choice for moving large volumes of sewage from a commercial area, while keeping an eye on maintenance costs, downtime, and efficiency. You have two choices for screw pumps: enclosed or open.

An enclosed screw pump sits within a tube. Lakeside Equipment has two types: Type C or Type S. Type C screw pumps use a rotating tube, while Type S has a stationary tube. Here are the benefits of enclosed screw pumps.

• Designed for drop-in replacement
• No grouting or trough is required, shortening the time needed for installation and lowering costs
• Type C inclines up to 45 degrees and is up to 10% more efficient than an open screw pump
• Type S inclines range from 22 to 40 degrees and is able to pivot

An open screw pump is the opposite. The exposed screws sit in a concrete or steel trough and can be installed at angles of 22 to 40 degrees. Here are a few facts to know about open screw pumps:

• Hydraulic lift of up to 50 feet
• Move as little as 90 gallons per minute to as much as 55,000 gallons per minute
• Permanently lubricated roller bearings to reduce maintenance
• Pre-screening is not necessary thanks to the non-clogging design
• Slow operating speeds with variable pumping capacities
• Up to 75% efficient
• Wet well is not required

What’s most important when it comes to a commercial sewage lift station? You want a practical design that gets the job done without requiring a lot of maintenance or wear. A lot goes into a commercial sewage lift station, and it’s not always something you can design on your own. It’s best to call an expert.

Lakeside Equipment’s screw pumps meet and exceed your goals. We’ve been designing screw pumps since the 1960s and have the experience you need for fuss-free operation and extreme efficiency. Call our experts at 630-837-5640.

One of the most popular questions we hear is how to establish a wastewater treatment plant to be as small in size as possible. Say you own a poultry processing plant and need a wastewater treatment plant, but you don’t have a lot of room. What are you supposed to do?

Your first step is to consult with an expert in wastewater treatment design. You need engineers, field technicians, and customer support personnel to work with you each step of the way. Be clear regarding your budget, be open to advancements like solar power that may cost more upfront but save more money in the long run, and listen carefully to their input on equipment that takes up less space.

There’s a second step you must follow before establishing your company’s wastewater treatment plant. You need to know the local laws and regulations. This is a second reason to enlist the help of a wastewater treatment plant expert. The last thing you want to do is start building your plant without having the proper permits in place. It would be best if you made sure the system you’ve built meets peak flow rates. A sewer overflow can be costly. You also have to meet the effluent guidelines before releasing the water back to lakes, streams, rivers, or ponds. If you don’t, you face hefty fines. It doesn’t matter how much space you have. You can’t ignore local and federal regulations for wastewater disposal.

How much can those fines be? It depends on the situation. It’s always better for your bottom line and the environment if you address concerns before problems arise.

A New York poultry processing plant was fined $330,000 for discharging wastewater that contained chicken fat and tissue. The plant used up to 450,000 gallons of water a day in its operations, leading to excessive flow rates at the local wastewater treatment plant. That wastewater treatment plant had to release untreated wastewater into the area’s tributaries, violating its discharge permit.

A Maryland paper mill owner was fined $650,000 for toxic waste or “black liquid” that ended up in the Potomac River. Though the plant closed years earlier, the waste has been leaking from the plant. The plant’s owner also has to find where the leaking materials are coming from, take care of them, and clean up the contamination.

So, you’re looking to add a wastewater treatment plant in a small area. What do you need? Here’s a guide to the equipment.

Equipment Needed in a Wastewater Treatment System

What equipment makes up a wastewater treatment system? It depends on what you’re using it for. Some equipment won’t be necessary if you’re just pre-treating water before it goes to the sewer. If you’re removing items, you’ll have additional equipment to consider.

No matter what your company does, you’ll start with a basin where the wastewater collects. Suppose you own a poultry processing plant. The water used to clean areas of bone scraps, blood, tissue, and features goes through drains to a holding tank. That basin may be underground. Grinder pumps or screw pumps will help move the wastewater to the first stage of the treatment process, screening.

Before getting to screening, it helps to understand the benefits of a screw pump. They can’t clog. Not only are they easy to maintain, but they’re also an efficient way to pump wastewater. You’ll have lower electricity bills. Screw pumps are also adaptable when it comes to their angle. If you have a small area to fill with your water treatment plant, shifting a screw pump to sit at an incline of 45 degrees will save a lot of space over a 30-degree angle.

Screening removes larger pieces like a tampon applicator from the wastewater before it causes a clog or jams up a mixer, propeller, or recirculation pump. Screening is another area where you can save some space. A Raptor Rotary Strainer is going to require less room than a Rotating Drum Screen in most designs.

A grit removal system may be needed if there are gritty components like coffee grounds or sand in the wastewater your plant produces. Wastewater is then stirred up so that solids and fats are separated from the liquids. They can be removed to an incinerator or compost pile to break down.

Bacteria feed on tiny particles of waste during advanced tertiary treatments. Eventually, the use of chemicals, such as chlorine, are used to sanitize the remaining wastewater. At that point, all that’s left is to allow the chlorine to dissipate. It’s now safe to release it to bodies of water.

The equipment you need depends a lot on what your goals are and where the wastewater goes next. If you’re treating water to remove some contaminants before it goes to the sewer lines, your needs might be different from a paper mill that’s cleaning the water of chemicals and pulp before releasing it to the river.

As you’re planning your wastewater treatment design, consider using technology to keep costs down. For example, we mentioned solar. Take advantage of grants and incentives that can help you install solar panels that will lower your energy bills. Wind power is another option. It would help if you also looked at turning any methane produced during the wastewater treatment process and using that to heat your plant.

Your Guide to Space Saving Water Treatment Equipment

You could have a lot of equipment and crowd it into an area or use a pre-manufactured system that makes the most of a small space.

Have you considered a complete plant? If space is limited and you want to keep operating costs down, a pre-manufactured water treatment system is a smart idea. Often, you have a little room to customize the pre-manufactured complete plant to match your exact needs. Benefits to packaged plants include:

• Simple operation that requires minimal staffing
• Easy to install and maintain, so your installation and maintenance costs are much lower
• Designed to fit in small areas
• Able to handle changing flow rates

A Raptor Complete Plant is a good choice when you have a small space and need to pretreat your plant’s wastewater. This system has a stainless steel tank that contains a Raptor Fine Screen, a Rotating Drum Screen, or a Micro Strainer. Once the wastewater is screened, it moves to the grit removal chamber. You can add aeration systems and grease traps, too.

Smaller spaces benefit from the Headworks Packaged System (H-PAC). Again, it’s a compact stainless steel tank that contains a Raptor Screen and a SpiraGrit Vortex Grit Chamber for grit removal.

Pair those with a Package Extended Aeration Plant that is a stainless steel tank that aerates, clarifies, and disinfects wastewater in one unit. As the wastewater is cleaned, sludge is contained in a holding area for easy removal.

You shouldn’t forgo efficiency and effectiveness when it comes to your design. You can have an effective, efficient wastewater treatment plant without having to cut corners. You just need to talk to an expert in wastewater treatment equipment.

Lakeside Equipment has been helping customers with wastewater treatment goals for decades. In fact, our company’s first water purification systems date back to 1928. Our employees own the company and strive to ensure you have a high-quality solution that matches your goals and budget while also helping the environment. Call us at 630-837-5640 or fill out the online form to get started.

At the end of 2021, Bellingham, Washington, experienced some of the heaviest rainfall the city has seen. The city received close to two feet of rain in just three months. A blizzard hit Hawaii’s mountains, while low-lying regions in Oahu saw up to ten inches of rain, and Maui got more than a foot over just a few days.

Things haven’t eased up in 2022. The East Coast recently experienced a Nor’easter that left some areas with more than two feet of snow. New York City had already experienced too much water, with the remnants of September’s Hurricane Ida dropping more than six inches of water, resulting in massive flooding and sewage system failures.

When Hurricane Ida hit New York City, the city’s sewer system was designed to handle less than two inches of rain per hour. It led to stormwater backing up into people’s homes and subways. Is your wastewater treatment system set up for unusual weather patterns?

Weather Patterns Are Changing

Weather patterns are changing, and areas with older stormwater systems see the effects. When it rains or snow melts, the excess water goes into storm drains. From there, it creates several problems. With some stormwater systems, the water flows into channels that go to area streams, rivers, and other bodies of water.

Close to 800 cities and towns have combined sewer systems. A combined sewer system is one where stormwater and wastewater are collected into the same system and go to a wastewater treatment plant for processing. With both of these designs, excessive rain causes significant issues.

If there are heavy rains, the channels for stormwater runoff may fill up and have no more room. That water has to go somewhere. It ends up in people’s houses and creates rivers in the streets. All of that flooding causes costly damage, but it also puts people’s lives in jeopardy. As the water levels rise, anyone trying to drive to safety can get caught up in it.

During Hurricane Ida, dozens of people died in vehicles overtaken by floodwaters. In NYC, more than 800 people had to be rescued from the city’s subways. Close to a dozen people were killed when their basements flooded.

With a combined sewer system, the stormwater and wastewater come in too fast for the plant to handle. Some of the untreated sewage must be released to prevent a catastrophe. Bacteria and other contaminants end up in rivers, lakes, and oceans, where people can become ill if they eat shellfish from the contaminated area or swim in it.

It’s impossible to know in advance if unusual weather patterns will hit your municipality. That’s a leading reason why every wastewater and water treatment facility must be designed to withstand flooding. How do you do that when you can’t tell when a blizzard or heavy rainfall will happen? Having a well-designed stormwater management system is essential.

Components in a Stormwater Management System

Stormwater pump systems help push the water away from low-lying areas to prevent flooding. Sometimes, cities are on a slope, so gravity helps move water downhill to a water source. Other regions are at sea level and experience a higher level of flooding. It’s important to make sure this water is pumped to ponds and other water sources. Stormwater pump stations must be designed to move water quickly from one area to another.

Steps to Take to Prevent the Release of Untreated Sewage

What can you do to prevent a worst-case scenario? Start by asking how old your system is? If your wastewater system was designed 40 years ago and the population has tripled, you may not be ready for heavy flooding, especially with a combined sewer system.

Go through your plant and look at the capacity and rates for your pumps, rakes, screens, and other wastewater treatment equipment. Is your system designed for heavy floods? What can you upgrade to get it ready?

The EPA has several rules that apply to combined sewer systems. If your equipment is older, these nine areas must be addressed, and it’s easy to do this through wastewater treatment upgrades.

1. Routine maintenance – All equipment should undergo routine maintenance and cleaning. To make this easier, look for low-maintenance equipment that’s above the water for easy access. Grit removal systems filter out grit, such as sand and gravel, to help prevent wear and tear on the components.
2. Storage system capacity – If your stormwater system has a screw pump, you need to make sure that a wet well is large enough to fit the volume of water collected during a heavy storm. Have secondary ponds or storage areas to collect the water until your plant can handle more stormwater. Planning for more than is required is one way to ensure you have enough capacity.
3. Maximized flow rates – Purchase equipment that adjusts to increasing flow rates to prevent issues. For example, a Type C Enclosed Screw Pump can move anywhere from 540 gallons per minute to more than 35,000 GPM. A design like this ensures that the water moves quickly, even if there’s far more stormwater than usual.
4. No combined sewer overflows when it’s dry – When it is dry, you shouldn’t have any overflows. If you’re still experiencing overflows in dry weather, it’s time to take a closer look at the amount of wastewater coming into your plant from different neighborhoods. Is a resident running water all day and night? If so, the district needs to look at why that’s happening. Is there an issue with leaking pipes or seals anywhere?
5. Proper screening of floating and solid waste – Screens and trash rakes should be used to remove any fecal waste and trash. With many energy-efficient models available, your upgrade can save money on energy bills.
6. Notification system to alert communities of overflows – You need to alert the public when there is an overflow. Have a plan in place so that the proper employees know how to get the word out to everyone. Local newspapers may not be enough. You might need to send out a mailing and post on social media.
7. Monitoring the impacts of overflows – Once there is an overflow, it’s your responsibility to monitor any effect it has on the environment. Work with area agencies to ensure this is done on a timely basis.
8. Steps to prevent pollution from overflows – If you experience a surge, it’s crucial to research why it happened. You have to take preventative measures to keep it from happening again for the same reason. If you experienced an overflow because your pumps couldn’t handle the volume of water, upgrade the pumps as a preventative measure.

When is the best time to upgrade your equipment? It’s best to go over your combined sewer system’s design before the unexpected occurs. It gives you time to make upgrades as you can. Even one small step can prevent a catastrophic overflow of sewage into local bodies of water.

Plus, upgrades help reduce your operating costs over time. You might need to spend money to complete upgrades, but the savings in energy end up paying for those upgrades in very little time. Lakeside Equipment can go over your current design and help you find ways to maximize your plant’s capacity while saving you money. Call us to learn more.

Municipalities across the U.S. have one of two types of sewer systems. A separate sanitary sewer may be what most people assume is in their city. It’s a sewer where water from showers, sinks, and toilets goes into the sewers and travels to wastewater treatment plants. In the first half of the 1900s, combined sewers were also allowed. With these systems, wastewater from homes and businesses goes into sewers, but so does storm runoff from rains and melting snow.

When was the last time your facility was upgraded? Planning needs to be a key consideration to ensure your wastewater treatment plant is managing flow rates of wastewater and, possibly, stormwater runoff. If it’s been a while since your district has discussed facility upgrades, you’re long overdue. It’s time to ask these questions.

What Type of Sewer System Do We Have?

What type of sewer system does your municipality have? Are you a separate sanitary sewer system? Generally, you won’t face too much strain with higher flow rates, but water can enter the system unexpectedly during heavy rains. If there are any leaking seals, cracks in the sewer system, or failing connections, stormwater runoff may leak into your system unexpectedly.

If there is a blockage, it can cause wastewater to back up and overflow in areas of your plant. Failing equipment and vandalism are other risks separate sanitary sewer wastewater treatment plants face. This can cause sewer overflows or create issues in your wastewater treatment plant’s collection system.

You may have an older wastewater treatment plant that is a combined sewer. Extremely heavy rainfall can wreak havoc on your system. If there are flooding rains, your plant could end up with overflow that has to be released as untreated sewage into a nearby lake or river. This can be disastrous.

In 1994, the EPA took steps to reduce the number of combined sewer systems in the U.S. Ideally, the hopes were that municipalities would separate their sewer systems and storm runoff drains. By 2000, the U.S. Congress required remaining cities and towns with combined sewer systems to meet the EPA’s guidelines requiring at least nine controls in place to reduce the impact of sewage overflows, such as retention basins or expanding the wastewater treatment facility’s capacity.

You might think that in 20+ years since the EPA’s guidelines changed that all remaining combined sewer systems had been corrected. It’s not the case. One Vermont city facing such changes drafted its proposal in 2019. It involves new valve vaults, new flow controls, a larger storage tank, a new screening structure, and a new grinder pumping station. Plus, miles of sewer lines need to be added or improved. The upgrades are targeted to be completed by 2032.

Have We Been Fined or Warned Recently? If So, Why?

Has your wastewater treatment plant received fines or warnings lately? When a wastewater treatment plant receives its permits, it’s given limits to meet before the wastewater is released. A plant has to properly treat wastewater to achieve the goals set forth in permits.

The city of Wapato, Washington, was warned and agreed to pay the EPA $25,750 in penalties for discharging treated wastewater that exceeded the limits listed in the facility’s permits. Zinc was one of the pollutants triggering the warning and fine.

If your equipment isn’t doing all it should, it’s time to evaluate the equipment and processes you have in place. Make upgrades as needed to ensure you’re able to treat wastewater correctly before it’s discharged. Adding new pumps, larger storage tanks, and better aeration systems all help improve efficiency. Computerized equipment that measures increasing and decreasing flows is another cost-effective change to consider.

What Are Our Peak Flow Rates and What’s Our Capacity?

You have a permit from the government that states the measures you must meet. It includes things like how much chlorine can remain in treated wastewater that you send back to the public water system or a local river or lake.

Another consideration is how much wastewater comes into your treatment plant each day and how much your equipment is capable of handling. Your equipment needs to be able to handle peak flows. Leaving a little extra room for the unexpected is helpful.

If you’re finding your plant is often at capacity, it’s time to consider making upgrades. As more people or businesses come to town, water usage increases. That means more wastewater entering the sewers. Your plant needs to be able to handle the growth.

What happens if new developments are leading to more wastewater than expected. Say a new condo complex comes in and planners estimate an average of 70 gallons per day from each resident. But, some people in those condos are using far more. An expert will need to rule out leaking toilet seals or similar issues. If it’s simply that people are using more water than estimated, it can become a headache. You can’t kick people out of their homes, so you have to look at growing the capacity of your plant.

Have Weather Patterns Shifted Unexpectedly?

What about the weather in your area? Global warming is causing some unexpected shifts in weather patterns that are impacting cities’ wastewater treatment systems. Detroit saw flooding after heavy rainfall hit in mid-March. The excessive rainfall caused a river to flood and back up the sewer system. Pumping systems became overwhelmed, so untreated sewage had to be released elsewhere.

Back in 2020, Concord, California’s wastewater treatment plant was used to flow rates of around 50 million gallons a day. Flooding rains led to an increase to 200 million gallons. The facility couldn’t keep up with it. While the plant is a separate sanitary wastewater system, stormwater entered through leaking mains and pipes. The city had to divert incoming wastewater and move some into storage tanks to be treated at a later date.

Have We Addressed Ways to Boost Efficiency?

Finally, look at your plant’s efficiency. If there are cost-effective ways to boost efficiency, make the improvements. You might consider using available grants or government loans to add solar panels to reduce your facility’s electricity rates. Wind power is another option.

You might want to upgrade old equipment for newer pumps and motors that don’t use as much power. For example, a Magna Rotor Aerator offers high efficiency for a lower operating cost. Even maintenance costs are reduced thanks to a hinged access panel. Aeration will cost less, saving money on electricity consumption, so the money you spend pays for itself through the savings you gain.

Alternative fuel is another idea to embrace. Instead of using oil, propane, or electric heaters to keep your workers warm enough in colder months, upgrade to a heating system that captures something you have plenty of within your plant. Add systems that capture methane and convert it into gas that can heat your facility.

Are you interested in learning more about upgrades that improve efficiency, lower your overall costs, and ensure you can meet your plant’s increased flow rates? Talk to the experts at Lakeside Equipment. Our engineers have decades of experience and help ensure you have a quality solution to ensure you have a wastewater treatment plant that meets, if not exceeds, your municipality’s needs.

Clogged pumps in a sewer and wastewater system aren’t new issues, but they have been increasingly frustrating to districts across the nation. The main issues tend to be sanitary wipes that are marketed as flushable that do not break down in the water as quickly as advertised. Double- and triple-ply toilet papers, paper towels, and facial tissues also don’t disintegrate quickly.

 Consumers purchase the items thinking they’re flushable and will dissolve in their wastewater, but they don’t. They build up in pipes, get caught around pumps in the equipment, and lead to blockages that can become costly as sewer and wastewater workers need to locate the blockage and remove it. In South Carolina, a blockage required divers at the cost of $140,000, and that cost ends up driving up prices for households and companies in that municipality.

Recent Clogs That Led to Costly Problems

Back in August, the Lewes-Rehoboth Canal in Delaware was flooded with upwards of 8,000 gallons of raw sewage. Why? A pump station in Lewes developed a clog that caused tremendous issues. At the heart of the clog were unflushable items like baby wipes.

As the clog built in both the lead and secondary pipes, a backup pump took over, but that pump also failed. The sewage backed up into pipes leading to a backflow situation that caused a cleanout lid to open. Sewage then entered the canal. It took workers about six hours to correct the situation.

A few months later, officials in Chaska, Minnesota, posted a picture of a shredded cotton towel that clogged a pump. Lift stations that usually get cleaned every three months were cleaned four times in one week due to clogs.

Why a towel was flushed down a toilet is unknown, but the city made it a goal to inform the public that paper towels, baby wipes, “flushable wipes,” tissues, and menstrual products should not be flushed as they do cause clogs.

The North Charleston Sewer District in South Carolina recently had to bring this issue up again. Not only is this sewer district dealing with baby wipes and flushable wipes that have been flushed down the toilet, but those wipes are mixing with the grease that people are pouring down sinks and solidifying in the sewer lines.

It’s clear that this is an issue that’s occurring across the country. What can sewer districts and wastewater treatment plants do to help put an end to clogs at pump stations?

Educate Those in Your District

You can’t always control what people flush, but they may not know what they are doing is driving up prices. Raise awareness. One of the first steps is to educate the people in your wastewater and sewer district. People see the term flushable and don’t realize that these wipes do not disintegrate as well as advertised

Go on social media and publish pictures of the clogs. If people see how these wipes do not break down effectively, it helps them understand the issues they’re causing. Make it known that it’s best to throw these wipes into the trash.

People may not pay attention to postcards or flyers you place in the mail. But, they may catch ads on Facebook or YouTube, if you have that budget available. Hold an open house with tours of your facility, if possible, and spread the word that way.

Make sure you bring up the different items that are marketed as septic-safe but aren’t. Wipes are just one item that are marketed as flushable but cause problems in sewers and wastewater treatment plants. Tampons, “flushable” cat litter, and toilet bowl scrubbers are other items that do not break down, even though it says they’re septic-safe products.

It’s also useful to point out the risks of untreated sewage being leaked into waterways. If you’re near an ocean, the area shellfish becomes contaminated and is no longer safe to eat. Lakes are exposed to high levels of bacteria and nitrogen, which makes lakes unsafe to swim in and can cause algae blooms to thrive.

Charleston, South Carolina’s District Filed a Lawsuit

South Carolina’s Charleston Water System took a surprising, yet logical step. After spending more than $300,000 to fix blockages and pump failures, they filed a lawsuit against manufacturers and retailers marketing wipes as being “flushable.” Consumers see that a wipe is flushable and don’t realize the damage it can cause to wastewater treatment systems. These flushable wipes and other flushable products like “flushable” cat litter do not disintegrate as people expect.

Kimberly-Clark was the first company to offer a settlement with Charleston Water System. The company is working on a new design to ensure the wipes disintegrate faster.

Upgrading Equipment Helps

Another step a wastewater district and sewer system can do is make sure older equipment is upgraded. Go through your system’s equipment and see how old the pumps, screens, trash rakes, and other components are. Modern equipment may be more effective at removing items that cause blockages. Sometimes, additional screens or more efficient trash rakes can help.

If your district doesn’t have grinder pumps, they can make a big difference. The pumps grind materials, which reduces the risk of a blockage. Grinder pumps work at slow speeds with high torque to grind up items like flushable wipes and cat litter, menstrual pads, paper towels, rags, and things that shouldn’t be flushed.

Another option would be a rotating drum screen. They’re great at capturing finer particles from wipes and tissues that have broken down some and impact wastewater treatment processes. The screenings caught in a rotating drum are compacted, dewatered, and spray washed to remove organics and water that continues to the next stages of wastewater treatment.

Talk to the Experts in Wastewater Treatment Equipment    

It helps to discuss possible upgrades with an expert in wastewater treatment systems. Engineers understand the best ways to come up with ways to prevent future issues. It may be upgrading your equipment or adding equipment that helps lower your energy bills, which balances out the cost of the new screens, pumps, etc.

When you’re moving wastewater, Archimedean screw pumps offer non-clog designs. These systems can be open or closed and are easy to maintain. Because the design helps prevent clogs, you don’t have to pre-screen wastewater. They’re a good choice for wastewater treatment plant lift stations.

Raptor screen products screen, wash, dewater, and compact waste at one time. The stainless steel construction provides longevity, while the all-in-one design handles several components of wastewater treatment at once.

Depending on the capacity of your system and the number of residential and business customers using your system, the best solution will vary. The experts at Lakeside Equipment are happy to discuss the issues you’re having and the best possible solutions. We’ll work with your budget and come up with designs and equipment that lower the risks of blockages and raw sewage releases. Call us to learn more.

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) was enacted in 1948, but it didn’t add much in the way of federal guidelines. Essentially, states, towns, and cities were offered some federal funding to address water pollution, but water pollution was a state’s problem and up to communities to solve on their own.

The FWPCA was updated in the 1950s and 1960s, now there was some control on a federal level, but only if the waterway passed through more than one state. It still required states to set their own standards. The changes were considered problematic as it was hard to determine exactly who was violating quality standards given the length of some waterways. Even if it was determined who was polluting a waterway, clean-up measures took longer than expected and control measures could be planned but not necessarily implemented.

Then, Ohio’s Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969. There were so many chemicals and other pollutants in the water that it became obvious something needed to change. President Richard Nixon signed the National Environmental Policy Act in 1970 and established the Environmental Protection Agency, which started a movement to clean up America’s waterways.

All of this brings us to 1972 when the federal government decided that government involvement was long overdue. That’s when the U.S. Clean Water Act was enacted, and it turns 50 this year.

The Clean Water Act Is Signed Into Law

The Clean Water Act of 1972 came up with new goals, and the biggest was that all industrial and municipal wastewater had to be treated before it was discharged. The federal government offered monetary assistance for the construction of municipal wastewater treatment plants, set strict enforcement policies on the federal level, and left day-to-day implementation of the new law to the states. This time, however, the EPA had a say in what happened, which put a lot more control in the government’s hands.

In October of 1972, one of the first changes hit when Congress enacted the Ocean Dumping Act. At that point, close to six dozen companies who had applied to dump their chemicals in the oceans were told no. That helped stop some of the pollutants from going into the ocean.

As the Clean Water Act also required industrial wastewater to be treated, industries had a deadline of July 1, 1977, in order to establish policies and develop industrial wastewater treatment systems. Municipal wastewater systems also had that deadline to establish secondary treatment systems, but they could apply for extensions and hope they’d be approved. Even with extensions, all wastewater districts had to meet the EPA’s “best practicable control technology” standards by July 1, 1988.

The best practicable control technology improvements were next. Industries were also given until March 31, 1989, to meet the “best available technology” for water treatment of toxic substances. Industrial settings that failed to meet this rule faced court-ordered actions.

Once the 1988 deadline hit, 86% of the nation’s municipal wastewater treatment plants had met the standards. The 14% that didn’t meet the deadline faced court-ordered schedules. Sadly, there are still towns and cities that struggle to meet the standards due to crumbling infrastructure.

Until 1988, sewage sludge and industrial waste were still being dumped in the oceans. It was banned completely with the Sewage-Ocean Dumping Ban Act of 1988. In 1992, New York City dumped its last load of sewage in the ocean finalizing the city’s agreement with the Ocean Dumping Ban Act.

The Safe Drinking Water Act Followed

At the end of 1974, another act was passed by the government. The Safe Drinking Water Act was signed on December 16th. It gave the EPA authority to regulate the quality of drinking water in public water systems.

Even as measures were taken to stop polluting the nation’s waterways, cancer-causing chemicals were discovered in New Orleans and Pittsburgh’s drinking water. Many other towns and cities were finding their public water smelled or tasted odd. To end this, drinking water standards were to be set by the end of 1977. In 1977, the act was upgraded and the changes were signed into law by President Jimmy Carter.

Public water systems had to make sure their water met these new standards, though extensions, such as budgetary constraints, would be granted in certain situations. Plus, districts that didn’t meet the EPA’s standards had to notify all customers immediately of the pollutants in the community’s drinking water.

Under President Reagan’s presidency, the Safe Water Drinking Act was updated again in 1986. More than 100 contaminants were added to the list of current contaminants. Industrial and municipal wastewater treatment plants had until 1991 to upgrade their wastewater treatment plants or systems to start cleaning wastewater of the new contaminants. Lead materials were also banned in water systems. Until then, lead solder could be used on water supply pipes.

When 400,000 people in Wisconsin were sickened by cryptosporidium, it led to 100 deaths. The EPA immediately launched regulations and testing for cryptosporidium with the Interim Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule.

The next amendment to the Safe Drinking Water Act took place in 1996 under President Clinton. He signed the law to grant funding to municipal water treatment plants in need of upgrades to their system and to make sure they provide information to customers about any microbes or chemicals in their public drinking water supply.

In 1997, Canada and the U.S. teamed up to clean up the Great Lakes. The goal was to clean the lakes by 2006, as these lakes were providing more than 15 million people with water at the time the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement was signed.

Hudson River was the next waterway to get cleanup. PCB contamination in the Hudson River was cleaned in 2002 by removing 2.65 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment from a 40-mile stretch of the river.

The EPA Announced Government Contracts, Loans, and Grants Bans

To ensure industries and wastewater districts followed the new laws, the EPA announced a ban on any government contracts, loans, or grants in 1975. If a company was in violation of the Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act, it would not be awarded a government grant, loan, or contract. Essentially, anyone caught polluting would lose out on essential government funding options and future contracts.

Use of PCBs and Other Chemicals Are Banned

One area of concern in 1979 became the use of synthetic chemicals known as PCBs. They were commonly used in paints, cement, and many commercial and household products. PCBs were found in water, soil, and in the air. As they were believed to cause certain cancers, their use needed to be phased out.

In 1983, the EPA ordered an immediate stop to EDB’s use as a pesticide after it was found in the groundwater. As it is a carcinogen and mutagen, it was immediately banned.

President Reagan signed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act in 1986. If toxic chemicals were going to be released into the air, soil, or water, communities had to be informed. 

What’s the Future of the Clean Water Act?

Even with the Clean Water Act, there are still many issues. In 1983, sewage treatment plants, farms, and urban runoff brought the pollution levels in the Chesapeake Bay to unheard-of levels. Federal, state, and local teams worked together to begin the cleanup that’s still ongoing. 

President Obama renewed efforts to clean and protect the Chesapeake Bay. To do so, he named the bay a national treasure with an executive order in 2009. In 2011, the EPA established the “Pollution Diet” limiting the maximum daily load for pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorus from states with waterways that feed into the Chesapeake Bay. Pollution controls must be in place by 2025.

As research advances, more pollutants are found and pollution from the past starts leaching out of the soil or groundwater and raising issues today. That’s why the 50-year-old Clean Water Act continues to be updated and altered.

Does your plant need upgrades to meet the most recent EPA requirements? Are you struggling with efficiency and coming too close to maximum flow rates? It’s time to address the upgrades to your wastewater treatment plant or water treatment facility. Lakeside Equipment is an expert in treatment solutions and has been since the 1920s. Trust in our expertise to bring your facility up-to-date with technology and energy-efficient equipment.

Nitrogen is one of the worst pollutants as it increases algae blooms in streams, rivers, and lakes. It gets into the ocean and hurts coral reefs, seagrass, and plants, developing fish and aquatic animals. Plus, algae blooms can harm wildlife and pets that swim in or drink the polluted water.

Current estimates are that around 6.2 million tons of nitrogen make it into the world’s oceans and seas. The Mississippi River is one of the largest offenders in the U.S. with around 1.57 million metric tons of nitrogen released into the Gulf of Mexico each year.

Here’s something you should be prepared for, especially if your city or town has an aging wastewater treatment plant. Prepare to have the EPA order you to lower the amount of nitrogen being released into nearby water sources. With polluted lakes, streams, rivers, and coastal waters, it’s past time to make changes to stop the damage. That’s why the EPA is cracking down.

It Could Happen to You, Too

This happened to Chicopee, Massachusetts, recently. Chicopee’s sewer department received notice that they must lower the nitrogen the city releases into the Connecticut River. At the time of the warning, the city was releasing around 1,800 pounds per day and needs to reduce that to no more than 647 pounds. The cost of the upgrades needed to meet the EPA’s requirements is topping $65 million.

That’s just one project the city is currently working on. They also are working on separating the stormwater runoff and sewer systems to prevent heavy rains from flooding the wastewater treatment plant or backing up the sewers and ending up dumping raw sewage into area rivers. That project is estimated to cost the city about $300 million when it’s completed.

So far, the city has received a grant for $4.5 million, but the costs of all upgrades are expected to be close to $400 million. While residents and businesses in the water district wouldn’t see an immediate increase in their bills, it’s unavoidable in the future, and those increases may alarm ratepayers. It’s important to plan improvements in ways that operating costs are also reduced, which lessens the impact on ratepayers.

Activated Sludge Processes Are Commonly Used to Lower Nitrogen

The most common method for nitrogen removal is an activated sludge process. Start with aeration that heightens the habitat for bacteria and protozoa that digest organic matter. Aeration continually happens, which can use up energy costs. You want an efficient aerator that transfers the most oxygen for the lowest operating cost.

The microorganisms take the nitrogen and digest it, which produces waste sludge that contains oxidized organic materials. Some of that organic matter is used to grow more microorganisms, but more of it is moved to settling tanks where the sludge settles to the bottom and is removed. That removed waste ends up in landfills or can be turned into fertilizer in forests or fields that aren’t near bodies of water.

In this process, nitrogen and ammonia are oxidized and phosphorus is removed and nitrites end up as a harmless nitrogen gas. Nitrogen gas can be used to inflate tires, replace oxygen in food packaging to keep foods fresher for longer, and in light bulb manufacturing.  

A Magna Rotor Aerator is a solid choice as it is built to withstand heavy use and harsh environments, has stainless steel blades for durability, and available fiberglass covers reduce loss of heat in cold climates. Maintenance is easily handled thanks to the convenient access areas. It’s a high-efficiency, reliable, low-operating-cost option.

Other Options for Nitrogen Removal

Activated sludge processes are the most popular with wastewater districts, but there are other options. Here are some of the other methods being used around the world.

Microalgae have cells that double their biomass every day by feeding on nitrogen. As they do it, they produce bioactive compounds, sugars, proteins, and fats. All of that can be recovered for animal feed and fertilizer. It’s an energy-efficient method, but it’s not effective overall. It’s also expensive to maintain a system that’s capable of removing enough nitrogen.

You can use a solid electron acceptor, such as oxygen and microbes in wastewater to convert nitrogen into electricity. It’s a system being studied as it could be useful for generating clean energy while also taking care of something that’s done every day. But, the hurdles so far have been in creating an efficient system that also is capable of removing the organics.

Anammox (anaerobic ammonium oxidation) is also energy efficient. Bacteria process ammonia and create a nitrogen gas. The only issue is that it processes the wastewater’s ammonia, but it’s not good at handling the organic matter. It’s great for low organic loads, but more than that and the system just doesn’t work well.

Separating Systems Is Also Essential

If your district still has combined sewer lines and stormwater drains, that’s something you should consider changing. Combined Sewer Overflows are still found in more than 750 cities around the U.S. If you have one, your wastewater district must be able to handle flooding rains or high levels of melting snow.

Whether you’re separating your system or upgrading wastewater treatment plant equipment, we have a few suggestions.

Some of the equipment you should consider include Archimedes screw pumps for moving higher volumes of water at faster rates. Grit collection improves your plant’s performance by preventing sand and gravel from building up in tanks and channels and wearing out your pumps. With the grit removed from your plant, aeration is maximized and digester tanks aren’t losing space to sand, gravel, coffee grounds, etc.

Lakeside’s Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) is an automated system that processes wastewater treatment in one basin. It mixes, aerates, settles, and removes sludge in one system without foam or scum that’s floating on the surface. Choose SBR or a continuous-feed version known as the CSBR. Benefits include having a smaller system, which is ideal when space is limited. It’s also easy to expand this system.

Older equipment should be replaced before it breaks down. While there is a cost to upgrade, you’ll make more money back by having lower energy costs, less maintenance, and optimal processing of wastewater. Look for equipment with stainless steel components that won’t rust, sealed bearings that require less maintenance, and pumps and mixers that aerate and push wastewater around effectively.

When your residents are saving money in the long run, the cost of upgrading is less alarming. Plus, you don’t want to miss out on current government grants designed to help cities make important upgrades to their sewers and water treatment plants.

Talk to Lakeside Equipment before you face steep fines. Our engineers can go over your current system with you and discuss the most important, cost-effective upgrades to get your plant on the path to meet the changing requirements for things like nitrogen levels, PFAs, and other Clean Water Act limits. You’ll have the insight you need on how to have cleaner water, lower energy bills, and less downtime due to failures.

 Sources:

https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2000/0135/report.pdf