The nation’s wastewater treatment plants treat around 34 billion gallons of wastewater each day. That’s approximately 1.42 billion gallons of water per hour or 23.6 million gallons per minute. Water that flows in from sewers or is trucked in by septage haulers has to be processed to remove inorganic and organic materials and get levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, pathogens, and many other chemicals, metals, and pollutants to safe levels.

While machines do a lot of the work in a water treatment plant, you still have to have people ready to handle unexpected events like machine breakdowns or flooding. Take a look at some of the job duties an operator in a wastewater treatment plant and water treatment facility is tasked with. It often includes:

• Adjusting water pressure and flow rates for repairs, if a water main breaks or a clog occurs.
• Alerting chief operator and maintenance crews to problems with valves, motors, pumps, processing equipment, gauges, meters, and other wastewater equipment. 
• Calibrating lab equipment and preparing the chemical mixtures needed for testing.
• Collecting wastewater samples and running tests on the water quality to ensure the treated water meets permitted limits.
• Inspecting equipment and facilities for problems.
• Keeping floors and buildings free of obstacles and clutter that decrease safety.
• Logging water quality and readings from the equipment.
• Managing hydrant flushing to prevent mineral and sediment build-up in lines.

A lot of this could be automated with the use of AI. Humans make mistakes. No one is perfect, even after training and certification. But, you can improve your wastewater treatment plant’s efficiency and output using artificial intelligence. Take a closer look at the facts and benefits that are gained when using AI in your wastewater treatment plant.

Understanding the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Wastewater Treatment

Artificial intelligence uses computer science and datasets to perform tasks that require a human’s intelligent approach to thinking, evaluating, and problem-solving. AI will use skill sets like speech recognition, analytical skills, decision-making, and visual perception to contemplate and complete tasks. It’s extremely useful in wastewater treatment where precision, timing, and accuracy are essential.

It all stems from a paper written back in the 1950s in which Alan Turing pondered a simple question about whether or not machines were capable of thought. It led to the Turing Test where an interrogator had to decide if a response was generated by a computer or given by a human. This kicked off the advancements AI has seen since then.

Whether wastewater is trucked into a septage pumping station or comes in from the sewer system, the treatment stages are the same, though the requirements for treatment may vary from one location to the next. When a wastewater treatment plant gets a water discharge permit from the EPA, the effluent guidelines are listed in the permit. 

Plants must work to meet or exceed those guidelines by properly completing each stage of wastewater treatment. If you look at the stages of wastewater treatment, it becomes clear where AI can help out.

1. Screening and Pumping

As wastewater enters a treatment plant, it must be screened to remove items like plastics, “flushable” wipes, toys, and other items that will not break down easily. Those items are washed and pressed to remove as much wastewater as possible and then moved to a landfill.

AI can be helpful in this stage by helping to monitor for jams at a septage pump station. AI can closely track the amount of septage a truck is dropping off and the flow rates coming in from sewers and use the real-time information to speed up or slow down pumps to help lower energy costs and prevent costly overflows.

While many cities have shifted away from combined sewer and stormwater systems, there still are cities that have these combined systems. In moments of heavy rain or when the snow melts faster than expected, the influx of stormwater can increase demand for a wastewater treatment plant. It’s not uncommon for plant operators to have to release untreated or partially treated wastewater to the lake or river to prevent flooding. That emergency release can be costly, but AI can help lower the risk of that happening.

2. Grit Removal

Once wastewater has been screened and raked, grit removal is the next stage. Gritty particles like sand, gravel, coffee grounds, and bone fragments are all damaging to equipment. Instead, grit is allowed to settle and then it’s pumped out and removed to landfills. 

The reason grit needs to be removed is that it wears out equipment faster. If you get grit building up in a pump or motor, the continual rubbing and abrasion degrade the components, increasing the need for repairs. One thing AI offers that is important is predictive maintenance. AI can track the usage of different machines and predict when components are starting to wear out. 

Your team can make repairs before the equipment fails. This prevents unexpected downtime, which is essential in wastewater treatment.

3. Primary Settling

While grit removal is technically a settling process, primary settling is the first big move to remove materials from the wastewater. The water enters the clarifiers (large, circular tanks) and sludge (food, toilet paper pulp, and human waste) sinks to the bottom where pumps remove it. Fats, oils, and grease float to the top and form a scum layer that can be skimmed out and removed. The removed sludge and FOGs go to digesters for further processing during activated sludge. 

Chemicals may be added at this stage to start removing phosphorus. AI can help with the dispensing of any chemical additives to ensure that the right amounts are used and avoid lost money through excessive use of these chemicals. Even a splash more than is necessary can drive up costs each month.

4. Aeration and Activated Sludge

The sludge and FOG are introduced to microorganisms that break them down into nitrogen, water, and cell tissue. Treated wastewater goes on to secondary settling.

5. Secondary Settling

Secondary settling involves more clarifiers. This time, aeration helps further separate the activated sludge, which is pumped from the bottom of these circular tanks and returned to the activated sludge process. The clarified wastewater is now almost entirely free of materials. It’s moved to the filtration process.

6. Filtration

Filtration is one of the final steps before water is released to streams, lakes, rivers, or a water treatment plant for reuse. The water is pumped from secondary settling tanks to large filters that capture tiny particles. From time to time, the filters are backwashed, and that water goes to the start of the wastewater treatment stages to prevent any loss of water.

7. Disinfection

Some plants use products like chlorine to kill remaining bacteria. Others rely on chemical-free UV disinfection. Ultraviolet lighting like the sun’s UV rays kills remaining bacteria. If chlorine is used, it must dissipate to acceptable levels before it’s released to bodies of water where it could harm aquatic plants and animals.

8. Oxygenation

Before the water can be released, it has to be properly oxygenated. AI is helpful in the real-time tracking of oxygen levels to ensure the water that’s released is exactly where it needs to be. AI can add oxygen or turn up bubblers to release oxygen if the content is too high.

SCADA systems are often used by wastewater treatment plants today, and SCADA systems have been beneficial in predicting problems and alerting plant operators to take corrective actions. With the use of AI, so much more is possible. 

AI Saves Money

A German wastewater treatment plant incorporated AI sensors and found their energy usage declined by 30%. Artificial intelligence saves money and helps prevent costly errors. Talk to Lakeside Equipment about the possibility of adding AI to your existing computerized controls and the equipment upgrades that help bring your plant to a point where AI is easily incorporated.

It came out in May that the worldwide market for positive displacement pumps is forecasted to reach $11.25 billion in the next seven years. That’s almost double the market’s value in 2019. Why are these pumps high in demand? What’s driving the increased need for this specific type of pump? There are several factors.

It helps to understand what positive displacement pumps are used for. They remove liquids from discharge pipes. They’re useful in many industries including wastewater, food and beverage, oil and gas, mining, etc. If you have liquid or fluid matter that needs to be moved from Point A to Point B, a positive displacement pump is your answer. Take a closer look at how these pumps help in these industries, what you should look for, and how they work.

A Guide to How Positive Displacement Pumps Work

Pumps move liquids or fluid materials from one area to another. There are axial-flow pumps fluids in one direction. Liquids come in passes through an impeller and travel out the other end. A centrifugal pump changes the flow by using a motor and impeller to create energy that pushes fluids along. The final option is a positive displacement pump that captures an amount of fluid and forces it into the discharge pipe. The benefit is the pump handles a constant volume even if the pressure changes.

These pumps are categorized by their mechanisms:

1. Linear-type: Chain or rope pumps
2. Reciprocating-type: Diaphragm, piston, plunger, or radial piston pumps
3. Rotary-type: Gear, hollow disk, rotary vane, screw, or vibratory pumps

A linear-type of positive displacement pump uses a chain or rope and some form of a plate or even bucket to displace liquids. Go back in time to an ox-powered water wheel. Oxen were tethered to the big wheel and walked in circles. That motion moved the wheel, which moved the chain or rope along a pulley or up and down a drilled or dug well to collect water from deep within the well. Back up at the surface, the motion at the top of the pulley system dumped the water into a discharge chute while the buckets made a new path. Today, they’re more likely to have a chain and disc system that fits within a tube or pipe. As the discs are pulled up through the tube or pipe, water is trapped and is drawn upward.

Next up is a reciprocating type. How it works depends on the type. Think of the old-fashioned well pump. People pumped the handle and each upward pull of that handle drew water up to the discharge pipe. There’s also a piston pump that also uses the upward pull or downward thrust to move liquids. A diaphragm pump is the other type of reciprocating pump. An air bladder (diaphragm) moves up to decrease pressure or down to increase pressure. If you have a private well, you have a pressure tank that helps water flow from the well to the different water lines within the home.

The final main type of positive displacement pumps is the rotary type. There are five types of rotary positive replacement pumps: gear, hollow disk, rotary vane, screw, or vibratory. Screw pumps are one of the types of pumps you’ll encounter a lot in water treatment plants, which makes them one of the more familiar types. You can have an open or enclosed screw pump. They work by having a giant screw within a closed or open chute or pipe. The blades of that screw capture the fluid from a lower pool of liquid, and the motion of the turning screw propels it upwards and to the top of that chute or pipe.

Screw pumps are popular in so many industries and settings. It’s worth stopping to talk about them. You have open and closed. Open is in a concrete trough, and enclosed is in a steel tube. For enclosed screw pumps, there are the Type C or Type S. Type C pumps have two flights (screws) that are welded into the rotating tube. Type S works oppositely with a stationary tube.

While the mechanics vary, the goal of any pump is the same. The mechanics draw in the fluid material on one side, move it through to the next with the help of motors or human or animal power. For the most part, you’ll be relying on motors to power these pumps. If energy-efficiency is vital to your water treatment plan, home setting, or business, you should look at solar-powered or wind-powered electricity to run your pump.

Their Role in Different Industries

That’s the breakdown of the different types of positive displacement pumps. How are they used in different industries? Getting back to the increased need for positive displacement pumps in the next seven years, a driving force in this is going to be the need to find new options for energy. Natural gas is in high demand and is just one of several hydrocarbons that are drawn from the earth using positive displacement pumps. Because drilling and fracking require a lot of pressure, piston pumps that handle the high-pressure situation are often used.

As some look for environmentally-friendly ways to heat their homes and businesses, hydrocarbons aren’t the first choice. Solar and wind power are one choice, but there’s one that is gaining popularity. Geothermal energy needs powerful pumps to move the water from below ground into the building.

You can use these pumps in a geothermal system. Geothermal energy takes the natural warmth found within the earth and uses it for home heating. You pull the warmer water from deep within the ground where it releases that warmth into the house and discharges the cooled water in a continuing cycle. In the summer, geothermal energy helps keep the house cool. The surface temperature is warmer than the temperature deep in the earth. The cooler water is drawn into the home to cool the air and discharges the warmer water back in the ground to cool again. A positive displacement pump can help keep that flow of water from the underground to the building from coming to a stop.

In water treatment, these pumps move the wastewater from the sewer lines or septage station to the next steps in the treatment process. Screw pumps are the common option in a waste treatment plant. If solids like fat balls or fecal matter won’t mess up the screw pump. They’ll move to the next steps where the sludge is separated for processing. Sludge eventually ends up in disposal tanks where it can be dried and composted or taken to a landfill. More homes and businesses mean more of a load. To meet the increased load, water treatment plants are upgrading and increasing capacity. They’re adding energy-efficient measures to lower overall costs. This all starts by choosing the right pumps and water treatment equipment.

In a rice paddy or other agricultural settings where irrigation is needed, positive displacement pumps move water from another water source to your fields or rice paddies. In rural settings, a tractor may be attached to a chain using a chain pump. In a large commercial field that grows everything from corn to wheat, irrigation systems need to be efficient and move a lot of water every day. These settings may use screw pumps to move water from a lower pond or water tank to the elevated fields. Liquid manure needs to be pumped into trucks for spreading.

Pumps also serve a need in the food industry. A plant that makes sausage needs a way to pump the mix of ground meat and spices into the machines that fill casings. A viscous mixture like pasta sauce needs to be transferred from the vats where it’s cooked into machinery that jars it. Food grade screw pumps do this without breaking down as the acidic sauce passes through the pumps for hours at a time.

How Do You Shop for a Positive Displacement Pump?

What are your needs? Archimedean screw pumps don’t clog and can move the liquids and solids wastewater treatment plants handle. Screw pumps are used in sludge pumping, effluent lift stations, and stormwater management. They can help drain land or move water from a water source to elevated fields. Screw pumps are used to move grain in an agricultural setting. They’re also helpful in moving liquids around in wineries and breweries. While your budget is important, it’s also important to have a clear vision of what the pump will do. Do you need the pump that can process foods or one that will be exposed to the outside elements?

You also need to have a clear idea of where the pump is going so that you get the right size. An enclosed screw pump takes up less space than an open screw pump. A Type S screw pump may take up more space because it has a pivoting end. The pump needs to keep up with the flow rate without causing a backup. How much space is there? If there are space limitations, you need to choose a pump that is the right size for the space you have.

Maintenance is the third factor to weigh carefully. Motors in a pump need to be lubricated or they’ll seize. Some units are designed to be maintenance-free, others require a little more care. How much staff and/or time do you have for upkeep? Do you want to make sure bearings are lubricated after months or years of use or do you prefer the idea of self-contained lubrication that is always there? A Type E Sealed Bearing requires little to no maintenance, and if re-lubrication ever is needed, it’s not time-consuming as you never have to remove the bearing.

Do you have time to clean the components, or should the pump be designed to prevent clogs or build-up? A clog-free design is one of the factors that make Lakeside Equipment’s screw pumps the best choice when it comes to maintenance and cleaning. Screen rakes also help keep trash from getting to your equipment.

Choose a specialist in water treatment and hydropower equipment. Lakeside Equipment’s expertise dates back to 1928. We make sure your goals are met by talking about your budget, space, and district. If you’re in an area where the population growth is rapid, a design that considers that growth is important. If you’re looking for equipment that cuts electricity costs, we can help there, too. Give us a call to learn more about Lakeside’s positive displacement pumps.

The U.S. Department of Energy found that the annual expenditure on energy used by the nation’s wastewater treatment plants exceeded 30 terawatts. That equates to 30 billion kilowatts. The cost of all that electricity comes to just over $2 billion using average 2020 electricity rates.

Electricity makes up about a quarter to half of a wastewater treatment plant’s budget. To keep costs down, municipal wastewater treatment plant efficiency must be a top priority. Not only does it reduce energy usage, but it also helps make sure a plant is meeting the needs of the growing population. An efficient plant can help reduce downtime from maintenance and repairs with upgraded equipment.

Establish a System for Energy Management

Start by establishing an energy management system. ISO 50001 says that an energy management system is a set of policies and objectives to help manage energy followed by the steps taken to follow through and continually monitor and manage energy use.

You need to understand what uses energy within your plant. Think about office equipment, water treatment equipment, fans, and lighting. Pay close attention to the things that use more electricity than others. Older equipment is going to be less efficient than newer ones. Even little changes like upgrading fluorescent lighting fixtures to LED ones help you start saving money. Consider every part of your plant to start creating a comprehensive blueprint of what’s in your wastewater treatment plant and how much energy it uses.

Leaders within the municipality should create energy-efficiency and cost-cutting goals as they look at everything within the plant. Start coming up with ways to meet those goals and commit to the measures that need to be taken. Do not be unrealistic. It’s hard to make something happen if the odds are already against you. Upgrading all of your aerators, pumps, etc. may be ideal, but if you’re short on money, it’s not realistic. Instead, look at things other plants have done that worked well, get a better understanding into how much those changes would cost, and see if you could make that work for your municipality.

If you plan to reduce electricity consumption by 25%, start looking into the ways you can make that goal happen. You might want to offset how much power you get from the local power plant by adding solar panels to your wastewater treatment plant. Maybe upgrading to newer aerators or pumps will help you reduce energy use by 35%. If that would work, start researching the cost of new pumps versus the savings you’ll gain in the next months and years. Often, upgrades pay for themselves in a year or two.

Equipment Upgrades That Improve Efficiency

There are two ways to approach upgrades. Improve performance and it reduces your operating costs. Something as simple as a new grit removal system can lower costs by allowing for the highest level of aeration and improving the volume in digester tanks, both are essential steps in wastewater treatment.

Automate your plant and you’ll save money. When you have equipment that is automating the process, it lowers power consumption. A process control system monitors the different stages of wastewater treatment and can lower pump and motor speeds. It wastes energy if you have pumps running at full speed at hours when incoming wastewater from sewers and septic haulers is barely flowing.

Wastewater often contains grit. That grit can be sand that’s rinsed off after a day at the beach. Coffee grounds that get rinsed from cups and reusable coffee filters. Small food particles that go through a garbage disposal also can lead to grit. Some wastewater treatment plants see an average of more than 13 cubic feet of grit remaining after treating a million gallons of wastewater. That grit can impact efficiency and cost your plant money in repairs and maintenance. A high-quality grit removal system improves efficiency and reduces wear and tear on parts within wastewater treatment equipment.

Lakeside Equipment specializes in high-efficiency screw pumps. They’re designed to be efficient and lower your electricity costs for the entire life of the screw pump. There are enclosed and open screw pumps. Open screw pumps are designed to be up to 75% efficient. Type C enclosed screw pumps are up to 86% efficient, while Type S enclosed are up to 75% efficient.

Alternative Energy Sources

Look at ways to power your wastewater treatment plant that doesn’t rely solely on grid electricity. What are your options when it comes to renewable energy? Here are the two most common options and their pros and cons.

#1 – Solar Power

Solar power requires panels that are installed either on a roof or on supports on the ground. The panels capture the sun’s rays and convert them to a DC current that’s sent to an inverter where it is converted to AC power. That power is used to power the plant. If any is left over, it’s sent to the grid. Solar power generates on cloudy days but not at the same rate as on a sunny day.

Solar is expensive starting out, but energy-improvement grants and leasing programs may help. Talk to your local electricity company for advice on what programs are available. Some are strictly for residences, but others consider plants and businesses.

Snow covering the panels will temporarily stop production. Some solar companies recommend that you don’t clear the snow, especially if you’re leasing the panels. If you live in a snowy region, you may need to pair solar with your city or town’s grid electricity. This can be one of the biggest downfalls to solar.

In 2019, a 137-kilowatt/hour solar array was installed to provide power to the Sprague Wastewater Treatment Plant in Connecticut. That array is estimated to meet 80% of the plant’s electricity needs. Some of the energy is sold back to the town to help cover the initial cost.

On average, solar panels have a lifespan of 25 to 30 years before their production dwindles. Once they no longer produce, they have to be replaced. Recycling solar panels is still a new process. Components include metal, photovoltaic cells, plastic, glass, and silicon or film that covers the panels. Recycling takes time and training to break down the different components. Few states in the U.S. have policies regarding solar panel recycling. Europe is a leader in solar panel recycling, but it’s expensive to ship them overseas. You have to consider what it will cost to dispose of the panels at the end of their life.

#2 – Wind Power

Windmills or wind turbines have been around for over a century. When the wind blows, it moves the blades. Those blades are attached to a rotor that spins a generator to produce electricity. That electrical current goes to a transformer where it is converted into a voltage that travels through electrical lines to the grid that’s used to power the wastewater treatment plant.

Rhode Island’s Field’s Point Wastewater Treatment Plant paid to have wind turbines installed. The $14 million installation may seem like a lot, but the power generated by the three wind turbines cut the plant’s electricity bill by over $1 million a year.

Wind power is one of the most cost-effective forms of renewable energy, but you need space for the turbines. They can be noisy and not everyone finds them appealing to look at. That can draw complaints from homeowners who live close by. That can make it difficult to get the permits needed. The other drawback is that wind isn’t a constant. A stretch of non-windy days will affect production.

Partner with Lakeside Equipment to discuss, plan, and install equipment upgrades to improve your municipal wastewater plant’s efficiency. Our engineers and sales team have decades of expertise in the best ways to lower energy costs while considering population growth and quality wastewater treatment at the same time.

Municipal wastewater treatment plants take the wastewater from sewers and private septic systems and ensure it is clean and free of contaminants. Once it meets the EPA’s standards, the wastewater is released into bodies of water or returned to the public drinking supply.

Have you ever thought about what led to the creation of the first wastewater treatment plants? From the earliest days, these plants have come a long way thanks to advancements in technology and scientific breakthroughs.

A Historical Look at Wastewater Treatment

Go back in time to Ancient Rome. It had one of the earliest wastewater systems. Rainwater would travel from streets and rooftops to several drainage paths that led to a larger one known as the Cloaca Maxima that traveled right to the Tiber River.

While it was a good way to keep streets from flooding, there was a problem. At first, people threw their waste from windows in homes to the streets for water to wash away. When toilets and bathrooms became common, the piping went to cesspits where wastewater soaked into the ground over time or backed up into gardens and cellars.

In the 1860s, a Frenchman designed a tank that would hold the waste and keep it contained. After 10 years, he found that the solids had broken down and all that was left was a layer of scum and liquids. He patented his invention in 1881, which led to the creation of septic tanks in countries like the U.S., England, and Africa.

In cities and large municipalities, septic tanks weren’t possible due to the lack of space. Instead, piping from cesspools was connected to storm sewers and drains where the waste ended up in the river. This created water pollution and increases cases of bacterial diseases like cholera.

It wasn’t until the late-1800s and early-1900s that cities in the United States and the United Kingdom considered how to stop the water pollution that wastewater was causing. One of the first changes was to create separate wastewater treatment and stormwater run-off systems. The wastewater treatment system used chemicals and biological treatment plans to treat the water before it was released into lakes, streams, and rivers.

The first U.S. public water systems were developed in the late-1700s. Pennsylvania and Rhode Island were leaders by creating delivery companies that would bring water to houses. New York City created wells, but the wells were problematic as they were polluted. Eventually, water was brought into the city from Croton River, which was north of the city.

Pollution in the rivers was another concern as cholera and typhoid were spreading. By the start of the 1900s, there were more than 3,000 public water systems in the U.S. Focus turned to the best ways to keep those water systems from spreading disease. Congress passed a law in 1912 regulating the quality of water. Service drinking Water Standards followed in 1914 and set limits on the number of bacteria allowed in public water. This led to the use of chlorine to disinfect water. Thanks to these measures, waterborne diseases dropped by 100x by the 1940s.

In 1974, Congress enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act, which required public water systems to ensure public water did not exceed any of the contaminants on the EPA’s list. Several different bacteria are on the list, but so are heavy metals, chemicals, and carcinogens.

How Wastewater Treatment Plants Work

The basics of wastewater treatment are that wastewater comes in, foreign objects and solids are removed, the remaining water is aerated and clarified, microorganisms digest any tiny particles of waste/food, and chemical additives kill off anything that’s remaining. UV is the final step and that helps remove chemicals that were added.

You have combined systems that combine sewage with stormwater and bring them into the wastewater treatment plant for treatment. Separate systems are more common. All new wastewater treatment systems are separated from stormwater. Stormwater goes back into streams or rivers, while wastewater goes to a treatment plant for processing.

Primary Wastewater Treatment Steps

As the wastewater reaches the plant from sewers, it may need to be pumped from a lower elevation to a higher one for primary treatment. You have open pumps or enclosed screw pumps that bring the sewage to the settling tanks. Wastewater will pass through screens first and move to a grit chamber to remove contaminants like plastic applicators, plastic wrappers, or grit like coffee grounds.

Grit removal is important for maintaining the life of your equipment. Sand and grit can wear parts down over time. If you remove the grit, you extend the life of your pumps and valves. You also prevent blockages. This helps with aeration and digestion as the treatment process continues.

When wastewater is pumped into the next area of the treatment plant, the pumps need to be able to handle varying flow rates. A sewer may seem higher flow rates in the morning when people are getting ready to go to school and to work and again in the evening when people come home for the day. When people are sleeping, flow rates will slow down.

Secondary Treatments

In the primary clarifier, the sludge settles to the bottom. Liquids (primary effluent) flow to the aeration tank for the fluid to be stirred up and oxygenated. Sludge is pumped out where it will go to be treated and disposed of. It doesn’t get rid of all of the tiny particles of sludge. In aeration tanks, the water is mixed up to create the oxygen that microbes thrive on. Microorganisms are kept alive by the oxygen and will feed on organic materials that remain.

Before moving to a secondary clarifier, some wastewater treatment plants also use filters to help remove impurities. Activated sludge treatment is another option that comes before secondary clarification. Again, the sludge settles and some pumped out, some returns to the aeration tank for a second round, and clear water moves on for tertiary treatments.

Tertiary Treatments

Tertiary treatment may include biological treatment solutions. Disinfectants are added to the water to help kill any remaining contaminants. Just as they used chlorine in the past, it’s still used by many plants to ensure bacteria are killed. The water that remains is then exposed to UV light to help remove the chlorine that’s often used to help disinfect the water. Water is tested to make sure the cleaned water meets EPA standards.

To best manage the biological treatment system, many facilities use a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. This helps control and monitor all of the different pieces of equipment within the wastewater treatment plant. It notifies operators of potential issues and allows for remote monitoring. Also, consider adding a Sharp Biological Nutrient Removal (SharpBNR) to your plant. It’s a process control system that makes sure you meet your goals for treatment while also minimizing your energy consumption.

Work With the Pros

Any municipal wastewater district has to work hard to make sure water meets the EPA’s guidelines while also being affordable for the water district’s members. If taxpayers struggle to afford the cost, it can become a problem. You also don’t want to have a plant that’s unable to meet the rising demand as more homes and businesses are built in that district. With a well-designed wastewater treatment plant that considers growth, energy efficiency, and effectiveness, you’ll do well.

It takes a lot of work to clean municipal wastewater. You want to partner with an expert in wastewater treatment equipment and design. Lakeside Equipment has been in the business for close to a century. When you work with us, we assign engineers and other specialists who help you design your plant from the ground up or assist you in making improvements to help you become more efficient and cost-effective. Call us to discuss your project.

A sewage grinder pump grinds the matter in wastewater to help it flow from a low spot to sewer lines. In a commercial setting, such as a restaurant, the grinder pump would work like a garbage disposal to grind up foods and items that go down the drain. The smaller pieces travel through pipes with a lower risk of creating a clog that could damage lines.

A grinder pump system handles things that get flushed down the toilet that shouldn’t be. If you have clients that flush baby wipes even though they do not dissolve, a grinder pump helps prevent clogs. Patrons may not realize that flushing a tampon applicator is terrible news for sewer lines. Your kitchen staff can put food scraps down the sink without causing blockages.

Meanwhile, the pump ensures the wastewater makes it up slopes and from low points. Imagine your restaurant is at the bottom of a hill, but the wastewater district’s pump station is at the top of the incline. If your building has any basement-level kitchens, laundry rooms, or bathrooms, a grinder pump helps process the solid waste with the wastewater. From there, the pump pushes it up and to the sewer lines.

Pumps push the water so that it moves in the right direction and don’t backflow into your sinks, toilets, and drains in the lowest point of your business, costing you hundreds or thousands of dollars to sanitize and clean surfaces.

Tips for Choosing Sewage Grinder Pumps

Choosing the best commercial sewage grinder pumps comes down to your needs. A sewage grinder pump needed in a large building with multiple office spaces will be far different from a pump required in a food processing company. Restaurants, bars, and hotels are other businesses that benefit from commercial sewage grinder pumps. These are the things you need to consider when you start researching your options.

#1 – The Motor’s Horsepower

A commercial sewage grinder pump will be different from a sewage grinder pump you’d use at home. It handles more wastewater, so the pump needs to be equipped to handle the higher capacity. Many residential grinder pumps range from 0.5 HP to 1 HP and have an RPM of around 3,000. A commercial grinder pump has a more powerful motor that’s often 2 HP or higher, and the RPMs usually are in the area of 3,500.

In a building with multiple bathrooms or kitchens, this is important. A pump with less power is more likely to become overwhelmed and need repairs or replacement. You have to make sure you’re installing a pump that can meet your wastewater demands. The right size pump lowers your maintenance and repair costs over time.

#2 – The Grinder’s Revolutions Per Minute (RPM)

Higher RPMs help the pump grind solid materials into a slurry. The faster it does this, the better it is to prevent backups or clogs. If you own a brewery with its own small wastewater treatment plant, you’d need a grinder pump that can handle any grains or hops that make it through filtration.

#3 – The Max Flow Rate

Check the pump’s max flow rate. If your business has upwards of 100 gallons of wastewater each minute, you want a pump that handles that much sewage. You’ll know this by the max flow rate that’s given in terms of gallons per hour. If it can handle 6,340 gallons per hour, it would manage an average of over 100 gallons per minute.

#4 – The Pump’s Construction

How does the pump work? For a commercial sewage grinder pump, you may need a control panel setup. Otherwise, systems use a float to turn the pump on and off when needed.

Check the grinder pump’s discharge design. Most have a vertical pipe that comes out of the top. A vertical design is often ideal. Ensure you have this type over a horizontal discharge requiring a 90-degree pipe section for the wastewater to travel upward.

You also need to look at the type of materials the grinder pump is made from. Many have cast iron bodies with stainless steel cutters to grind the materials into small pieces. You want a clog-free design on the impeller. Look for oil-filled, sealed motors that don’t require a lot of maintenance.

#5 – Head Height

Look at the head height. Head height is the distance (vertically) from the lowest level of the wastewater at the pump to the high point where it exits the building for sewer lines. Sewer lines usually run from the building into the sewers at the lowest level of a building. In some constructions, this means you’re sending water from the top floor to the basement and out of the building to the sewers.

If the head height offers a lift of 20 feet, but your basement or lowest area is 30 feet below the drainpipe, the head height is not sufficient. The pump needs to be powerful enough to push the water up and away from your building. If the head height is lower, the lift will not be as great, so it will struggle to move the wastewater.

Know Your Local and State Codes

A commercial sewage grinder pump system may even be required in your city or district. And it has to follow the rules outlined in city or state legislation. For example, where sewage pumps are necessary for “backwater protection” in a Wisconsin business, the grinder pump has to have opening and discharge piping diameters of no less than 1.25 inches.

It’s up to you to make sure you’re meeting those laws. The best way to ensure you comply is by working with an expert in wastewater equipment and design. Meeting your budget is essential, but it’s not always the best path forward if it means you’ll be fined or shut down for ignoring these codes.

Have You Considered Screw Pumps?

If your company is larger, screw pumps may suit your needs. There are both open and enclosed screw pumps available to help move wastewater up slopes. No matter which you select, they’re designed to avoid the need to grind solids as they do not clog.

Open screw pumps can handle 22 to 40 degrees inclines, and they do not clog, so screens are not needed. A benefit to the open screw pump is that it can handle anywhere from 90 gallons per minute to 55,000 gallons per minute with lifts of up to 50 feet per stage. Maintenance costs are low, too.

You also have enclosed screw pumps where the screw pump is hidden inside a steel tube. Type C enclosed screw pumps move anywhere from 540 to 35,000 gallons per minute at lifts of up to 60 feet. A Type S enclosed screw pump handles up to 10,000 gallons per minute with a lift of up to 30 feet. You can talk to a screw pump expert to learn more about the pros and cons of these systems when compared to your needs.

Lakeside Equipment Corporation has been a leader in water purification equipment and designs for more than 90 years. We’ve been designing screw pump systems since 1969 and have the expertise you need to ensure you meet codes. Call our customer service team at 630-837-5640 to learn more about using screw pumps for your sewage pump needs.

Residential or domestic sewage is the wastewater that leaves a resident’s home or apartment complex. It’s the wastewater from a flushed toilet, washing machine, sink, or dishwasher. While it does need to be treated, it’s generally easier to treat than industrial sewage.

Industrial sewage also contains the wastewater from bathrooms and sinks, but it is harder to clean because it also includes the wastewater from manufacturing processes. For example, a poultry processing plant will have toilets for the staff to use, but there’s also the wastewater from the solutions used to wash the chickens before butchering. It has the wastewater from the butchering process that contains blood, feces, and feather, bone, and skin particles.

According to OSHA, poultry processing plants may use ammonia, chlorine, dry ice, hydrogen peroxide, and/or peracetic acid. That wastewater puts a strain on local wastewater districts, so connecting to sewers may require your plant to treat the wastewater first. If you don’t, you could cause damage to the environment or face fines. To do this, you have to consider the best industrial sewage treatment system for your needs.

What Industries Need Sewage Systems?

Food processing plants are one example of an industry that needs a wastewater sewage system. There are others. Generally, if a business creates large quantities of wastewater, a water treatment system is required. Agriculture, breweries, paper and pulp mills, steel plants, the oil and gas industry, pharmaceuticals, and textiles are examples of other industries that need wastewater treatment systems. Here’s why it’s essential.

• Agriculture – Chemicals like herbicides and pesticides, fecal matter, and the fats and sugars in milk.
• Breweries – Chemicals used for sterilizing processes, the grains and sugars, and water used for rinsing the hops and grains.
• Food Processing – As mentioned earlier, fecal matter, blood, bones, and skin, plus growth hormones and antibiotics.
• Iron/Steel Plants – Oil, cyanide, and ammonia are just a few of the contaminants.
• Paper/Pulp Mills – One ton of paper uses more than 15,000 gallons of water to make, plus there are bleaching agents, acids, hydrocarbons, etc. to consider.
• Pharmaceuticals – Drug waste is mixed into the water.
• Textiles – The clothing industry relies on materials of all colors, so bleach and chemical dyes are in the wastewater from textile plants.

The first step within an industrial wastewater treatment plant is to remove any solids through sludge removal. After that, any grease and oils need to be removed. Organic matter is also removed. At this point, any alkalis and acids are neutralized, and heavy metals are also removed. Chlorine and remaining contaminants are removed through membrane filtration.

It all comes down to the wastewater your company generates. You might need a sewage grinder as part of the process if you have a food processing plant. Other plants may not require it. Working with an expert in industrial wastewater treatment plants is important to ensure you have a system that works effectively, within your budgeted operating costs, and is easy to maintain.

What Are Your Options?

Lakeside Equipment has two package treatment plants if you want an affordable wastewater treatment system that’s ready to go. You have two options: E.A. Aerator Plant or Packaged Extended Aeration Plant.

The Pros and Cons of an E.A. Aerator Plant

To better understand the reasons to choose the E.A. Aerator Plant, it helps to look at what it does and when it’s the best choice. This plant includes a concentric (rings within rings) design with a Closed Loop Reactor in the outer loop and a Spiraflo Clarifier in the inner circle. You can add a second channel for seasonal variations, extra capacity, or more efficient biological nutrients removal.

The Closed Loop Reactor (CLR) aerates the wastewater before it goes into the next ring, where the Spiraflo Clarifier allows the sludge to settle. CLR is done using the Magna Rotor Aerator for fuss-free operation with low maintenance costs. It also is an easy system for workers to operate. The Spiraflo Clarifier offers an optimal hydraulic flow that maximizes performance.

The E.A. Aerator Plant is an in-ground concrete design. A mixture of concrete and steel or just steel are other options.

Pros:

• It offers greater aeration without driving up energy consumption in low-flow conditions.
• It has a space-saving design.
• There’s flexibility in the number of rings in the final design.
• Replacement and service are easy to manage as standard parts are used.

Cons:

• It’s not as effective if flow rates are higher than 0.5 million gallons per day.
• Screening is not part of the system.
• It takes up some space, making it less ideal in a smaller plant.

The Pros and Cons of a Packaged Extended Aeration Plant

Your other option is the Packaged Extended Aeration Plant. It is a pre-engineered system fit within a steel tank that contains screening, diffused aeration, clarification, disinfection, and sludge holding. There is the option of installing it within a concrete structure if that’s preferred.

The Packaged Extended Aeration Plant contains everything in one, making it a powerhouse in a smaller plant. The wastewater is screened to remove items that might otherwise cause clogs. From there, it is aerated and clarified before going through disinfection. All of the sludge goes into a steel chamber for easy removal.

Pros:

• Screening is an integral part of the system.
• The compact steel design is ideal for small plants.
• Easy to install as it’s an all-in-one system.
• It’s optimized for hassle-free operation with minimal staffing.

Cons:

• It’s not practical in larger plants.
• If a concrete structure is preferred, the components are shipped and installed on-site.

What if those are not suitable options for your needs? Consider a custom design. You might need screening as part of a more extensive wastewater treatment system for your factory. You need to have grit removal as a significant part of the process. These pieces of equipment may not be necessary, but you need careful filtration of heavy metals. A custom industrial sewage treatment plant is often the best bet for your business.

Planning Your Design

Your industrial wastewater treatment plant must meet your needs, but there’s much more to it than that. You have to know your district’s regulations. You may be required to complete a wastewater treatability study before taking the first steps.

If you have a poultry processing plant, you’re going to have to account for the biological hazards, fats, and bone fragments. In comparison, a company that cures hides for leather coats needs to consider all chemicals, hairs, sand, and animal fats going into the wastewater.

You have to look at your plant’s energy consumption, too. Your local power plant may not want you to use excessive amounts of energy, which means looking into ways to cut electricity and gas consumption. A wastewater treatment plant that can retain some of the gases for bio-fuel is optimal for your needs. We get it, and we’re happy to help you understand your options.

Lakeside Equipment has a full line of wastewater treatment products for industrial sewage. Our engineers are happy to work with your team to develop the ideal design that matches your budget and goals. We have screw pumps, screens, trash rakes, clarification and filtration, and biological treatment.

Talk to our engineers about your industrial wastewater needs. We’re with you every step of the way, from planning to installation and repairs that become necessary years or decades down the road. Give us a call.

When people think of the bottom line, they’re factoring in their expenses versus their revenue. Wastewater treatment plant owners usually think about the “triple bottom line” (TBL). The plant’s bottom line covers more than financial aspects. They also must think about the world and community they’re part of. The TBL theory covers:

• Environmental
• Financial
• Social

With a TBL theory, they’re maximizing revenues, protecting the environment, and making the people in their district happy. As a plant manager, you have to carefully work within the municipality to ensure the water treatment steps provide safety for your workers, meet the EPA’s guidelines for water before it goes back into the environment, keep costs down for the community, and meet the increasing flow rates. That is your TBL, and a grit removal system is a vital part of meeting your bottom line.

What Is a Grit Removal System?

Grit includes abrasive materials like coffee grounds, sand, gravel, and small bone fragments. To get them out of a wastewater treatment plant’s equipment, you need to have machines that wash, collect, and remove the gritty particles. Why bother?

Wastewater and stormwater runoff contains gritty materials that impact the performance of valves and pumps. Imagine the impact of sandpaper rubbing back and forth on rubber, plastic, or metal all day, every day. It would wear out in little time. The same is true of your wastewater treatment plant’s valves and pump components.

All of this grit also builds up in lines, channels, and tanks, which reduces flow rates and capacity. To resolve these costly issues, a grit removal system is imperative.

Grit removal systems are set up to filter wastewater and storm runoff as it comes into a treatment plant. How it does this job depends on the equipment. A vortex, aerated, or circulating system stirs or pumps air into the water. The idea is to get the grit to sink to the bottom, where it is pumped into equipment to be rinsed and moved to containers for removal.

• Aerated Grit Chambers – Pump air into the water to stir it up so that heavy grit sinks to the bottom.
• Cyclonic Grit Chambers – Water enters in a way that forms a cyclone that pushes heavier grit to the bottom.
• Horizontal Flow Chambers – Water flows horizontally to allow heavier gritty materials to sink.
• Vortex Grit Chambers – Paddles stir the water to allow oils and fats to rise to the surface while grit sinks to the bottom.

The system you choose depends on your plant’s size and needs. Some grit removal systems take more space than others. If you have a small plant, a larger piece of equipment might not fit your needs. You also must consider your flow rates, capacity, and amount of grit that’s typically in your municipalities’ wastewater or stormwater runoff.

How Does Grit Removal Help You Meet Your Bottom Line?

How does removing grit help your bottom line? Think about the amount of wastewater and storm runoff that come into your treatment plant. The average person uses upwards of 100 gallons of water daily with showers, laundry, oral hygiene, dishes, and toilet flushes. A wastewater treatment plant often has thousands of people in its district. The median number of gallons that are treated in a wastewater treatment plant each day is around three million.

Of those three million gallons, the average amount of grit is upwards of 45 cubic feet. Imagine all of that grit rubbing against the components in pumps and valves. If it’s not filtered out early in the process, it can cause costly damage. Not only are you paying for new components to make the repairs, but you’d also have the machine’s downtime for the repairs. That cuts into the financial component of your TBL.

When you remove grit, you make your district members happier. You’re not wasting money on frequent repairs and replacements caused by damage from the grit. You’re also protecting the environment by ensuring your equipment is doing its job and preventing the accidental release of raw sewage caused by equipment failures.

Lakeside Equipment’s Options for Grit Collection and Removal Systems

Whether you need to replace old, ineffective grit collection and removal systems or want to add efficient equipment to your wastewater treatment plant, Lakeside Equipment has a selection of options for you. Take a closer look at your choices.

Aeroductor Grit Removal System

The Aeroductor Grit Removal System uses air to move the water vertically to allow grit to settle to the bottom of the grit hopper. Grit is pumped out using an airlift pump, dry-pit vortex pump, or self-priming pump. Benefits are:

• Aeration helps kickstart the treatment process.
• Energy costs are lower.
• Flow rates don’t matter.
• Grit comes out cleaner as it’s separated and dewatered simultaneously.
• No parts are underwater, and no buckets, chains, or augers are needed, so maintenance is easily managed.

H-PAC

H-PAC combines the Hydronic T Screen and SpiraGrit Vortex Grit Chamber. It screens trash and grit at the same time at rates of up to 12 million gallons per day. It doesn’t take a lot of space, making it a popular choice in smaller plants. Benefits include:

• It costs less due to the pre-engineered design.
• Multiple screen options meet your exact needs.
• Stainless steel construction helps with corrosion prevention.

In-Line Grit Collector

With the In-Line Grit Collection, flow rates of 0.25 to 6 million gallons per day are possible. It works by having wastewater come into one end of the tank, flow under a baffle, and pass over a weir. Grit sinks to the bottom of the tank, where a dewatering screw dewaters it and moves it to an awaiting dumpster. Benefits include:

• It’s an easily-installed and cost-effective grit removal system.
• Maintenance costs reduce as there is little mechanical equipment and no buckets or chains.
• The screw conveyor doesn’t wear out due to the grit, and a direct drive speed reducer also lowers maintenance and repair costs.

SpiraGrit Vortex Grit Removal System

The SpiraGrit Vortex Grit Removal System is designed for sites with limited space. It’s ideal for fluctuating daily flow rates. It works by having paddles stir the flow in a vortex chamber. Organics remain suspended while the grit sinks to the bottom to be pumped using an airlift, recessed propeller, or self-prime pump. From there, it goes to a Grit Classifier or Grit Washer. Benefits include:

• Bearings are all above water for easy maintenance.
• The grit chamber head loss is minimal.
• Impressive grit removal rates regardless of the flow rates.
• Stainless steel construction is available to prevent corrosion.

You also want to consider a Grit Classifier and Raptor Grit Washer. Grit that comes from wastewater soaks up some of the water. To collect that water, you want to invest in a grit washer or grit classifier. These systems work to remove water from the grit slurry.

A Grit Classifier spins the slurry in a cyclonic pattern to force the grit against the chamber’s walls while the water leaves through the overflow pipe. The screw pumps with this system are designed to resist wear. Upgrade to stainless steel construction to prevent corrosion.

Raptor Grit Washers work similarly, using centrifugal force to remove water. It can get the grit to a dry rate of 90%.

Reach out to Lakeside Equipment to learn more about the options for grit removal. Find out how the right grit removal equipment will help you meet your wastewater treatment plant’s bottom line.

Have you ever considered the benefits of automation at your wastewater treatment plant? Streamlining treatment processes is essential in today’s world. Getting water clean and returned to homes, businesses, and bodies of water needs to happen quickly.

Wastewater treatment is an essential industry in the U.S. While it’s hard to imagine running out of water, it’s possible. Changing weather patterns are finding temperatures heating up, and some areas see very little rainfall.

How can the nation protect the one thing people need to survive? Wastewater treatment is one of the most critical steps. Instead of losing valuable water to environmental factors like evaporation, municipalities can clean the water, move it to storage tanks and ponds, and send it back out to homes and businesses for reuse. Automation can help streamline wastewater treatment processes like this.

Parts of the U.S. Face a Water Crisis

So much of a person’s daily routine involves water. Washing hands to lower the risk of disease is only part of it. Showers, toilet flushes, and the water a person needs to stay hydrated all factor into daily water use. The average person uses over 80 gallons of water a day.

You also have factories across the nation that rely on water for operations. An extrusion machine responsible for making things like the brake cables in cars needs water to cool the product to set the plastic coatings properly and prevent ovality or irregularity when it goes onto the spool. A food manufacturing plant uses water to wash food items before packaging, such as a poultry processing plant.

Almost half of the water drawn from freshwater sources is used in the creation of thermoelectric power. This is why it’s crucial to find other ways to generate electricity, such as solar or wind.

Even smaller businesses use a lot of water. Restaurants use a lot of water for sanitization and cooking. A grocery store needs water for cleaning tasks, bakery, deli, and butcher departments, and produce where misters keep vegetables fresh.

Looking at the National Centers for Environmental Information, several states had deficient precipitation levels during 2020. According to the reports, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, and Montana were the lowest.

The Palmer Drought Severity Index Rank listed eight states as the worst in the U.S.: California, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming.

In the fall of 2021, Lake Mead’s levels were low enough that the U.S. declared a water shortage. Arizona, Mexico, and Nevada all had their apportionments reduced by as much as 18%. This meant homeowners and business owners in dozens of cities and towns must reduce water consumption. One of the most significant effects is on farmers and ranchers who must find other ways to water crops and take care of their livestock.

When primary water sources like Lake Mead experience shortages, the effects can lead to hardship. Cities can overcome these shortages through efficient wastewater treatment plants and industrial wastewater treatment plants. Automation is one way to ensure a plant operates efficiently.

What Happens During Wastewater Treatment

Primary treatment steps in a wastewater treatment plant include screening out items like rocks, sticks, trash, and even animals like mice or rats that may find their way into sewers. Once screened from the wastewater, these items go to a landfill.

Pumps move the remaining wastewater into aeration tanks, where circulation adds oxygen to start the treatment process. Aeration helps oxygenate the wastewater to begin the breakdown of organic matter. Grit like coffee grounds and sand settle to the bottom of the tanks, where it’s removed and taken to compost piles or landfills. Excess water drains from the grit and goes to the next steps in wastewater treatment. The goal is to get as much water out of grit and solids as possible.

You have pumps, blowers, mixers, and motors all working together. They use energy and may need employees carefully monitoring levels of wastewater coming in. With automation, you save money by having technology tracking everything and turning things on and off as needed. Technology matches flow rates, maximizing performance and efficiency.

In sedimentation tanks, the sludge settles and is removed to digesters. Lighter materials like fat and oil rise to the surface, where they can be removed and added to sludge. Some water is added to the digesters, while the rest of it may go through filters to start cleaning any microscopic particles.

The waste in digesters is given time to break down, removing odor and bacteria. It can then go to landfills or be used as a fertilizer. The cleaner water goes into tanks where chemicals like chlorine are added to kill any remaining bacteria. Facilities may use UV lighting to remove excess chlorine before it’s returned to bodies of water or storage tanks for the public water system.

Water samples are drawn and tested throughout the process to collect essential data. It’s a time-consuming process.

Before wastewater can be released to the environment or public water systems, it must meet FDA standards. If it doesn’t and is released anyway, plants face hefty fines. Final water quality is another area where automation can make a difference.

How Can Automation Help?

Your aeration tanks and basins have blowers and pumps that use up to 60% of your plant’s energy. Are yours automated, or do you have employees turning them on and off as needed? Automation streamlines this and helps you avoid mistakes that can become costly if raw sewage is released.

The critical goals of wastewater treatment are to remove bacteria, viruses, and other pollutants and ensure ammonium, phosphate, and nitrogen levels are low before the water is released. Before release, you need to meet pH levels and remove any chemical disinfectants like chlorine. Properly cleaning wastewater requires much attention to water samples and blower rates. If you have automation monitoring the levels and adjusting as needed, you save money.

Plus, incoming wastewater flow rates change from one hour to the next. You might have more water coming in during peak hours before and after work and school and when manufacturing plants operate. When the members of your municipality are cooking meals, taking showers or baths, and doing laundry, the wastewater coming into the plant through sewer lines increases. When people are sleeping or factories are shut down, the flow is minimal.

Instead of having pumps and motors running at the same speeds during the day and night, automation adjusts their speeds to match the flow rates. That’s another one of the ways automation helps streamline your operations.

Talk to Us

How can we help? Lakeside Equipment’s SharpBNR Process Control system allows you real-time monitoring of your plant. Not only does it help improve energy efficiency, but it also works in tandem with your motors to ensure rotors adjust as needed to achieve the optimal oxygen levels for aeration.

Talk to us about SharpBNR Process Control and how it works with your SCADA system to streamline your wastewater treatment plant. Our experts can help you with equipment upgrades that ensure water is cleaned effectively, even if flow rates suddenly increase and put more demand on your equipment’s pumps and motors. We’d love to talk to you about streamlining your plant’s efficiency with automation. Give us a call.

You’ve probably heard all about Lake Mead in the news. After reaching unheard of depths after years of drought conditions, two bodies and several sunken boats have been discovered in areas that used to be underwater. In areas like California and Arizona, drought conditions are drying up water sources and leading to grave concerns.

Weather patterns are changing. Areas that used to see rainfall or snow are experiencing droughts. Temperatures are going up, leading to unusually long droughts. It’s causing problems around the world, and experts are trying to figure out how to keep water from running out.

Water Shortages Around the World

Every continent is experiencing water shortages. It’s not just something happening in drier, hotter climates. As populations grow and temperatures increase, more water is being used than is being replenished. It takes a slow soaking rain to refill underground water sources like springs or gullies. These headwaters are where a river begins. Heavy rainfall may create quick, flooding water, but it will flow downstream before it helps replenish groundwater.

• In Tulare County, California, dairy farms are digging their wells deeper and deeper to reach the groundwater. This is affecting neighbors with shallower drilled wells as they’re finding their own wells running dry.
• Orange County in California found another problem happening. The draw on aquifers was so much that water from the ocean was able to seep in. They feared people would refuse to touch water that originated in a sewage treatment plant, but it was the only solution they could see.
• In March, Governor Newsom signed an executive order banning well-drilling permits for any agricultural or industrial entity. In his executive order, he pointed out that water storage levels in Central Valley and Santa Clara Valley’s shared water reservoir are over 1 million acre-feet lower than in the prior year.
• In Monterrey, Mexico, drought conditions led to city officials restricting residential water use to the hours of 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. Those six hours a day are all that the city’s 5.3 million people will be allowed to access. The hope is that this will help protect the city’s water supply.
• The Californian town of Cambria announced in 2021 that after almost 40 years of depleting the town’s two primary water sources, they were almost out of water. As a level-four (of five) emergency was declared, residents were asked to cut water consumption by almost half. Plus, growth for this community was halted.
• For some, that meant their applications to build on lots they own that already have water meters in place are being denied. Like many towns, Cambria is trying to figure out how to ensure community members can access water in their homes and businesses.
• Las Vegas and Los Angeles are touted as an example of what communities can do. The city’s developers planned in advance. For decades, the city’s water system looked at water recycling and storage systems in the mountains as measures to take to prevent shortages. Plus, they request that people avoid outdoor watering to lower the demand on the city’s supplies during a drought.
• Las Vegas pushes water recycling. Many of the resorts’ pools, fountains, and showers are designed to reuse water to lessen the draw on public water sources. Residential homes in Las Vegas no longer have grass. To prevent the need for watering lawns, artificial turf is used instead.
• Melbourne, Australia, experienced a severe drought from 1997 to 2009. During part of that time, the city’s population also increased by over a million people. Water use increased by more than 10% in five years. During that time, the city added water recycling plants to try to lessen the demand for public water supplies.

Water recycling is the wave of the future. Some cities and districts are discovering the benefits. It’s time you did, too. It’s the best way to lower the demand on lakes, rivers, ponds, and other bodies of water. Has your industrial or agricultural business or wastewater district considered the benefits of wastewater recycling? It’s time.

What Is Wastewater Recycling?

Wastewater recycling is an act where you clean and reuse water. Any homeowner that has barrels under gutters and uses that rainwater to water vegetable gardens is recycling water. On a grander scale, a water treatment plant can clean, disinfect, and return wastewater to a community’s water supply.

Across the country, municipal water supplies draw from a lake or river, clean the water, and send it to tanks for the public water system. Residents and business owners draw from those tanks every time they flush a toilet, do the laundry, take a shower, wash dishes, etc. The average person uses 101.5 gallons of water per day. It’s a lot of water being taken from water bodies.

Take Boston, Massachusetts, and the city’s population of 696,959. In one day, the average use means more than 70 million gallons of water are used. That’s one day! By the end of a year, more than 25 billion gallons of water are pulled from municipal water sources.

While many water treatment plants clean water coming from septic systems and sewers and return that water to local bodies of water, the water could go right into storage tanks to be used over and over. That reduces the draw of water from the usual sources like lakes and rivers.

How Does Water Recycling Work?

The Orange County Water District’s water recycling plant was developed back in the 1970s. Today, it generates about 35 million gallons of drinking water each day but can produce as much as 100 gallons. It’s slated to undergo an expansion in 2023, enabling the system to create 130 million gallons of public water each day.

How does it work? Wastewater goes from the wastewater treatment plant to the Groundwater Replenishment System (GWRS). There it goes through five steps.

1. Pre-Purification

After going through screening, grit chambers, filters, activated sludge, clarifiers, and final disinfection, the treated wastewater is pumped to the GWRS division. The wastewater is tested to ensure it meets the requirements after leaving the wastewater treatment plant.

2. Microfiltration

As long as the treated wastewater meets the requirements, the water goes through microfiltration. Water passes through very thin straw-like fibers through tiny holes. Those holes capture any bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and microscopic solids.

3. Reverse Osmosis

Once the water passes through the microfiltration step, it goes into reverse osmosis membranes to remove any pharmaceuticals and dissolved chemicals. After this process, the water is cleaned to a point that it’s similar to distilled water. To stabilize it, minerals must be added back in.

4. UV Lights

Hydrogen peroxide and UV lights are the final step in disinfecting and killing off any remaining organics that got through the other stages.

5. Water Delivery

Now that the water is completely clean and safe for drinking, it’s pumped into injection wells to prevent saltwater seepage and the rest recharges the basins. It filters through the sand and gravel to replenish the groundwater basins where public water is drawn from.

The wave of the future will be recycling water like Orange County is doing. Reusing water that’s consumed is key. Is your district considering taking this step? Reach out to Lakeside Equipment to learn more about the right pumps and biological treatment systems needed to replenish city water supplies with treated wastewater.

In broad terms, wastewater is water that’s been used in some way. It could be water that’s built up in clouds and is now coming down as rain or snow. It’s water that an industrial plant uses to wash food items, rapidly cool down extruded items, or to make items like paper. You also have domestic wastewater that comes from homes.

It’s estimated that 48% of wastewater today isn’t treated before it’s returned to a lake, stream, river, pond, ocean, etc. In districts with wastewater treatment plants, all it takes is one piece of broken equipment to create chaos that leads to the release of untreated wastewater. The importance of properly treating wastewater is critical, especially as many areas experience droughts of unbelievable levels.

Untreated wastewater is part of the problem today. There’s also a problem with water consumption. People need to start weighing their water usage and how to make sure the nation doesn’t run out in future generations.

What can a district do to ensure wastewater, no matter what kind, is properly treated? How do you recycle wastewater to help lower the draw on the nation’s water supplies? To better understand this, take a close look at the three types of wastewater.

Domestic Wastewater

Every day, a person within a home uses an average of 82 gallons of water in some way. It’s estimated that more than twice that is also wasted through water leaks or wasteful habits. Doing the laundry, flushing a toilet, washing your hands, and washing a pet all create stormwater. These are all examples of domestic wastewater.

Domestic water enters sewers from pipes that run from your home to the sewer lines. From there, it continues traveling through the sewer system to a wastewater treatment plant.

More rural areas have septic tanks and septic systems. Solid waste materials like toilet paper, small food particles, and feces sink to the bottom of the septic tank. Liquids travel through an effluent filter and piping to the leach field where it slowly trickles through sand and bedrock to clean it before it returns to the groundwater. The solids in the tank get pumped out every few years, depending on how many people live in the home. They’re transported by septage hauler to a wastewater treatment plant.

Water conversation at this level helps preserve excessive water waste. Simple lifestyle changes can make a difference. Such as:

• Flushing a toilet less frequently.
• Turning off the water while you brush your teeth or lather your hands.
• Wearing the same pants several times if they’re not stained or dirty.
• Saving water that’s been used to steam vegetables to make vegetable broth.
• Waiting until a dishwasher is full to run it.
• Taking one shower a day instead of two or three.
• Placing rain barrels under gutters and using that to water gardens and lawns.
• Planting grass and crops that are drought-tolerant.

All of these measures will make a difference, but it’s not just for people producing domestic wastewater to resolve. Steps need to be taken to prevent waste and pollution with all three types of wastewater.

Industrial Wastewater

Industrial wastewater is the wastewater generated by manufacturing plants, food processing plants, oil and gas companies, mines, breweries, paper mills, and many other commercial businesses.

In areas where droughts are common, some companies must establish their own on-site wastewater treatment plants to recycle as much water as they can. Hotels in Las Vegas are one example, they must reuse water instead of drawing on public water supplies to do things like add water to their pools. The same is true of companies like car washes where a lot of water is used.

Many companies that generate industrial wastewater must pre-treat the water before releasing it into the sewer system. If they don’t, they put a strain on systems by sending excessive amounts of heavy metals, chemicals, bacteria, etc. to the wastewater treatment plant for processing. It’s a costly process, so pre-treatment ensures the company responsible for generating the industrial wastewater does its part to help clean the water.

Stormwater

The final type of wastewater is one that people don’t often think of as being wastewater. When there is a heavy storm, rain falls in the streets and goes into storm drains. This is known as stormwater or storm runoff. From there, it may go to a wastewater treatment plant, but that’s not as common as having the stormwater runoff go directly to a channel that leads to a body of water.

As stormwater runoff is not always treated, things that the stormwater picks up along the way end up in a freshwater source nearby. It might be automotive fluids that puddled up from a leak in a car’s engine. Salt that’s spread on the roads in the winter, liquid manure, and animal waste are all things that can end up in stormwater.

Stormwater runoff is an area of concern, as too much rain or snowmelt at once can overload an older system and lead to sewage and stormwater mixing and ending up going to area water sources without treatment, which is a health hazard.

Many cities are starting to realize the importance of finding a way to manage stormwater. Green infrastructure plans help filter out some of the waste from stormwater by adding green roofs, rain gardens, and rain barrels to help capture some of the rain that falls or snow that melts. Plants are able to pre-filter the storm runoff before it reaches bodies of water.

Making Wastewater Treatment More Efficient and Effective

Proper wastewater treatment ensures that wastewater is cleaned of most contaminants before it returns to a lake, river, pond, etc. Not everything is removed through wastewater treatment. Researchers are finding levels of antidepressants and other prescription medications in aquatic animals. Because of this, research is constantly taking place to find better filtration methods and more effective treatment measures.

Another aspect is water reuse. Across the country, water shortages are becoming more and more apparent. Lake Mead is an example of this. The lake is at the lowest level in history, and severe water conservation efforts are underway or there will be shortages. Water reuse is essential. People may not like the idea of drinking water that came from a toilet or washing machine, but it’s important.

Wastewater districts need to make sure the public knows that recycled water is just as safe as the water they currently use. Sometimes, it’s even cleaner.

Consider adding a water treatment plant to your existing wastewater treatment plant. Instead of sending the treated wastewater to a body of water, it goes to a water treatment plant for further processing before it goes to the public water supply for use. Water reclamation has to happen, and your district should look into the upgrades needed. With government grants available for upgrading the infrastructure, it’s a great time to learn more.

Lakeside Equipment specializes in water treatment equipment and facilities. Give us a call or reach out to us via email to learn more about what your wastewater district plant would need to do to upgrade your system to be efficient and cost-effective while creating a clean water source for area residents and businesses to draw on.