Wastewater Facilities Description
Headworks
The inlet structure and the grit tank. Raw wastewater is screened with two mechanical fine screens, one rated at 8 mgd, the other at 4 mgd. The downstream grit tank removes the heavy material which is then pumped into the grit classifier. All material is disposed of in an authorized landfill.
Primary Clarifiers
Four 120-foot by twenty-foot tanks with a design detention time of 2.21 hours. This process can remove up to sixty percent of the suspended solids. All solids that are settled out are immediately removed for final alkaline stabilization. The solids are pumped by four single-diaphragm pumps that operate twenty-four-hours-a-day at a predetermined stroke rate.
Secondary Treatment
Eight aeration tanks. Each tank capacity is 378,000 gallons and allows for 9.3 hours of detention time. This is the point at which bacteria consumes the remaining raw waste. Oxygen levels are maintained by centrifuge blowers forcing air through fine-bubble diffusers.
Blower Building
Three centrifuge blowers, powered by 250hp motors capable of moving 3,600 cfm (cubic feet per minute) of air. Plus, five centrifuge blowers, powered by 75hp motors, each able to move approximately 1,200 cfm (cubic feet per minute) of air.
Final Clarifier
Three eighty-foot diameter tanks each rated at 4 mgd with a detention time of 5.5 hours. The clarifiers create a quiescent zone which allows solids to settle to the bottom, while treated water flows over collection weirs. The settled solids are withdrawn from the bottom and are either returned to the aeration tanks or removed from the process as waste-activated sludge.
Disinfection
Ultraviolet lights are used for cell destruction to kill any remaining bacteria or microorganisms in the discharge flow. Post-aeration begins immediately afterward. The flow is cascaded down a series of concrete steps.
Sludge Holding Tanks
Two covered glass-lined steel storage tanks, each with 400,000-gallons capacity, and two 150,000-gallon tanks. The material removed from the primary clarifiers, and the waste-activated sludge are held in these tanks and mixed while awaiting final disposal. Sludge may be thickened prior to storage by using a two-meter gravity belt thickener.
Waste Biosolid Stabilization
N-viro Soil alkaline stabilization is used for solids preparation to a Class A reusable material. This process blends three waste materials: sludge, cement kiln dust, and a bulking agent. It produces a synthetic soil material that has many useful applications. It can be used as an agricultural line substitute with nutrients, or as soil remediation or in reclamation. The process incorporates four main areas of the plant site:
- Press Building - houses two two-meter belt press thickeners for sludge preparation.
- Blending Room - the three waste products are blended for biosolid stabilization.
- Windrow Building - the N-viro Soil process requires that the material is 'windrowed,' or turned over several times during a seventy-two-hour period.
- Storage Pad - finished N-viro Soil material is stored here awaiting final market distribution.
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Administration/Laboratory Building
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Houses administration offices and the laboratory facility.
Maintenance Building
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Plant and lift station facility.
