The Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The Wastewater Utility Department is divided into two divisions: (1) the Plant Division and (2) the Systems Division. An enterprise fund, the stated intent of this Department is to collect and treat wastewater discharged by customers of the Utility and to pay for the costs of providing this service through user charges.
The City's wastewater is collected in approximately 65 miles of sewer main lines. It is treated utilizing activated sludge with aeration. Since the Wastewater Treatment Plant was remodeled in 1998, it can successfully treat 1.2 million gallons per day. This will enable the City to service a population of approximately 10,000 or treat large industrial users. The Plant uses a Mono-belt de-watering system for disposing of sludge that is then spread on agricultural land. This system allows the City to meet State mandated requirements for wastewater treatment and disposal.
The responsibility for overseeing the day-to-day functions of the Wastewater Utility falls on the Director of Plant Operations and the Director of Systems Operations.
The Plants Division has two full-time employees, including one plant journey foreman and one journey operator, ensure the quality of wastewater being treated, provide routine preventive maintenance, make minor repairs to the Wastewater Treatment Plant, and repair and maintain the various pieces of equipment associated with wastewater treatment. In addition, their responsibilities include the sampling and analysis of wastewater. The Plant is capable of treating 900,000 gallons and 1.3 million gallons of extraneous water per day.
The Wastewater Systems Division has seven full time employees, including one system journey foreman, two journey operators and two workers classified as operator II. They are responsible for the maintenance and repair of the approximately 65 miles of sewer main, over 600 man holes , 8 lift stations, and the installation of new sewer mains. Maintenance of the collection system is an ongoing project within the City. The entire collection system is on a schedule to be cleaned every three to four years. As a part of the cleaning process the crew also utilizes a camera system to explore suspected trouble spots to better identify the problem, and to help decide the best plan to fix it. On a more regular basis, the Systems Division checks all 8 lift stations and nearly 30 problematic manholes twice a week, to be pro-active and catch problems as early as possible, and to ensure more reliability in the system.
Our plant is an activated sludge type of treatment. This means that the plant process water is supplied air from 3 blowers. The plant has several basins, for the various stages of wastewater treatment: a mixing zone in the center with aeration, north and south extended aeration, north and south clarifiers for the separation of water from sludge, two digesters and a storm water holding tank.
The plant uses a natural process of breaking down the composition of organic material in the waste flow with the help of bacteria and other microorganisms. They feed on the organic wastes and use supplied air to help them stay alive and to aid in the reduction of waste in size and making it a more stable form called sludge.
The last stage in the processing of the sludge is the digesters. After an extended period of time in the digesters, the sludge is pumped through a mono-belt filter press to remove as much water as possible and the caked sludge is moved to drying beds and stored until it can be applied to agricultural ground.
The plant is capable of handling 2.2 million gallons of water during time of extraneous flows. The average influent flows vary from 300,000 GPD (gallons per day) to 500,000 GPD through the plant. Detention (holding) time per gallon of waste in the plant is 18 hours. This means, on average, a gallon of waste coming into the plant won't be discharged into the effluent until it has been detained for 18 hours. This allows the organic waste particles to be broken down and settled out, leaving only water as the end product. Our plant is closely monitored through daily testing and monitoring, monthly samples sent to a certified laboratory for testing, and adjustments to the plants air demands and wasting requirements. We send sampling results to Kansas Department of Health and Environment each month as required by our National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit No. KS0021903, and Kansas Water Pollution Control Permit No. M-SO05-IO01.
Our job is to help protect the health of our community and the environment down stream from us. This means taking wastes from our city, treating and releasing them to a receiving stream (Solomon River) as clean, quality water that has been disinfected with an ultraviolet disinfection system. Test results indicate the average suspended solids in the effluent are being detected at less than 0.5 parts per million. The water that is released from the plant is called effluent. The effluent water, at this time, has two purposes: one is the discharge into the Solomon River for possible use downstream; second, in the summer months, it is pumped to the Beloit Country Club where it is used to water the golf course. We are very proud of the efficiency of the plant and the operators maintaining it.
