Some strange items bubble up from area sewers
, Staff Writer
11-04-2009
Staff at the regional wastewater treatment plant say they recently had an “eye-opening experience” when they found out what was being pumped into the facility along with sewage from septic tanks.
Mac McCutchen, superintendent at Pepper’s Ferry Regional Wastewater Treatment Authority in Fairlawn, said the “rock-trap” on a new septage receiving station put into service at the plant Sept. 30 filtered a number of unusual items from the sewage, including golf balls, keys and children’s toy action figures.
He told the authority’s board of directors that the ability to now filter out these items, which had been flushed down toilets, will improve the operation of the facility by preventing the objects from entering the clarifiers and digesters.
Receiving stations are used to hold waste (septage) hauled to the plant from permitted septic tank cleaning companies. Before the station was installed, the waste was downloaded directly into the system without any pre-treatment or screening.
Clarke Wallcraft, the authority’s executive director, said earlier that the station would protect the equipment and allow for more accurate billing of septic tank cleaning companies. He noted such debris can damage the plant's equipment by causing clogs and breaking pumps.
The septage receiving station allows a place for trucks hauling the waste to physically connection with the station so that debris is filtered from the waste and compacted. The compacted material is then placed in a liner, which is placed in the landfill.
According to Wallcraft, the Authority receives about $65,000 per year through its septage program, so the new receiving station will "pay for itself" in two years. He stressed that member jurisdictions will not have to pay for it.
The receiving station also includes a metering device that will be able to determine the exact amount of septage pumped into the system. Companies are billed based on the amount of septage downloaded into the treatment plant.
Billing used to be based on the rated capacity of the truck making the delivery. If a company was able to "squeeze in" more septage than the truck's rating, it wasn’t being billed for the excess amount.
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