Package Treatment Plant solves college’s treatment needs

Problem: Lancaster County Career and Technology Center’s Brownstown Campus in Ephrata, Pennsylvania, had an aging wastewater treatment facility in operation since the early 1990s. With new permit requirements in process and the outdated infrastructure at risk of noncompliance, the school determined it was time for the system to be upgraded. The new system needed to serve the wastewater treatment needs of the facility today based on the current PA DEP NPDES permit and future growth.

Solution: Project Engineer Buchart Horn selected an epoxy-coated steel ENVIRO-AIRE Package Treatment Plant from Delta Treatment Systems for the 4,300-gallon wastewater treatment system. Each plant is custom designed for the sewage treatment needs of the location, custom-built at the factory, and shipped to the project site as a self-contained unit requiring minimal assembly. The system can convert flows of 3,000 to 250,000 gpd into clear, odor-free effluent suitable for direct discharge. The treatment train’s design for the full build out included a Bardenpho process with flow equalization, a pre-anoxic tank, aeration tank, post-anoxic tank, polishing tank, dual-hopper clarifiers, solids holding tank and disinfection. This system discharges directly into the Conestoga River adjacent to the property. 

Result: The installation was completed by DESCCO Design & Construction of Fleetwood, Pennsylvania. The simplicity, minimal installation time, and cost of a prepackaged treatment solution were important to the college. 800-219-9183; www.deltatreatment.com

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System helps meet facility’s expansion needs

Problem: Columbine Inn is employee housing for 71 residents that work in the Ski Valley of New Mexico. Expansion was needed. Overall design for daily flow was drainfield space and legal treatment soil limited due to drinking-water well setback regulations and soil texture. Ultimately a 33% reduction in daily flow was needed.  

Solution: Waste Management Associates in Santa Fe was able to design a system using two FujiClean USA CEN21 models and creative pressurized drainfields to meet the expansion needs. All sewage flows to an upgraded wastewater treatment system. Existing septic and graywater tanks were reconfigured for primary settling and flow equalization. Secondary and tertiary treatment are done in the pair of CEN21 systems, each having a treatment capacity of 1,900 gpd. CEN systems are designed to utilize a small footprint while providing superior treatment and nitrogen reduction. Tertiary effluent enters final pump tanks. Total residence time for emergency built into the system is 7.6 days. Accounting for both precipitation and effluent disposal, the system uses shallow discharge disperse over 8,000 square feet. This is approximately 40% excess absorption capacity over code. A new drip system was installed per specifications including anti-freeze precautions. Though the drip system could be operated year-round, when soil temperatures go below freezing, a Low Pressure Pipe system will take over automatically. The old gravity drainfield is passively retained to act as an emergency disposal during power outage or some unforeseen problem.  

Result: In mid-year 2021, the system was installed and has been operating above expectations. As-built drawings and operation documents were generated to aid monthly routine maintenance personnel and document any installation details. 207-406-2927; www.fujicleanusa.com

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Treatment system enables fall festival to continue

Problem: Pond Hill Farm, a popular spot on northern Michigan’s fall color tour, faced a public relations nightmare when its annual pumpkin festival was ruined by a septic failure. The pumpkins were sitting on their leachfield, and a surface breakout contaminated the pumpkins, forcing the health department to issue a pumpkin recall. The farm wanted to prevent a similar situation in the future.

Solution: SludgeHammer installed an Aerobic Bacterial Generator in the existing septic tanks to quickly remediate the failed leachfield, but Pond Hill was expanding with a brewery, winery, restaurant and thousands of visitors would overwhelm treatment capacity. So extra tanks were added with full-scale SludgeHammer treatment to get the effluent clear enough for subsurface drip disposal. The farm installed a 3,000-square-foot drip irrigation field and dedicated it to a pumpkin patch.

Result: The latest samples showed BOD at <2 mg/L, TSS at 2 mg/l, and total inorganic nitrogen at 6.49 mg/l. Even with the substantial reduction in nitrogen, the pumpkins now get a micro-dose of fertilizer with every drop of water. The farm now grows the largest pumpkins it has ever produced with the same effluent that caused the problem. And as an added benefit, a portion of the field is used to grow self-pick flowers for customer bouquets, producing extra revenue from waste. 231-348-5866; www.sludgehammer.net

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Pretreating high-strength waste at orchard and winery

Problem: In 2017, after one year of monitoring by the local county health department and the State Department of Health, it was determined that the waste strength loading was too high at Huber’s Orchard and Winery in Starlight, Indiana. A new mound system and an additional pretreatment system was needed to lower the waste strength prior to discharge to the mounds.

Solution: Zoeller Pump offered design assistance and components for a new mound system to treat wastewater from numerous structures. The company recommended a recirculating media filter treatment system installed between existing septic tanks and the mound system. RMF treatment systems are similar to recirculating sand filters with the main difference being the size of the treatment media, which is typically 3/8-inch diameter pea gravel instead of sand media. A local engineer designed the new RMF at 4,000 gpd using a waste strength of approximately 700 mg/L BOD5, which required a 30-by-30-foot RMF. Commissioning of the RMF was done in October 2019. 

Result: After one month, the new RMF was treating wastewater efficiently, meeting the objective of effectively pretreating effluent prior to discharge to the mound system. Samples collected averaged 10.5 mg/L BOD5 and 2.3 mg/L TSS. 502-778-2731; www.zoellerpumps.com