Sustainability Archive » Improved Customer Service

THE SMELL OF SUCCESS: AN ODOR STUDY OF THE BROOMFIELD WASTEWATER RECLAMATION FACILITY

justin — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:16:59 +0000

Wastewater treatment facilities in urban vicinities face the continuing challenge of reducing odor
emissions to maintain public favor. This is the case for the City and County (City) of
Broomfield Wastewater Reclamation Facility (WRF) located outside of Denver, Colorado. The
Broomfield WRF has recently undergone upgrades to proactively address odor issues but
occasionally receives odor complaints from neighboring residents. This paper presents the
findings from a thorough odor sampling campaign to evaluate odor generation and emissions at
the Broomfield WRF.
The Broomfield WRF was constructed in the 1950s in a rural area northwest of Denver. Today,
the WRF is surrounded by a large community of townhomes and houses bordering on the north
and west sides of the facility. Odor complaints are occasional and the City has implemented a
number of improvements to reduce odor emissions. The Broomfield WRF is a secondary
wastewater treatment plant that includes preliminary treatment, primary clarifiers, aeration
basins, secondary clarifiers, dissolved air flotation thickening (DAFT), anaerobic digesters,
solids handling, and ultraviolet (UV) disinfection. The facility underwent a plant-wide upgrade,
Phase 1 completed in 2005, which included the final phase of installing foul air treatment
including six odor control fans and a BIOREM biofilter. This recent study focused on
identifying emission sources at the plant and providing recommendations for the Phase 2
upgrade.
The odor study involved an intense liquid and gas sampling effort that included gaseous and
liquid phase sulfide, air pressure evaluations in rooms and covered tanks, Nasal Ranger® testing
of facility boundaries, and smoke testing of the existing biofilter which treats the foul air from
the process buildings. The main sources of odors were detected around the digesters, in the
digester gas, and in the centrate liquid stream and holding tank foul air. Gas from the digesters
measured around 2,000 ppm hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and the gas from the centrate holding tank
measured 100 ppm H2S. Also, the influent stream of the facility showed unusual daily spikes in
H2S gas and it is very possible that wastewater from one of the collection system lift stations is a
major contributor to the high influent sulfide in this stream. The biofilter had little odor and
appeared to effectively treat the facility’s foul air. However, during the smoke testing, there was
a noticeable separation of the smoke on the surface of the filter media although there are no
partitions to separate the air flow. The main recommendations from the odor study included the
following activities:
• System Negative Pressures. Increase exhaust air flow from buildings and covered tanks
to ensure negative pressure and avoid fugitive emissions.
• Sulfide Spikes. Confirm that the cause of the afternoon sulfide spike at the influent
channel is an upstream pump station operation.
• Digesters. Consider ferric chloride addition to reduce sulfide concentration in the sludge
and consequently in the digester gas and in the dewatering centrate.
• Centrate Recycle. Consider rerouting centrate recycle stream to an aerobic zone of the
aeration tanks.
• Biofilter. Check air pressures and conduct smoke tests at least every year.
Overall, the study found that the facility has improved its odor emission with recent upgrades
and odors detected at the facility were minimal. The biofilter appears to be providing effective
treatment of the collected foul air. The proposed upgrades for Phase 2 are generally in line with
the findings from this study and will further improve odor control.

Managing Your Collection System through Business Planning – What the City of Aurora, Colorado is Doing to Change how it Manages the Wastewater Collection System

justin — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:05:57 +0000

Historically wastewater collection systems have been managed as a utility through operations,
maintenance, and planning – but these are seldom coordinated and managed together as a
business. The “business” of the collection system management is to provide an efficient and cost
effective system to collect and transport wastewater from its point of origin to its final
destination (treatment or other pump facility). The City of Aurora, Colorado has developed a
unique approach by building a business plan to help manage their collection system. The
business plan provides a pathway to integrate information from many departments into a
common data base used to make decisions for planning, capital improvements, and prioritization.
This business plan outlines communications, key roles and functions, and identifies overlaps
between departments that provide coordination opportunities. By treating collection system
management as a business and not just a utility function, the City is able to better provide for
expansion and the needs of its customers.

Effectively Improving Maintenance for Water Distribution and Treatment Infrastructure at Central Arkansas Water Through Extensive GIS, CMMS and Mobile Use

justin — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:47:48 +0000

Central Arkansas Water (CAW) is a strong proponent of user technology, especially of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS). Woolpert, Inc. has partnered with CAW since their inception to help bring many of their technology initiatives to fruition. At CAW, the GIS is a tool to help staff analyze water distribution and treatment features, communicate complex information through visualization, make more informed decisions and provide customers better support. Through the use of GIS in everyday operations, the recent implementation of a new GIS-centric CMMS, integration of the GIS and CMMS with the other key business systems and mobile deployment of both the GIS and CMMS to the field, CAW has been able to significantly and effectively improve their maintenance operations for both water distribution and treatment infrastructure. This approach is directly applicable to wastewater and other types of infrastructure. Source: WEFTEC 2009 Proceedings

Using A Management Systems Approach to Achieve Sustainability For Wastewater Utilities

justin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 14:55:57 +0000

Increasing population, increasing environmental pressures, aging infrastructure, aging workforce and increasing resistance to taxes require wastewater utilities to be increasingly more efficient and versatile to:
− meet their environmental obligations
− sustain their infrastructure, and
− still meet their obligations to their ratepayers
The Camden County Municipal Utilities Authority (CCMUA), operators of a 80 million gallon per day wastewater treatment plant in Camden, NJ, found that implementation of an Environmental Management System (EMS) was absolutely essential to meeting both its environmental and financial goals, and obligations. Specifically, the CCMUA’s Environmental Management System has enabled it to:
• sustain, and optimize, its water quality performance
• sustain, and optimize, its air quality performance
• sustain, and optimize, its infrastructure
• establish, and sustain, rate stability
• sustain, and protect, wetlands within Camden County
• sustain, and capture, institutional knowledge
• sustain, and improve, relationships with regulatory agencies, neighbors and other interested stakeholders
This paper will demonstrate why the CCMUA implemented its Environmental Management System (EMS), provide a description of how the EMS was developed and then explain in detail how the CCMUA’s aforementioned environmental and economic sustainability goals were achieved through the EMS.

Strategic Planning: Key to Effectively Managing Your Utility

justin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:23:13 +0000

Strategic planning is a key to being an effective utility, as described in the Effective Utility Attributes (U.S. EPA, 2007). When the City of Kissimmee divested its water department to form the Toho Water Authority, it was recognized that a strategic plan was needed to guide and align the organization to address its challenges and realize its opportunities. Five carefully and collaboratively selected key strategies were developed in the areas of customer service, water supply, workforce, infrastructure, and financial health. These strategies are also helping Toho to address the Attributes of an Effective Utility developed by the water sector in 2007 and 2008. Employing the Scan, Plan, Do approach has resulted in a viable Strategic Plan for Toho that is designed to accommodate continuous improvement. Toho used a proven process to develop a strong Strategic Plan that will serve to realize its vision for the future, consistent with the Ten Attributes of Effective Utilities. This Strategic Plan is proving to be a key to their success, now and in the future. Source: WEFTEC 2009 Proceedings

Building O&M Performance Measures that Work!

justin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:21:31 +0000

With today’s current focus on strategies to improve asset management and equipment reliability, it is critical performance measures using Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS) data be used to analyze and prevent failures. By applying the basics of performance management, developing useful performance measures, and using a Balanced Scorecard, utilities can be more effective in managing their O&M processes. Following the steps set forth below and explained in detail within this paper can help organizations mitigate the complaints and concerns most often associated with their CMMS:
1. Performance Measures must align with an organization’s business strategy and vision.
2. A Balanced Scorecard approach provides guidance and enables Financial, Internal Processes,
Customer, and Employee Development measures to be balanced within an organizational
unit.
3. Employee buy-in and empowerment drive a successful performance measures program.
4. Basic data, process, and quality control must be in place to enable valid analysis and reports.
5. Performance measures based on failure analysis and prevention focus resources and help to
reduce costs by reducing reactive maintenance.
6. Building a utility-wide Performance Measurement Program drives implementation. Source: WEFTEC 2009 Proceedings

Strategic Planning at Topeka – Improving Data Dissemination and Operational Efficiencies through GIS Development, CMMS Consolidation and Integration

justin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:20:25 +0000

In 2004, the city initiated the development of a strategic Information Management Master Plan (IMMP) to guide their vision of implementing a more holistic and integrated enterprise-wide management and decision support system. Together, city staff defined the operational objectives and key performance indicators (KPI) for each division and mapped the work processes to achieve these objectives and KPIs. A gap analysis was then performed and recommendation developed for minimizing organizational constraints and improving the processes, data and information systems involved. This resulted in a five-year strategic IMMP for the department to adopt and implement. The strategic IMMP provides Topeka’s Public Works Department with a detailed, prioritized set of projects that the department move forward with. Through the recommendations implemented to date, Topeka can now access, analyze and report on information critical to managing the city more easily, which has resulted in increased efficiencies in data collection and retrieval, improved operations management and field execution, cost savings in annual software maintenance and updates fees, improved customer service and increased revenue from more accurate maintenance cost tracking. Source: WEFTEC 2009 Proceedings

Redefining ‘Best in Class’: Atlanta’s Pursuit of Excellence

justin — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:15:00 +0000

‘Best in Class’ is thrown about the industry as the ultimate goal for every operations and utility organization. It is an overused expression that carries an idea of excellence. Yet, that excellence is never quite defined. This paper will present an approach utilized by the author for achieving ‘Best in Class’ for the City of Atlanta’s Bureau of Wastewater Treatment and Collections which can be applied to any public sector utility. The paper provides a definition of ‘Best in Class’, and describes the supporting organizational composition and discusses the important role of leadership in achieving successful results. A review of the Bureau’s Strategic Plan and the $25 Million savings achieved from the two-year old strategy will be presented. Source: WEFTEC 2009 Proceedings