Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD)
Orange County, California
The purpose of this paper is to help project managers in public agencies understand the reasons
for resistance to change and provide steps to overcome or minimize the resistance. These are
challenging times for all public agencies so there is a need to be wise stewards of public
resources. An increase in efficiency may require reorganizing departments, reallocating
resources and realigning staff roles and responsibilities and managing projects differently. These
all require change and growth from all levels of employees in an organization. Reducing the
resistance to change requires strong leadership qualities combined with proper project
management skills. If these combined skills are incorporated into projects that implement
change, they will be successful and can result in significant cost savings. The Orange County
Sanitation District (OCSD) has undergone many of the aforementioned changes in the past
couple of years and continues its austerity through efficiency while completing all tasks.
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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: >1M, Stormwater, Waste Water Treatment | Tags: Cost Savings, Improved Plant Efficiency, Project Management | No Comments »
Paulding County
Georgia
Before the recession, Metro Atlanta and its surrounding counties were one of the fastest growing
regions in the United States. In order to reduce the impact of treatment plant discharges on its
limited water supply and to offset water demands on potable water systems, they were
increasingly looking at water conservation and water reuse. Paulding County was one of those
fast-growing counties, consistently ranked between the 12th and 15th fastest growing counties in
the United States. Wastewater treatment facilities are among the most critical to support the
County’s rapid population increase. With tighter effluent limits on the way and a halt on surface
water discharge permits, the County had to look at alternative uses for the treated wastewater.
Several technologies were evaluated, and based on this evaluation, MBR technology became the
apparent leader. This paper provides an overview of the selection process, the procurement
process, and the performance of four MBR systems currently operating in Paulding County.
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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: 100K-500K, Waste Water Treatment | Tags: Improved Plant Efficiency, Plant Sustainability, Reduced Carbon Footprint, Water Reuse | No Comments »
Saco Wastewater Treatment Plant
Saco, Maine
The use of novel CSO control, treatment and disinfection systems based on advanced vortex technologies
including Vortex Flow Controls (VFC) and Hydrodynamic Vortex Separator (HDVS) that enable,
Screening, Grit Removal, Sedimentation and Disinfection to be accomplished in one vessel is described.
The application of the technologies at the Saco Wastewater Treatment Plant involves a new generation of
HDVS and vortex flow controls that regulate wet-weather flows to control maximum flows to the existing
wastewater treatment plant to avoid hydraulic overloading and the diversion of excess combined sewage
flows to the new CSO treatment facility.
The wet-weather treatment facility utilizes an advanced HDVS that incorporates a non-powered, selfactivating
and self-cleansing CSO floatables screening system; with the captured pollutants comprising
sewer debris and solids including sediments, settleable organic solids and floatables, being returned to the
headworks at the treatment plant and the clarified, screened and disinfected overflow being discharged to
the receiving environment (Saco River), after de-chlorination.
The ability to perform several essential unit processes (i.e. Screening, Grit Removal, Sedimentation and
Disinfection) all in one vessel resulted in significant savings in the overall project scheme costs on
account of the more compact design of the advanced HDVS system coupled with the elimination of
additional tanks and vessels that would have been required with the conventional approach. Analytical
results from post-construction compliance monitoring have confirmed the efficacy of the advanced vortex
technologies.
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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: <50K, Stormwater, Waste Water Treatment | Tags: Cost Savings, Improved Disinfection, Improved Plant Efficiency, Improved Solids Removal, Optimal CSO Control | No Comments »
Little Rock Wastewater (LRW)
Little Rock, Arkansas
This paper reports on the use of a two cell 30-million-gallon (MG) equalization basin and diesel
engine-driven pump station as a means of mitigating sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs). The
ultimate capacity of the pump station, which utilizes vertical turbine solids handling pumps
(VTSH) arranged in a self-cleaning trench-style wet well, is 68 million gallons per day (MGD).
Configuring the pump station with diesel engine-driven pumps provided a 20-year, $1 million
present worth savings in comparison to a conventional electrical motor driven pump station
arrangement. The use of diesel engine-driven pumps eliminated the peak electrical usage of 450-
horsepower (HP) electrical motors, as well as the need for variable frequency drives and
redundant power generation needs during electrical outage time periods. A supplemental 150-
kilowatt (kW) generator was installed to provide emergency power needs for SCADA, seal water
systems, influent screen, and a 50-HP maintenance pump for wetwell cleaning.
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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: 100K-500K, Sanitary Sewer, Stormwater, Waste Water Treatment | Tags: Cost Savings, Decreased SSO Volume, Energy Savings, Improved Plant Efficiency | No Comments »
Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department
Miami, Florida
Difficult times require an extra effort when it comes to communication. With all of the talk
about layoffs, budget cuts and salary reductions, utilities face an uphill battle against the internal
“rumor mill”, declining morale during the current economic downturn, and external pressures to
do more with less. A well-developed communication strategy is one key to sustaining
performance in the face of these challenges.
The Water Distribution and Transmission Division of the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer
Department is meeting these challenges “head-on” with an aggressive communication program
that has been developed and refined over a number of years. This presentation will highlight that
program from the perspectives of the Division Chief, managers and supervisors, and employees.
Extensive interviews at various levels of the organization identified key communication
strategies and tactics that are helping this agency maintain a high level of performance through
the most significant economic crisis the US has faced since the Great Depression. These
strategies and tactics will be discussed in detail and results will be presented as a “business case”
for optimizing communication during challenging times.
Focus of Study and Results:
This presentation will include discussion in communication topic areas including:
1. General overview of communication strategies and tactics
2. Types, frequencies, and styles for effective communication
3. Directional communication – up, down, and across the organization
4. Formal and informal communication methods and tools
5. Strengths and weaknesses of various communication approaches
6. Value and results from effective communication programs
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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: >1M, Sanitary Sewer, Stormwater, Waste Water Treatment, Water Treatment | Tags: Effective Communication, Improved Customer Relations, Improved Plant Efficiency, Improved Work Morale | No Comments »
Large food manufacturing company has facilities to produce their well known brand
name dairy based products in rural Indiana. As is commonly case with dairy wastewater,
significant amount of proteins, sugars, oil and some suspended solids are present.
Company installed membrane bioreactor (MBR) System to treat such wastewater for
possible reuse.
The MBR performed poorly due to membrane fouling. Manufacturer suggested that in
addition to screen other primary pretreatment is needed to reduce FOG and organic TSS
as low as possible prior to MBR treatment. Classical DAF and advanced hybrid
centrifugal – dissolved air flotation (GEM) were pilot tested. Both systems performed
well, but GEM removed FOG and TSS to lower amount and produced drier sludge. The
full scale GEM System has been installed in June 2010. Dual high molecular weight
flocculants and GEM flotation remove TSS below 50 mg/l, FOG below 2 mg/l and
produce sludge with 20% solids. Data are currently collected to evaluate how such
pretreatment improves operation of the MBR.
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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: Waste Water Treatment | Tags: Improved MBR Operation, Improved Plant Efficiency, Optimized BOD Removal, Optimized FOG Removal, Optimized TSS Removal | No Comments »
Various WWTP's
Various States
A common problem encountered by traditional activated sludge systems involves failure
to develop biomass that separates efficiently from the liquid, leaving behind a clear
effluent that is low in BOD5 and suspended solids. Another problem is the bleed-through
of ammonia due to low detention time in the aeration tank. Oftentimes, failure may be
attributed to high return sludge flow rates (RSF) that affect not only clarifier hydraulics,
but also the growth of bacteria in the system. In order to promote efficient separation and
nitrification, system conditions should be maintained that favor the growth of flocforming
bacteria and nitrifiers over nuisance microorganisms that may include filaments.
Favorable conditions are encouraged by a regime of higher detention time and feast and
famine experienced by the bacteria in the system. By viewing system operation through
this lens, the following paper proposes that many activated sludge treatment systems can
achieve significant operational improvement through reduction in RSF. This paper
further provides a method for minimizing RSF and presents examples of successful
application of this method.
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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: 100K-500K, 500K-1M, 50k-100k, Waste Water Treatment | Tags: Improved Effluent Quality, Improved Plant Efficiency, Maximized Feast/Famine Conditions, Maximized Nitrification, Reduced Return Sludge Flow Rates | No Comments »
Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources
Lawrenceville, Georgia
With the world economy struggling under a severe recession water utilities are
experiencing difficulties in continuing their business operations. They also face political
challenge since they are directly responsible to the communities they serve and at the
same time their customers are also their constituency. During such politically and
financially constrained times, utility operators have been forced to look into new ways to
cut costs and improve efficiency. Our experience shows that water utilities can become
more efficient via implementation of various strategies such as business process redesign
and implementation of lean six sigma techniques. Utilizing the above mentioned
strategies enabled Gwinnett County, GA’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) to
improve its process flow and eliminate waste, decrease personnel required for process
execution, reduce on-hand inventory and ordering costs, and to completely eliminate
Total Potential Stock-out Situations.
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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: 500K-1M, Stormwater, Waste Water Treatment, Water Treatment | Tags: Business Process Redesign, Cost Savings, Improved Plant Efficiency, Improved Process Flow | No Comments »
Sacramento Area Sewer District
Sacramento, California
The Sacramento Area Sewer District (District) is in the final stages of implementing a new
Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system for their 103 pump stations. While
implementing this new SCADA system, the District faced many challenges and obstacles, such
as developing the SCADA system requirements, designing the networking system, testing station
communication, and cutover to the new SCADA system. Implementing a new SCADA system
has provided the District with valuable experience that can be shared with other sewer agencies
that may also be in the process of replacing their SCADA system.
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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: >1M, Sanitary Sewer, Stormwater | Tags: Improved Plant Efficiency, Improved Plant Performance, Improved Plant Reliability, Reduced Communication Failure | No Comments »
Guelph Wastewater Treatment Plant
Guelph, Ontario (Canada)
Cost effective utility management strategies are fundamental to assimilate the multiplicity of
emerging challenges that municipalities must face, especially during downturns in the economy.
The paper demonstrates how organizational excellence, founded on authentic relationships and
applying effective management solutions, can result in significant performance improvement and
capacity benefits. The paper describes the significant human infrastructure changes necessary to
achieve and sustain the significant environmental and financial benefits.
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Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Filed under: 100K-500K, Waste Water Treatment | Tags: Capital Cost Savings, Environmental Impact, Improved Management, Improved Plant Efficiency, Optimized Decision Making, Performance Improvement, Promote Employee Motivation | No Comments »