USING A 33,000-CFM LAVA ROCK BIOFILTER FOR ODOR CONTROL: FROM DESIGN TO FULL-SCALE OPERATION

Manteca Wastewater Quality Control Facility
City of Manteca, California

The Manteca Wastewater Quality Control Facility (WQCF) is a 6.5-million gallons per day (mgd) rated
activated sludge plant. The WQCF treats typical municipal wastewater generated in the City of Manteca,
California and the neighboring City of Lathrop. The plant also receives seasonal discharges from a local
food processor. Over the last few years, the Manteca WQCF underwent a $60-million expansion to increase
its capacity from 6.5 to 9.87 mgd. Part of this expansion included the construction of a new influent pump
station with two mechanical screens, and a new dewatering building with two centrifugal dewatering
systems. Because housing developments within the City of Manteca are encroaching upon the plant, and a
new regional softball complex was constructed nearby, an odor control system needed to be designed and
built during the plant expansion to ensure that potential odor complaints from neighbors would be
minimized. Foul air from the influent pump station and the dewatering building is conveyed through large
ducts into a new open bed lava rock-based biofilter near the influent pump station. The biofilter is
composed of five beds, including one used as standby. The four duty beds were designed to treat 33,000
cubic feet per minute of foul air. Approximately 2,100 cubic yards of lava rock were needed for the
biofilter. To the authors’ knowledge, this open bed lava rock biofilter is the first and largest full scale
biofilter of this type in the nation.

Metric Used:
Posted: May 3rd, 2011 | Filed under: 50k-100k, Waste Water Treatment | Tags: Biofiltration, Reduced Odor Complaints, Reduced Odors, Signifcantly Reduced Maintenance Requirements | No Comments »

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