Behind the scenes at the Grace Wastewater Treatment Plant
Keeping any city going takes a lot of effort from a lot of people. In Grace, the city crew is a fairly small one, which means that each of them have to wear a number of hats. While Riley Crookston is officially the city’s Superintendent, and Jake Wright is officially the Wastewater Treatment Plant operator, they, along with Shane Hamilton and Matt Loertsher are responsible for a wide range of city needs, including monitoring all areas of the water and sewer system, trash collection, street repairs, city maintenance, lawn mowing, and even looking out for city code violations, as well as many others. Due to the limited staff, each of them share the work on the range of projects throughout the year, and have to schedule their time efficiently to meet the constant demands of the city of around a thousand people.
Without the immediate benefit of a lot of people, then, another path forward is with a lot of innovation and creative problem-solving. The wastewater treatment plant is a good example of that kind of thinking. As the plant has grown, the need to monitor and regulate its output has also become more critical.
The wastewater plant processes all of the wastewater for the city. The process of wastewater treatment is circuitous, in the literal sense. Wasterwater enters the facility through the city’s sewer system, and then follows a winding path through a number of connected facilities before it (or the liquid parts of it, anyway) are returned to the river after the contaminants are removed. The multi-million dollar facility was supported in part by government grants, with some of the costs provided by the city, who passed a bond to provide it. Because of the nature of the plant, the cost is paid for by utility fees. The full sequence of events takes several weeks from introduction to completion, and must be monitored every step of
the way.
As part of his morning routine, Jake Wright must test the water and log the results at the end of the circuit in order to determine whether it can be released. Measurements of this water are sent to various regulatory officials, and must be within certain parameters in order to avoid fines or a potential shut-down of the facility in the case of measurements that exceed accepted values.
As he stands among the beakers, machines, containers of water and chemicals, Jake Wright explains, “This is my home. I pretty much live over here.” Around the room are any number of tests and experiments currently underway. “When I was in college, I took a class in microbiology. I flunked the class part, because I didn’t think I wanted to spend all my time with microorgansims. But I did really well in the lab, and that’s a good thing because my job is now 99% biology and microorganisms. And that’s good for here, because if your little organisms aren’t happy, the plant will die.”
“When I hired on for the city, my main job was shoveling snow and do garbage. Then they said, ‘no, you’re going over to the wastewater plant.’ So, I’ve been here about seven years. It’s been a learning curve, for sure. Every day you learn something different,” Wright said.
When the previous plant operator left, Wright began to wonder about not just what to do, but why it needed to be done. “I started to think about what things we could do to make our job easier and function better. So it’s been a lot of on our own studying and classes we do to try to figure it out.”
When the plant was originally built it was designed for a town about twice the population of Grace. “But the problem is that the DEQ requirements are a lot stricter now thatn they were in the 70s and 80s,” Wright explained. “So there are some things we had to figure out how to deal with under those new requirements.”
One of the areas of the process that had been a bit worrisome in this regard was the clarifying tank, where algae growth had been causing higher numbers than were desired. The algae had been rising to the surface, increasing, and then sinking, keeping phosphate levels above a level that was comfortable to its overseers. As they explored the problem, Wright and Crookston came across a possible solution, a sonor device that can work to prevent the growth of algae, and shrink the totals in the clarifier. “We’ve thought about other possibilities,” Crookston said. “There are some plants out there that use koi fish in the clarifier and things like that, but this seemed like a good solution.”
In previous years, the limits for phosphate re-entering the river were such that they were fairly easily achievable, but they have since been decreased, exacerbating the problem and highlighting the need for something that could help control it.
According to the company’s website, “Ultrasonic algae control devices emit low-power ultrasound waves in the top water layer, generating a constant pressure cycle around the algal cells. This interferes with the algae’s buoyancy regulation, preventing them from accessing sunlight and nutrients. As a result, they can’t perform photosynthesis and sink to the bottom, where they decompose naturally without releasing harmful toxins. No aquatic organisms, animals, or humans are harmed in the process.”
The ultrasonic device is just one example of the kind of innovative thinking that has helped keep Grace running and kept costs within reach. Although outlays like the four and a half thousand dollars for the ultrasonic device can seem like “government toilet seat syndrome” (where seemingly everyday objects are billed at exorbitant cost) to some, that is not the case here. In the first place, the device involves unique technology and the city’s cost was at a consumer price point. And more importantly, the use of the device (along with other changes Wright and Crookston have implemented) has reduced the risk of the plant falling out of compliance by a substantial amount. Fines for being in violation of the chemical standards are severe, and can potentially range up to nearly half a million dollars a month, depending on the timeframe involved in reporting and correcting the problem.
There are a lot of other improvements at the facility that Wright and Crookston are contemplating. One of them is a new method for dealing with the collected solid waste, which is left over after the clarification process. At present, it is collected into large bags in a specially-purposed collection building, and then disposed of safely. The two are considering various ways to make that process easier.
The only potential drawback might be that if it reduced the smell, which is apparently only noticeably strong in the warm months, they might not have the satisfaction of watching the local school classes react to it when they tour the facility.
