RPI EcoEd Environmental Engineering Research Group
Tamarac’s Wastewater
Treatment Plant
A History and Photo Essay
Kora Fortun, Alyssa Franz, Sarah Gibbs, and Maxwell Schneider
2014
Tamarac’s Wastewater Treatment Plant:
A History and Photo Essay
Project Supervisors
Kelley Fischbach, Dr. Kim Fortun, Mr. Neil
Haley, Mrs. Amy Steele
RPI EcoEd Environmental Engineering
Research Group
Research Team
Kora Fortun, Alyssa Franz, Sarah Gibbs,
Maxwell Schneider
April 26, 2014
Executive Summary
(Someone please add a few paragraphs of an overview of this paper and our discoveries)
Table of Contents
I.
II.
III.
IV.
Introduction …..
History of the Plant ….
Inputs to the System ….
Wastewater Career Profile:
Maintenance Worker
What they do: A maintenance worker’s
job is to tend to the variety of parts in
the wastewater treatment process, and
to fix broken parts in the system.
Requirements/ degree details: A
maintenance worker often needs a high
school diploma and sometimes
additional training.
I.
Introduction
(Overview of history, steps in plant, why important to study this, etc.)
II.
History of the Plant
Wastewater Career Profile: Water
Conservation Specialist
What they do: A water conservation
specialist helps to negotiate terms for land
usage. For instance, they would have been
involved when Tamarac made a two-acre
swap to perform wastewater treatment
duties. They also establish plans for
managing and protecting resources. In a
wastewater treatment plant, they would help
keep the stream water clean and unaffected
by the plant.
In 1996, the Brittonkill Central School
District (BCSD) wished to redo their baseball
and soccer fields. This remodeling would
affect a wetland boundary. At that time, the
Department of Environmental Conservation
(DEC) said that the effluent from the Tamarac
leach fields was entering the creek in a way
that violated environmental regulations. To
make up for this non-compliance, a two-acre
trade was made between Tamarac and the
DEC, and a wastewater treatment facility was
planned for the Tamarac school grounds.
By 2001, the wastewater treatment facility
opened for operation. The DEC created a list
Requirements/ degree details: A water
of materials not allowed to enter the system.
conservation specialist requires a B.A. in
This list included everything from chemicals
environmental conservation.
used by the science teachers at Tamarac, to
floor stripping materials and other essential cleaning chemicals used by the school. Feeling
that it was impossible to follow all of these
Wastewater Career Profile: Hydrologist
guidelines, the school went to court. The jury
ruled that the list was unrealistic, and the list
What they do: Hydrologists study the flow of
appropriately modified.
The next set of problems came throughout
2002-2004. As the school decided to update
its art rooms, they also decided to add a dark
room for photography development. Soon
afterward, the plant again faced issues in
functioning properly. The chemicals used in
the dark room were listed as a possible
reason as to why the wastewater treatment
facility was not functioning properly, so the
water through Earth’s crust and how it
impacts water tables and groundwater. Their
research helps planners decide where to
pump water to and from. They also make
sure that groundwater is not affected by
certain activities.
Requirements/ degree details: A
hydrologist generally needs a master’s
degree in natural sciences. Some states
require a license to perform certain tasks.
dark room was abandoned in order to ensure
the wastewater plant would function.
Wastewater Career Profile: Attorney
What they do: An attorney gives advice from
a legal standpoint. They would help defend
their client, or help the client press charges.
In a wastewater treatment plant, it is easy to
blame the school when things go wrong. For
example, when a company sued the school
for putting toxic chemicals down the
drainage pipes, an attorney helped to defend
their case.
Simultaneously, the DEC blamed the
school for non-compliance with government
regulations for water quality. Tamarac sued
Aquapoint, the system manufacturer, for
breaching their contract with the school.
Aquapoint claimed that the school was
sending too much water to the facility,
exceeding the permitted limit. Aquapoint
searched the school for harmful chemicals
Requirements/ degree details: An attorney
that could have been killing the microbes,
must have a law degree (Ph. D.) and typically
particularly cleaning substances, but could
must pass their state’s written bar exam.
not deduce a source that could cause the
system to malfunction. Ultimately, further changes were made in order to comply with
DEC regulations. For instance, the school had previously operated on two Bioclere tanks,
which were now replaced with a single larger tank to optimize the system’s efficiency. In
addition to trying to please their client (Tamarac), Aquapoint was also highly motivated to
prove that their system would work, as they were seeking certification in New York State.
Wastewater Career Profile:
Building & Grounds Manager
What they do: The building and
grounds manager works closely with
the wastewater treatment system. He
or she is in charge of making sure the
work site is safe, ordering new parts
and keeping track of spec books. This
person’s job is always changes based
on problems that arise with the plant.
These changes kept the system running for the
next several years. However, in 2011, the Bioclere
tanks were removed. These tanks only remove 70%
of the ammonia; the requirement is that 85% be
removed. To fix this issue, the Bioclere tanks were
removed from the process (but remain in the facility
for backup purposes) and a slurry system was
installed.
Currently the system runs with little noncompliance. However, even now there are
unexpected complications with the system that the
team must work to solve. In the past year, the plant
Requirements/ degree details: A
operators noticed a decrease in the time that their
building and grounds manager
sand filter was lasting – 2 replacements in one year,
typically needs a high school degree
which was double the expected rate. After looking
and on-the-job training.
into this problem more, the team realized that there
had been an issue of crayfish being sucked into the system from the creek. Now, a crayfish
filter has been ordered from Granger, which will be installed at the bottom of the tank. This
is expected to keep the crayfish out of the system and restore efficiency to the sand filter.
III.
Inputs to the System
(From our first handout, and also from “facts” from Neil – like the 7 gallons/person/day)
Wastewater Career Profile: Mechanical
Engineer
What they do: A mechanical engineer is in
charge of maintenance, design, layout, and
performance of machines and equipment.
Requirements/ degree details:
Mechanical engineers must have a high
school diploma or equivalent. Then, they
must get a degree from a college technical
program. In a wastewater treatment plant,
they may need a wastewater treatment
plant operations certificate, and sometimes
a commercial driver’s license.
IV.
Process of Tamarac’s WWTP
FIRST, a few sentences to introduce the process…
Primary Equalization Tank
The equalization tank collects & stores waste water, so it can be pumped at a
constant rate into the system. Two functions are to consolidate waste and equalize waste.
The equalization tank is useful, and can be seen in conjunction with the rest of the
wastewater treatment system in the image above (red circle).
The next three steps in the wastewater treatment system (the aeration tank, the RAS
pump station, and the clarifier) work very closely together, and can be seen in the
schematic below:
Aeration Tank
An aeration tank is where the liquid is held to increase air used in waste water
treatment. Higher levels of oxygen speed up the rate at which the water is cleaned. There
are two methods, forcing air through liquid or forcing liquid through air. There are two
different types of tanks because there are two different methods. When the air is forced
through the water the tank is shallow and wide and when the water is forced through the
air the tank is very tall. In the water through aeration tank there is a more complex sprayer
that breaks the liquid into streams and mist.
RAS Pump Station
Return Activated Sludge (RAS) lifts off the floor with collection pipes. By opening a
discharge orifice below the water surface level, the sludge is transported through each
pipe. Openings are changed to make the RAS box always “flooded” (Marine Park Water
Reclamation Facility).
RAS is continuously pumped into the secondary biological treatment tank as part of
the treatment process (Xylem, 2014).
Clarifier
This is one of
the most popular and
proven processes used
to treat contaminants.
Some systems settle
solids using gravity,
others use flotation
methods to float solids
and skim them away
(Evoqua Water
Technologies, LLC,
2014).
In a “Circular Peripheral Flow
Wastewater Clarifier,” water enters at
the periphery. With a baffle skirt, water
flow is evenly distributed for maximum
settling of solids. Water exits through a
center weir trough. A spinning scraper
sweeps the bottom of the tank to
densen the settled solids (Pollution
Control Systems, Inc., 2014). This
scraper can be seen in the image to the
left, as well as the drawing above.
Multi-Compartment Tank
After the wastewater is treated in the clarifier,
it heads to the multi-compartment tank, typically an
underground storage
tank that can contain
several different
substances. This tank
can be seen in the
photos to the right.
After the aforementioned treatment methods, the following purification methods
are employed. These two steps (sand filtration and ultraviolet disinfection) occur inside of
the garage behind the elementary school.
Sand Filters
The sand filter is one of the final steps in the wastewater treatment process. Sand
traps residual material, and provides a physical matrix for the bacterial decomposition of
nitrogenous material. This step helps get rid of ammonia. One disadvantage to a sand filter
is that they can become clogged, and will need to be backwashed.
UV Disinfection
The ultraviolet (UV) filter is used during the
disinfection process. The UV filter is used instead of
chlorine, since chlorine is off limits for anything being
going into a creek. Since there are no chemicals used
in treatment, there is not effect on any organisms who
consume the water. The UV filter basically kills
anything in the water that is still alive.
Focused at short distance, the UV rays destroy
the nucleic acids in the microorganisms, rendering
their reproductive processes useless. One
disadvantage to UV filtration is the need for bulb
replacement. UV filtration is becoming a common
form of filtration worldwide and is an important part
of the Tamarac Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Post-Aeration Tank
Finally, the post-aeration tank is used to increase the oxygen level in the water. This
practice is commonly used to promote the growth of microbes that will make wastewater
treatment more effective.
V.
Outputs of the System
(What comes out? How is it dealt with? Implications? Could anything be done better?)
VI.
Conclusions
(What you’ve learned, summary, etc.)
VII.
References
Evoqua Water Technologies, LLC. (2014). Circular Clarifiers for Wastewater Treatment.
Retrieved from Evoqua Water Technologies:
http://www.water.siemens.com/en/products/separation_clarification/circular_clar
ifiers/Pages/default.aspx
Marine Park Water Reclamation Facility. (n.d.). Section 55 - RAS/WAS Pump Station.
Retrieved from MARINE PARK WATER RECLAMATION FACILITY - Operations and
Maintenance Manual:
http://pacifier.com/~munch/websample/55RASWASPumpStation.htm
Pollution Control Systems, Inc. (2014). Circular Mechanical Clarifiers for Wastewater
Treatment. Retrieved from Pollution Control Systems:
http://www.pollutioncontrolsystem.com/Page.aspx/76/Circular-MechanicalClarifiers.html
Xylem. (2014). Secondary Sludge Pump (RAS/WAS). Retrieved from FLYGT:
http://www.flygt.com/en-us/Pumping/Applications/Sludge/Pages/RAS-WAS.aspx
About the Research Team
Kora Fortun
Alyssa Franz
Sarah Gibbs
Maxwell Schneider
(Include grade, school, and your interests; why you found this work interesting, one thing you
would like to learn if this research were to continue…)
Kelley Fischbach is a senior Environmental Engineering student at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute. She has extensive classroom experience with this topic, as well as a prior
internship at a wastewater treatment plant in Massachusetts. Kelley has been involved
with various EcoEd programs at RPI for the past two years and was eager to lead a group in
investigating the wastewater treatment plant at Tamarac. This research helped her to
further understand all of the complexities in the system, the importance of wastewater
treatment, and – perhaps most surprisingly – the difficulties in creating a cohesive and
accurate timeline for such a large system.