Wastewater Treatment
treat; discharge; repeat.
After collection, treatment is where the magic happens. Wastewaters from our kitchens and bathrooms are transformed back into clean water, and discharged back into our streams, lakes, and rivers.
While there are many different types of treatment plants and processes, the goals are universal; treat and discharge water while maintaining adequate capacity for growth, permit compliance and reasonable and sustainable rates for customers.
Sounds easy enough, right? Well, any wastewater operator will tell you, there are no shortages of challenges facing them. From increasing costs, regulations, and flows to decreasing budgets, talent pools, and equipment life – every hour and dollar spent needs to be spent wisely. We’re engineers, scientists, operators, and consultants here with one mission; to help you make more informed decisions to maximize returns and efficiency, when it comes to the time, money, and effort you spend and invest in your wastewater treatment plant.
wastewater treatment engineering, design, & consulting services include:
we get you & we’re fluent [in]fluent
Does any of this sound familiar? Your wastewater treatment plant is aging, showing signs of wear and tear, or worse yet, past its life expectancy; costs are rising, budgets are not, operators are so busy running around fixing problems, there’s no time or money to address the causes, and in another permit renewal or two, your discharge limits will be so strict, you’ll have no chance at compliance; and if there’s a rate hike, you fear an unruly mob will storm the gates.
Relax; we understand. With centuries of combined wastewater engineering experience and know-how, including licensed operators on staff, we know the challenges you’re facing. “Tear it down and build a new plant,” will certainly fix it, but that’s not always feasible for the budget or rate structure. We pride ourselves on working with owners and operators, listening and learning about your plant and operations, and digging deeper to get down to the real causes, and try to rehabilitate, refurbish, or repurpose your existing equipment to overcome challenges.
nutrient management | biological nutrient removal
Excessive nutrients (primarily Nitrogen and Phosphorous) in a treatment plant’s effluent can be detrimental to the environment. They harm wildlife by removing dissolved oxygen, causing algae blooms in the water bodies, and need to be removed from effluent discharges.
There are many process options to remove biological nutrients, depending on your treatment system and furthermore, many operational modifications to a process as your influent composition and operating environment changes.
We’re fluent in the chemistry, science, and art required to remove biological nutrients, and can help you get started by understanding your options, and which would best benefit your system and operation or help you improve your biological nutrient removal process with advanced analysis and operational consulting.
sludge & biosolids
Sludge disposal and biosolids can account for up to 35% of your O&M budget. That’s a significant impact on your bottom line. Process changes can boost the effectiveness of dryers and presses, or better yet, improve digestion, so less solids make it to dewatering; leaving you with less hauls to the landfill and more money in your pockets!