Waste not, want not: wastewater treatment plant gets new centrifuge

Palestine residents often cost themselves money by flushing unnecessary items down the drain. According to wastewater treatment staff rags, adult and baby body wipes, grease and chemicals are dumped into our sewer system, clogging up pipes, lift station and treatment plant motors and costing the taxpayers money.

The city of Palestine spending a quarter of a million dollars at the wastewater treatment plant got some attention from tax payers.

The council approved a Bid RFP 2021-002 to Alfa Laval, Inc. in the amount of $248,315 for a new decanter centrifuge for the plant on July 12.

For those that don't know, a decanter centrifuge separates water from solids.

According to Ben Day, plant supervisor, the centrifuge they are currently using was built in 1996 and has been rebuilt around 9 times.

"It's still a pretty strong machine," Day said. "I’m not going to kill it. We have room to place a new centrifuge and sludge pump next to it and so we are going to mirror this new system after the old system and run the new system. If we ever have a hiccup, then the old one is still available for use, because when we have a centrifuge problem, it turns into a month and a half issue. I can't wait a month and a half. We end up storing way more solids than we can and we pay for it for months. We are trying to get to a place where we can rely on a way more efficient machine to do our dirty work."

To save money, the wastewater treatment plant staff have been taking on this project themselves.

"I don't like paying engineers for something we can do ourselves," Day said. "It's a little unconventional, but I have half a million dollars for this project, and the centrifuge itself is half of that."

Day expects for the centrifuge to be in within the next 22 to 26 weeks.

"It's hard to get anything right now," Day said. "At least we’ve got the wheels moving on it. That's the main part of the cost of the centrifuge project, and that includes the controls and the motors. These are really incredible smart machines."

The treatment of wastewater is paramount for any city's health and environment.

Wastewater, or sewage, in a nutshell is used water. It can be divided into two major groups—sewage water used in domestic dwellings, like toilets, showers, sinks and industrial wastewater.

In the United States, sewage treatment plants process around 34 billion gallons of wastewater a day. Palestine's treatment facility's average this year is 2.38 million gallons per day.

There are three main stages to wastewater treatment: primary, secondary and tertiary treatment.

During primary treatment, sewage enters the plant from pipes and flows through a screen, removing large floating objects like rags, toys, sticks and other items that could ruin or damage equipment.

Day said Palestine has an ongoing issue with individuals dumping rags, adult and baby body wipes, grease and chemicals into our sewer system, clogging up pipes, lift station and treatment plant motors and costing the taxpayers money.

The wastewater then goes through an aeration process that helps dissolve the gases and helps to suspend organic matter while forcing grit to settle. Sludge settles to the bottom, lighter materials float to the surface. Greases, oils, plastics and soap are are skimmed off the surface with rakes and then pumped into digesters along with the sludge.

Secondary treatment is a bacterial process where beneficial microorganisms break down more of the solid impurities in the wastewater.

Tertiary treatment uses the combination of physical and chemical process to remove harmful microbiological contaminants from wastewater. This process involves filtration followed by disinfecting treatment.

Clean water is then returned to the environment through a local creek.

Wastewater treatment helps to preserve the environment, protect health and alleviate water scarcity. In the United States, most wastewater undergoes treatment. Worldwide, wastewater treatment is uncommon. The United Nations reports about 80% of the world's wastewater is untreated when it returns to the environment.

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