Wastewater treatment plant is still fighting the flood

Facility needs new bar screen to handle debris

BY CINDY TOOPES COURIER STAFF WRITER

OTTUMWA — The flood isn’t over for wastewater, Bob Bruett said Thursday morning.

Bruett is superintendent of the Water Pollution Control Facility, 2222 S. Emma St. The facility’s bar screen is falling apart and that means big problems.

The plant has only one bar screen and should have two. This “influent bar screen” removes trash and debris from the wastewater coming into the plant.

“Without a bar screen, they would have to shut down the plant,” Bruett said. “The screen has been running nonstop for four months.”

In a March 13 interview, Bruett said the first screen “has never worked right” and the plant is supposed to have a second screen but doesn’t. That’s only one of the items that has to change to make the facility compliant with Iowa Department of Natural Resources regulations for clean water.

Meanwhile, the plant’s only screen has been heavily damaged by large amounts of rock and grit delivered to the treatment plant by storm water. Heavy rains started in May and continue to occur.

Bruett said the plant daily handles an average of 6 million gallons of water. For “four months straight” the plant has dealt with 9 million gallons and 10 million is the limit.

“The screen’s teeth and rollers have been coming out during the past couple of months,” Bruett said. “We spent eight hours yesterday going through every roller and putting on a new chain. Now the chain assembly is breaking.”

The rush of storm water can bring about anything to the facility, also called the sewage treatment plant.

“Another storm has been forecast for the next 24 hours. In perfect conditions, the fine screen can pick out cigarette butts,” Bruett said.

Conditions aren’t perfect and the crews are manually raking debris out of the water entering the plant.

Sand and gravel continue through the system to a huge round tank, which is so large the building was constructed around it. The tank’s workings spin the material and the sand and gravel settle to the bottom.

“When the screen’s teeth and rollers go through, too, they plug up the tank’s lines,” Bruett said. “It took four men four hours to clean the tank yesterday. It’s an involved process and the fire department has to be here, too.”

Bruett said the plant should have a second screen and both screens could run during a storm.

Help is on the way. The City Council on Monday approved $30,129 in emergency repairs to the Parkson Aqua Guard fine screen made by Parkson Corporation, Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Public Works Director Larry Seals said the bar screen isn’t a budgeted item and funds “will need to come out of the fund balance.”

The council also approved $9,551 for the emergency purchase and replacement of a portable storm water pump for the sewage treatment plant. The pump is a 10-inch Gorman-Rupp available from D.J. Gongol & Associates, Inc., of West Des Moines.

Seals said the new pump would replace an eight-inch storm water pump that lost a dual seal. The pump was heavily used to pump storm water inside of the levee system at the Market Street parking lot.

“Due to the large amount of rock and sand in the sewer, two seals on the pump were destroyed,” Seals said.

The pump was actually an eight-inch that was installed with 10-inch suctions and discharge fittings. The cost to repair the seals would be $7,845 and the cost of replacing the entire pump with a true, full-sized 10-inch pump would be $9,551.

“That’s a difference of only $1,706, which is a small amount to get a new 10-inch pump,” Seals said.

The pump wasn’t budgeted and will also need to come out of the fund balance, Seals added. He will submit the repair cost to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to see if the city can recoup the $7,845.

Cindy Toopes can be reached at (641) 683-5376 or via e-mail at cindy@ottumwacourier.com.