Wastewater Treatment

Before my military service, I spent many years working in the wastewater treatment field. While no longer a certified operator, the 7 years of experience in this field helped me build my skill base in plethora of areas.

The primary facility I worked at was a Class C 'Extended Aeration Oxidation Ditch, processing 2 to 4 million gallons per day. As the plant was for a small town, I was not dedicated to a single responsibility. I had to perform many functions such as:

General Operation,
Basic Maintenance,
Repairs,
Laboratory Analysis,
Land Application of Biosolids,
Record keeping.

General Operation

Basic operation was the simplest function I performed. However, it was also an art. While physically making physical adjustments to the plant was easy, the decision making process required experience and finesse.

Basic Maintenance

As all things do, the plant required continuous general maintenance. Even though I was a certified operator, the responsibility of general maintenance tasks routinely fell upon me. This included lawn care, cleaning and lubricating process equipment.

Repairs

Equipment breakdowns are always a constant concern at any facility. Our plant was no different. As noted before, our plant served a small community. I such we did not have a dedicated maintenance team to conduct repairs. Therefore we had to repair most of our equipment. This included replacing gearboxes and large electrical motors. This was the most adventurous part of the job, as this often occurred during adverse conditions, and let's face it, in difficult and unfriendly environments.

Laboratory Analysis

As noted before, operation of the plant was an art, especially when it came to decision making. But what bases do you make your decisions on? Event though a lot was from experience and gut instinct, but objective data was required. That is where laboratory analysis came in. While our whole team performed such analysis, this role fell upon me often, especially when it when beyond the normal daily testing.

Some of the analysis I performed included:

Biological Oxygen Demand, 5 Day (BOD5)
Total Suspended Solids (TSS)
Total Solids (TS)
Percent Volatile Solids (%VS)
Specific Oxygen Uptake Rate (SOUR)
Dissolved Oxygen (DO)
Ph
Settable Solids (SS)

Land Application of Biosolids

As our plant was Extended Aeration Oxidation Ditch, we produced Biosolids (a.k.a. Sludge) as a byproduct. I was the lead with anything to do with with the process of land application of biosolids. Be it driving the truck, laboratory analysis, or record keeping.