Small Treatment Plant Makes Big Savings With Bacteria
By Peak Johnson
The wastewater treatment plant in Montague, MA, is getting rid of its waste in a way that’s usually reserved for much larger operations.
The plant utilizes bacteria to feed on sewage and residue sludge, an idea that originated from plant operator John Little about six years ago while on a trip to Germany, according to The Recorder.
The system saves the plant about $350,000 on sludge byproduct shipping and incineration fees, per The Recorder. It has been so successful that 26 wastewater plants in the county have been sending their sludge to Montague for processing.
“It’s truly unique,” Grant Weaver, Montague plant’s interim superintendent told The Recorder. “Nobody in a small town probably anywhere in the world would think their town would be on the cutting edge. But in this weird niche, Montague is.”
According to Weaver, the Greenfield Road plant runs at only about “half its capacity of 1.8 million gallons of liquid waste a year,” which leads it to run at maybe “five times the concentration of bacteria as a typical plant.”
By dumping sludge into its system, the wastewater plant will continue to move its waste through different tanks including “a highly oxygenated zone ... and zones with zero oxygen, anaerobic zones,” Weaver told The Recorder.
“By doing that, we’ve created an environment that’s proven it can break down the sludge, to everybody’s benefit,” Weaver said. “It’s evolved over five years, and in the last three years, it’s gotten to a really good point.”
However, after an overflow at the plant earlier this year, followed by repeated orders from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the retirement of the plant’s superintendent in June, things are looking slightly uneasy.
“We’re kind of at a crossroads here,” Montague Town Administrator Frank Abbondanzio told The Recorder.
DEP has called for “technical and scientific research to define exactly what’s going on in this (sludge-eating) process.” Even though Abbondanzio claimed that the overflow violation of its operating permit was “not related to the process.”
In May, Montague canceled the policy of accepting sludge from other plants, to the displeasure of neighboring towns.
Abbondanzio added that they are in “a desperate situation.”
To read similar stories visit Water Online’s Sludge And Biosolids Processing Solutions Center.