Gresham (Wis.) Municipal Utilities (GMU) and Wastewater Compliance Systems Inc. (WCS) entered an agreement for the utility to test the company’s Bio-Dome system as part of a pilot project.
GMU has approximately 280 sewer and water customers with daily sewer flows of approximately 60,000 gal per day. The present wastewater treatment lagoon system was put into operation in 1982, and a wastewater facilities plan was submitted to and approved by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in April 2010. The plan calls for an upgrade to the present system at a cost of approximately $350,000, and it addresses more stringent ammonia-nitrogen effluent discharge levels.
WCS is a provider of custom-engineered submerged bioreactors used to enhance the biological activity of existing treatment systems in order to reduce ammonia concentrations. The company addresses the needs of a community in complying with state and federal environmental regulations. According to GMU, its Bio-Dome systems are capable of enhancing the efficiency and capacity of existing systems without dramatically increasing capital or operating costs.
The agreement is to test the effectiveness of Bio-Dome (previously known as Poo-Gloos) bioreactor systems in the Gresham wastewater treatment lagoons. WCS, with the cooperation of Marshall Bond Pumps Inc. (Oswego, Ill.), has supplied GMU with a mobile pilot unit equipped with a Bio-Dome system. GMU wastewater operators will operate the unit for a six-month period. The purpose of the pilot is to document the performance of the system in a cold-weather state. The Bio-Dome system has the potential to reduce ammonia discharge levels from lagoon-operated wastewater ponds. The Wisconsin DNR has specified the testing requirements to document the system’s performance. The Bio-Dome system has previously been tested at two locations in Utah with success at each plant. GMU is the first utility to test the technology in the Midwest. A successful test of the Bio-Dome system has the potential to save over $100,000 from the utility’s current plant upgrade plan. The mobile pilot unit was put into service on Oct. 7, with initial weekly tests beginning Oct. 27. GMU will be working closely with Dr. Kraig Johnson and Taylor Reynolds of WCS, and Jason Metz of Marshall Bonds Pumps. The mobile pilot unit can be seen at: http://www.wastewater-compliance-systems.com/pilot-tests.html.
Source: Village of Gresham, Wis.
