The city of Montague, Calif. announced that it has installed a wastewater treatment system designed to eliminate built-up sludge.
The Blue Frog System by Absolute Aeration LLC was installed on May 3 in the first of four wastewater lagoons at the city’s Water & Sewer Department treatment facility. The technology has already begun the process of digesting organic sludge that was built up in Montague’s lagoons.
The traditional method of managing sludge involves dredging lagoons mechanically and disposing of the biosolids on farmland, or sending them to a landfill. However, these practices are running into increased regulatory restrictions due to the concerns about what is contained in the biosolids, including chemicals, toxic metals and other pathogens.
“We were faced with odor problems as well as a significant sludge buildup in our primary ponds,” said Chris Tyhurst, supervisor for the Montague Water & Sewer Department. “We were planning on having them dredged, which is quite expensive. We decided to give the Blue Frogs a try in one of the ponds. We are hopeful that we will see a substantial reduction in our sludge levels and odor problems in Pond 1. If all goes as planned, the Frogs should continue to digest the incoming load and keep the sludge level at a minimum for many years to come.”
The three circulators installed in Pond 1 at the facility employ biodredging, which uses natural biological processes to enhance organic sludge digestion. The circulators stir up the water to create radial outflowing currents within the lagoon, each moving up to seven million gpd of wastewater. The system selects indigenous microbes already present in the lagoon and incubates new bacteria to populate high-quality microbes.
Over the coming weeks and months, those microbes will “eat” the organic waste that has been stored up and digest incoming organic solids before they have a chance to settle. No chemicals or outside microbes are introduced to the lagoon.
“The installation at Montague is best described as a partial Blue Frog System designed to provide active treatment and reduce organic solids, primarily in the first lagoon,” said Grace Corbino, president of Blue Frog Technology. “We expect to see significant visual improvements and odor reduction in the pond within the first couple of weeks.”
Tyhurst said the engineer’s estimate for dredging both ponds was approximately $700,000, which would have required grant/loan funding because the funds were not available in the city’s 2016 budget.
Source: Absolute Aeration
