Municipal Wastewater and Sludge Are a Resource, Not a Waste:

As in many parts of the world, water districts in Southern California are adapting to meet new challenges in supplying potable water and providing wastewater treatment.

 

Southern California’s water supply has become less reliable and, in the case of the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility, ecosystem concerns are resulting in increasingly stringent limits on the volume of wastewater treatment effluent that can be discharged to surface waters. One solution to both of these challenges is potable reuse of wastewater treatment plant effluent. Dr. Adam Zacheis will describe the Pure Water Demonstration Project, which will test the proposed treatment train for a future full-scale facility that would produce up to 5,151 acre-feet per year for surface water augmentation to the Las Virgenes Reservoir. The existing Tapia Water Reclamation Facility will provide the influent for the Demonstration Project. The Demonstration Project is a fully automated and operational purification system with full-scale components (open platform design with ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, and an ultraviolet advanced oxidation process), but done at a relatively small scale to minimize costs. In contrast to other pure water projects, this Demonstration Project must address the challenges of seasonal variability in effluent volumes, feed water quality issues, high reliability, and potential stabilization and quenching of chlorine/chloramine. 

 

Another challenge related to wastewater treatment in Southern California is limited landfill space. Brett Dingman will explain that instead of being disposed of in a landfill, municipal wastewater treatment sludge from the Tapia Water Reclamation Facility is composted in the Rancho Las Virgenes Compost Facility. This in-vessel composting process was the first municipal sludge composting facility in the western United States. The facility is unique because it was constructed with screw conveyors to move materials, centrifuges for dewatering, a plow mixer and agitators to mix feedstock, and in-process temperature monitoring to produce a consistent quality compost product. During the composting process, microbes feed on organic materials in the mix, raising the temperature to about 130 degrees F. The heat stabilizes the material and inactivates any potentially harmful bacteria that remain, while maintaining the proper temperature for beneficial “composting” microbes to do their work. The entire composting process takes approximately 45 days. All of the biosolids produced during wastewater treatment are composted into a Class A, Exceptional Quality product that is beneficially re-used without restrictions.

 

About our speakers:

 

Dr. Adam Zacheis holds a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana and a Masters and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from Northwestern University. Adam has more than 20 years of engineering experience in water and wastewater treatment including projects using MF/RO membranes, ozonation, bioreactors, advanced oxidation, and chlorination treatment. A Vice President with Carollo Engineers, Inc. and located in their Los Angeles office, Adam is a senior project manager who actively works in the field of water treatment and potable reuse and possesses process engineering and design experience from several project pilot- and demonstration-scale studies, full-scale field studies, investigations, and design projects. 

 

Brett Dingman is the Water Reclamation Manager for the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District where he is responsible for the treatment of wastewater and disposal of biosolids through composting. Brett has worked in the engineering fields of water and wastewater for over 18 years. His degrees include a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Westmont College and a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Loyola Marymount University. He is a registered Professional Civil Engineer in the State of California. 

 

Thursday February 28

6:00 to 7:00 pm| Pacific Time (US & Canada)

9:00 to 10:00 pm | Eastern Time (US & Canada)

2:00 to 3:00 am |GMT

 

When it's time, join the meeting:

 

Meeting number/access code: 797 373 009

 

To use phone for audio:

1-866-469-3239 Call-in toll-free number (US/Canada)

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AIChE's Virtual Local Section February webinar

Thursday, February 28, 2019

6:00 pm  |  Pacific Standard Time (San Francisco, GMT-08:00)  |  1 hr

Meeting number (access code): 797 373 009