Taylor Wastewater Treatment Plant Should Be Completed By May 2009

E-MAIL THIS

PRINT THIS

MOST POPULAR

PDF VERSION

XML VERSION

By Naomi Hatch
    For many years, the Town of Taylor has used lagoons to treat its wastewater. Currently, the three ponds are certified for 130,000 gallons per day (gpd), but are taking 225,000 gpd of sewage. The town has been working with Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) officials, who are aware of the sewer problems in Taylor. Because the town is in the process of building a new sewer plant, it is considered legal.
    Public Works Director Ron Solomon explained, “We are building a mechanical plant. Heretofore we have been using a lagoon system, which is very low maintenance, but it takes a lot of area to do a lagoon system. The mechanical plant is extremely smaller, and will treat as much or more wastewater, so we have gone to the mechanical plant. It will increase our ability to treat more water. The drawback of that is it’s slightly more expensive to operate.” The recent sewer rate increase was imposed to recoup the construction and maintenance costs.
    Town Engineer Stu Spaulding explained that the ponds are oversized and capable of taking the 225,000 gpd.
    Spaulding said without the new plant, Taylor could not approve any subdivision, and two are currently in the process.  
    “ADEQ (Arizona Department of Environmental Quality) reviews subdivision plats and so in order for a developer to build within the Town of Taylor, we have to have an agreement that we’ll receive their wastewater,” Solomon explained. “We have to show ADEQ that we have capacity to receive those flows and also capacity that we can treat them.”  
    Solomon noted the changes in the ADEQ process, stating, “In the past it (subdivision sewer) has been accepted on a signature, but now they are saying technology is available now to be able to prove that you have that capacity. So they won’t approve any more subdivision plats without some engineering and scien-tific backup to show them that the town has the capacity to receive those flows.
    “They’ve (ADEQ) known and we’ve known for a number of years that we are at the threshold, said Solomon, referring to the lagoons being at full capacity. He said at this time they can give approval to a subdivision because the wastewater treatment plant will be up and running by the time the subdivision is completed.
    The town council recently held public hearings on increasing the sewer fee rate.  That money will go toward the $4.5 million, low interest loan from the Water Infrastructure and Finance Authority of Arizona (WIFA).
    The contract for construction of the new plant went to City Wide Contracting, and is on schedule and on budget, according to Spaulding.  He anticipates that the plant will be completed in May 2009, with every-one presently on the Taylor sewer line going into the new plant that will have a total capacity of 430,000 gpd.
    Spaulding explained that there are three phases for sewer treatment. He said there are “bugs” that will go to work. The first phase is anoxic, where bugs that live without oxygen get rid of the nitrogen. The sec-ond phase is anaerobic, and those bugs live with a lot of oxygen, so they have a building that will pump oxygen to them.  The third phase takes the sewage into a clarifier, where the sludge settles and the clean water goes on the top and is pumped into another building where the chlorine contact chamber is located and this kills off all the bugs.  
    The treated water, or effluent as it is called, then goes to a pumping station that will take it to the Saline farm, which has a contract with the town.  
    “With the lagoon system it’s all evaporative, so we don’t have to worry about the effluent,” said Solo-mon, “but with the mechanical plant, everything that goes in goes out, so you have to create some use for that water.”
    The concrete and electric biological treatment unit is being built in Kansas and will be here in five to six months,” said Spaulding.  The concrete is being poured, and the concrete and piping will be completed be-fore winter. He noted that there is a city of pipes under the road that includes not only the sewer line, but such things as electric and water lines.
    An office has been built that is being used as a construction office, but upon completion of the plant, it will serve as a permanent laboratory and office building.
    The wastewater treatment plant is located on East Bullduck Lane, near the ponds.