BMMD Waste Water Services
Water Treatment Services Staff: (Click on employee name for photo)
| Employee | Job Title |
|---|---|
| Don Allred | Waste Water Plant Operator |
Battlement Mesa Metropolitan District, (BMMD), owns and operates the waste water treatment facility that services Battlement Mesa.
Waste Water Operations
The purpose of a Waste Treatment Facility is to take water generated by human activity and break it down to more basic substances and prevent it from entering public waterways.
Battlement Mesa's waste water plant is classified as an "Activated Sludge System." Basically the plant takes naturally-occurring bacteria found in waste water and concentrates it so that what happens normally in the environment is compressed into a much smaller package. Nutrients in Waste Water are turned into more bacteria, water and different atmospheric gasses. As the amount of the bacteria increases, it become necessary to remove some of them, along with Sludge, from the system and dispose of it. This process will be explained further on in greater detail.
The first device the raw sewage passes through is the bar screen. Its purpose is to remove rags, bottles, wood or other large solids that have found their way into the waste stream. Solids collected here are deposited into an aerated vault and then removed by an outside contractor to be taken for disposal in the county land fill, which is setup to handle this type of waste.
Aftr the bar Screen, is a Aerated Grit Chamber, the function of which is to remove heavy solids, such as sand, egg shells, and other debris from garbage disposals, and floor drains, thereby preventing them from entering the aeration basins, where they would settle out and cause fouling of pumps and basins. This material is also deposited in the aerated vault along with the other screenings mentioned previously.
Next in the process are the Aeration Basins. These large structures are reactors where the biological processes take place. Air is pumped into the basin by blowers to mix the raw sewage with previously processed return sludge. This keeps the mixture oxygenated, (the bacteria is Aerobic), and also keeps solids from settling in the basins.
Leaving the Aeration Basins the sludge containing the bacteria is sent to the "Clarifier" where it is allowed to settle to the bottom. The clear water is discharged to the Chlorine Contact Chamber. The sludge at the bottom of the clarifier is pumped back to the Aeration Basins through the "RAS" pumps.
At the Chlorine Contact Chamber the clarified water is chlorinated with a low dose of chlorine to disinfect it before it is discharged into the Colorado River.
As mentioned earlier, the sludge continues to increase in volume and some must be removed from the system. Some of the "Return Activated Sludge" is diverted into a Wasting Line that goes to the Digester. The Digester is simply another aerobic process where the sludge is aerated for mixing and oxidation. Since there is no other food source for the bacteria, they begin to feed o each other. Almost like a form of cannibalism, which further reduces the organic matter in the sludge.
After the sludge has spent an appropriate amount of time in the digester, and can not be broken down further, it is sent to the drying beds to be dewatered and dried. This generally takes three to four weeks in the summer and tow to three months in the winter. After drying, the sludge is ready for application on agricultural land as permitted by the Colorado Department of Health, for use as fertilizer and soil amendment.