vvEPA
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Municipal Environmental Research
Laboratory
Cincinnati OH 45268
Research and Development EPA-600/D-82-256 August 1982
ENVIRONMENTAL
RESEARCH BRIEF
Reactivation of Activated Carbon with
Aqueous Chlorine and Chlorine Dioxide
Vernon L. Snoeyink, Richard A. Larson, Abraham S. C. Chen, Leon M. J. Kielmann I
William F. McHie, John J. McCreary, James E. Quinn, and Evanelos A. Voudrias
University of Illilnois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL 60801
Acknowledgements
At the time of this in-house study, the authors were with
the Wastewater Research Division of the Municipal
Environmental Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio 45268.
Don C. Niehus is currently with the U.S. EPA Water
Planning Division in Washington, D.C. 20460. Gregory A.
Brown is currently with the Stone & Webster Engineering
Corporation, Cherry Hill Operations Center, 3 Executive
Campus, P.O. Box 5200, Cherry Hill, New Jersey 08034.
The current MERL contact for this project is Janet M.
Houthoofd.
Abstract
Federal involvement in water pollution abatement
programs has traditionally been focused on providing
grants to public entities for the construction of new,
expanded, or upgraded wastewater treatment facilities.
Despite sizable investments of public funds, the achieve-
ment of water quality objectives is not being fully realized.
Although studies have documented that many factors
contribute to this problem, a chief cause is inadequate
attention to operation and maintenance (O&M) require-
ments. This paper provides an overview of the contract
services currently being offered by private sector
consultants to assist municipalities in the operation and
management of wastewater treatment facilities. Over 100
responses were obtained to requests for information on
firms offering contract O&M services. Information received
included data on types of services offered, staffing levels,
and staff and firm achievements and capabilities.
Examination of these data showed that 24 firms now offer
full contract O&M services and that other firms could
potentially offer these services in the future.
This report covers a period from March 1979 to March
1980.
Introduction
Federal municipal water pollution control strategies have
relied on grant assistance for the construction of publicly
owned treatment works (POTW's). Since the passage of the
Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972
(PL 92-500), about $28 billion has been commited by the
Environmental Protection Agency Construction Grants
program to upgrade existing facilities and to build new
wastewater treatment facilities. The federal government
has consistently and strongly resisted suggestions that
federal subsidies or other assistance be given to the
operation and maintenance (O&M) of POTW's. Only modest
technical assistance and O&M inspection programs are
operated at the federal and state levels.
Recent studies clearly indicate that a major percentage of
all POTW's are not meeting effluent standards. Studies
sponsored by the Municipal Environmental Research
Laboratory to identify the causes of poor plant performance
indicate that a large number of communities are unable to
operate or are not properly committed to operating their
treatment works. A compounding problem is that much of
the O&M information, guidance, and technical assistance
currently provided appears to be incorrect, irrelevant, or
inadequate. A number of policy options are available at the
federal and state levels to address the POTW O&M
problems. This paper addresses the role of private sector
technical assistance to municipalities in improving POTW
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performance. When Agency policy is developed in this area,
the results of the private sector's O&M activities should be
considered.
This study was undertaken to determine how many and
what kind of private firms were involved in operational
assistance and what range of services they provide. A
further objective was to identify the minimum qualifications
necessary for these firms to provide satisfactory O&M
services. By soliciting EPA regional offices and the
Municipal Operations Branch staff, inserting a notice in the
April 6, 1979, issue of the Commerce Business Daily
requesting qualifications and experience statements, and
directly contacting over 200 consulting engineering firms, a
list of firms providing O&M services was constructed. A
response form was developed to evaluate each firm that
submitted a response to the request for information.
Before this study, perceptions of the availability and
effectiveness of private sector O&M services were largely
shaped by the aggressive marketing of a limited number of
firms.
Results
Types of O&M Activities
Evaluation of the responses revealed that operational
assistance activities vary widely with regard to the type of
service provided, the type of firm providing the service, and
the time involved.
Type of Service Provided
The range of operational services currently offered by the
private sector include
• Operational evaluation
• Review of design for operational flexibility and
reliability
• Planning for staffing and management
• Operator training
• Trouble-shooting
• Process monitoring and optimization
• Laboratory services
• Plant start-up services
• Provision of employees to fill selected key operational
positions
• Provision of full plant operational staff, but with
client retaining management/administrative deci-
sion-making responsibility
• Provision of full plant operational staff, with
contractor assuming total managerial responsibility.
In contrast to more traditional, less comprehensive, O&M
services, contract operation of POTW's is a relatively recent
phenomenon. This trend, although quite modest in view of
the total number of POTW's, is more widespread than is
commonly realized. During this study, two dozen plants
currently being operated by an outside contractor were
encountered.
Type of Firm Providing Service
The majority of the firms that have provided contract O&M
are traditional engineering firms. In a few cases, wholly
owned subsidiaries have been established or are being
considered to market O&M services. For the most part, new
clients are not sought aggressively; rather, these services
are provided to existing or past design clients. Generally, an
O&M group is closely affiliated with the usual design
services of the firm. In other instances, operational services
are being offered by divisions or subsidiaries of wastewater
laboratories and equipment suppliers. Another model is the
comparatively recent development of firms that specialize
in providing only operational services. Many firms have
considerable experience in providing operation services
and contract operations of wastewater for industrial
clients. Alt hough this experience may be transferable to the
public sector, there are significant institutional differences
that make the contractual mechanisms more complex.
Length of Involvement
Assistance may vary from telephone consultation provided
free of charge to an on-going design client to a multi-year,
multi-million dollar comprehensive services contract to
operate the POTW. Most operational assistance activities
involve in-plant evaluation and training varying from
several days to several weeks. With the exception of
planning, design, and plant start-up related activities, EPA
provides no f i nancial assistance for O&M services although
the Agency strongly encourages their use.
Response Summary
Of the 107 responses received to requests for information
pertaining to contractor capabilities and experience in
providing O&M services to POTW's, 95 qualified for
evaluation. The evaluation concentrated on contractor
organization, staff personnel, staff experience, staff
licensing, contractor's O&M services, documented
experience of contractor, and contractor's interpretation of
the private sector's role in POTW O&M. An overall
summary of responses, broken down by EPA region, is
given in Table 1. Of the 95 qualified firms responding, 24
(25 percent) offered full O&M services including contract
operation and maintenance, O&M technical assistance,
and design related O&M services (category Afirms in Table
1). In addition to these 24 firms, 57 of the responding firms
offered O&M technical assistance and design related O&M
services (category B firms). The remaining 14 respondees
(15 percent) were in design or related fields and exhibited
some interest in O&M (category C firms).
The majority of the firms responding were consulting
engineering firms with considerable design-related
experience in wastewater treatment. These firms also
provided many other engineering, architectural, and
construction services They had become involved in O&M
services as a result of their design work support.
Operational technical assistance activities were not a
major portion of their yearly workload. As a result of recent
developments in regulations and enforcement, however,
many of the larger firms had established or were
in the process of establishing O&M departments within
their organizational structure to specifically offer these
types of services. The consultants noted POTW managers
were becoming increasingly aware of rising O&M costs and
the implications of noncompliance m meeting minimum
POTW discharge standards. Consultants also cited recent
research reports defining the cause and effect of POTW
O&M problems as motivation to review O&M practices.
In addition to the consulting engineering firms, a number of
equipment manufacturing firms responded to our request
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Table 1 .
Region
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Evaluation of 95 Private Sector Firms Offering O&M Services to PC
(States) Respondees
(CT, ME, MA, NH, Rl, VT)
(NJ, NY)
(DE, MD, PA, VA, WV)
(AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN)
(IL, IN, Ml, MN, OH, Wl)
(IA, KS, MO, NE)
(AR, LA, NM, OK, TX)
(CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY)
(AZ, CA, HI, NV)
(AK, ID, OR, WA)
Totals
Percent Distribution
8
8
15
12
21
6
3
3
14
5
95
)TW's, by EPA Region
Categories*
A
5
0
4
3
5
0
0
1
6
0
24
25%
B
1
7
9
7
13
5
3
2
6
4
57
60%
C
2
1
2
2
3
1
0
0
2
1
14
15%
*0&M Service Categories:
A: Firms offering contract O&M, O&M technical assistance, and design-related O&M services.
B: Firms offering O&M technical assistance, and design-related O&M services.
C: Firm offering only design-related O&M services.
for information. Typically, these firms marketed waste-
water treatment equipment and, to support their product
lines, had developed complete technical assistance service
programs to ensure proper operation and performance of
their own equipment. This service concept eventually
expanded to encompass the entire plant, becoming the
most comprehensive contract O&M service package avail-
able to POTW's.
Since industry has utilized the contract O&M concept in
petrochemical processing plants and power generating
facilities for years, it was not surprising to receive responses
from firms experienced in industrial O&M. These firms
possessed the financial and operations management skills
but lacked the treatment technology expertise that is
essential to most biological wastewater treatment systems.
Conclusions
Minimum Qualifications for Private Sector O&M
Firms
During the execution of this study, some observations were
made concerning the minimum requirements that would
serve as a guideline in determining the capabilities of a firm
offering technical assistance and/or contract O&M to
POTW's. Because operating problems differ from one
treatment plant to another, the importance of these
minimum requirements to the needs of a particular POTW
will vary.
The basic requirements necessary to provide contract O&M
services to POTW's include, but are not limited to, the
following. The order of presentation is not significant.
• Personnel management, staffing, and scheduling
capabilities
• Financial management, contracts, legal, and insurance
capabilities
• Clerical personnel
• Proficiency in purchasing and inventory
• Proficiency in public and government relations
• Treatment process evaluation capabilities
- Engineering design
- Biological considerations
- Chemical considerations
- Laboratory experience or capabilities
• Experienced and licensed operations personnel
• Experienced maintenance personnel
• Training program development and implementation
skills
• Access to mechanical, electrical, and other consulting
engineering staff
Outlook
The overall effectiveness of the private sector in providing
operational services to POTW's cannot be determined
based on the information collected to date. Such a
determination would require a much larger effort than was
in the scope of this project. Documentation indicating that
treatment plant reliability and cost effective operation have
been achieved, however, is available from some communi-
ties that have received O&M services.
Some stumbling blocks have slowed the growth of O&M
servicing. According to our respondees, questions of
liability and operating insurance are major considerations
in providing total contract operations. Furthermore, the
nature of wastewater treatment and the O&M of the
facilities require a diversity in staff expertise, a factor that
favors large firms.ln many cases, the expected profit is not
of sufficient magnitude to attract capable firms, large or
small, to the O&M specialty market.
Cost effective decision-making demands that continued
government expenditures in the wastewater treatment
area be justifiable. Indeed, after spending a decade and
considerable sums of money on construction of wastewater
treatment facilities, it is not unreasonable to pause and
evaluate the results of these efforts. Since studies have
clearly indicated that a large number of POTW's are not
meeting the intended effluent waterquality standards, new
approaches are necessary to improve water pollution
control program performance. Some shift in emphasis may
occur from constructing new treatment facilities to
improving the O&M of existing facilities. If such a shift does
> US GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 1982-559-017/0778
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occur, well qualified private firms capable'of handling O&M
problems could become highly sought. At that point, a
knowledge of what firms are available and an evaluation of
their competencies would be useful. The value of this
limited analysis and of further studies in this area lies in
their potential to provide serviceable information of this
type.
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Center for Environmental Research
Information
Cincinnati OH 45268
Postage and
Fees Paid
Environmental
Protection
Agency
EPA 335
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use S300
P O 0 U 0 1) 3 c' V
U o t-i'JVJH Pt
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