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yyastewater is water that we have used for
various purposes—in our homes, in schools,
in hospitals, and in industrial plants.
It is polluted water. Human and industrial
wastes—bacteria, chemicals, and
viruses—must be removed before the water can
be safely returned to rivers and lakes.
•To make this water reusable we have systems
for cleaning it. In most communities,
wastewater drains into sewer systems which
• carry it through a complex system of pipes to a
plant for treatment.
We must clean used water. Our Nation has
grown. There are more people and more
industries who need and use water. As a result,
our water pollution problems have increased,
and more treatment plants are needed to help
solve them. That's why Congress authorized
some $18 billion to help communities like yours
to build new plants or to improve the ones they
have.
This new construction will help, but it is not
enough. We must also make sure that treatment
plants work properly, and that they are kept in
good repair.
And that's where you can help. As a community
resident and as a taxpayer, you have a
responsibility to make sure your tax monies are
well-spent, and that the waterways in your area
are kept clean—clean enough for swimming
and for fishing.
What is
a Treatment Plant?
A wastewater treatment plant is basically a big
water-cleaning machine. It consists of a series of
tanks, screens, filters and other devices to
separate out the wastes. Like other big
machines, the plant can't run itself; it needs
people who can operate and maintain it. It
requires a planned program of operation and
maintenance; operation to make it work;
maintenance to keep it working. That's O&M,
and it is the key to making your wastewater
treatment plant work efficiently.
Machines and plants must be looked at in terms
of O&M. If a system .can't be operated
effectively, or if it is difficult to keep in
operation, it can't do its job of cleaning water
very well. So when we talk about O&M at
wastewater treatment facilities, we're really
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getting into the nitty-gritty of water pollution
control. In reality, we are in a war against
polluted water and the treatment plant is our
best weapon.
It's a war in which we can't call a truce—we are
all using more and more water and polluting it in
the process. That means we'll continue to need
well-run, well-kept treatment plants to clean our-
water. This is especially true since the law now
requires more and better wastewater treatment
to protect the Nation's health and welfare.
The law—the Federal Water Pollution Control
Act Amendments of 1972—is a tough law. Its
goal is to end all discharges into the Nation's
waters by 1985. An earlier deadline of July 1983
calls for water clean enough for recreational
uses and for the protection of fish and wildlife.
It is to achieve these goals that Congress
authorized vast sums of your money to help
build new wastewater treatment plants and to
improve existing ones.
But construction is only part of the answer. To
make sure we have clean water and are getting
our money's worth out of the plants we have or
that we are building, we must make sure they
have good operation and maintenance.
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How does a
Treatment Plant Work?
A wastewater treatment facility is designed to
treat a specific amount of wastewater each day.
In a town of 20,000 people, for example, the
plant may be designed to treat a flow of about
two million gallons per day (2mgd). This figure
is called the plant's design flow. More important
are the plant's design criteria which tell us what
percentage of waste the plant should remove
from the water.
According to a survey* published by the U. S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
however, as many as one-third of the treatment
plants may not be operating as they should. The
survey showed that the major problems were
inadequate operation and maintenance of the
facilities. The most common faults were:
• improper operation of machinery by
inadequately trained operators
• inadequate laboratory tests of wastewater at
various stages of processing, making it hard to
find out if the process was working properly
• unsatisfactory maintenance of machinery
and equipment
• mechanical breakdowns
Unless a plant is poorly designed or is
overloaded with more wastewater than it is
designed to handle, these problems usually can
be solved by improving its O&M.
What Makes a Plant Work
An efficient plant, one which has good operation
and maintenance, is a plant that has well-
trained people—operators and maintenance
men, laboratory technicians and chemists,
managers and supervisors. The more skilled
and motivated they are, the cleaner our waters
will be, and that is the real payoff.
What makes people work well? They need
training; they need the right tools and
equipment; they need decent pay; and they need
good working conditions.
Giving them these things costs money, but not
providing them really costs more—much more
considering the immense cost to the
•Statistics were based on an inspection of a limited number
of Federally funded plants after they had begun operation.
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environment. Why? Because we can't get our
money's worth out of the treatment plant unless
we're willing to make investments in people. A
community may spend millions to build a new
plant, then give it a yearly budget so small that
adequate operation and maintenance is
impossible.
Look at it this way: most of us would not
think of buying a new car and then driving it •
without periodic tune-ups, oil changes, and
lubrication by trained mechanics. If we didn't,
we know that one day the car would simply grind"
to a halt, its engine and our investment a
total loss.
Each of us has a similar vested interest in
making sure that the wastewater treatment plant
in our community has similar attention and
care so that it functions the way it was designed.
You have a large investment in your local
treatment plant. And that plant, like your car,
needs to be serviced by trained people to
protect that investment.
An Important Job
What helps people to do a good job? They need
to know that their job is important and that their
work is appreciated.
Employees in a treatment plant understand
that their job is important, but they may wonder
how much it is appreciated. They perform a vital
public service, but more often than not receive
little or no recognition for it. Because they wear
no uniform and because the plant is often on the
outskirts of the community, they are invisible.
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We must recognize that the men and women
who fight pollution are protecting our health
and welfare as much as policemen who fight
crime and firemen who fight fires. We must
support these pollution fighters in their work or
the national war on pollution may be lost.
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What Can You Do?
The best and first thing you can do is to join with
your local treatment plant staff in its fight
against pollution. This requires very little—only
that you take an active interest in what is going
on at the plant, especially in operation and
maintenance.
How Do You Start?
A good source of information is the discharge
permit that the treatment plant is required to
have. The permit is issued under the National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES), a cooperative State-Federal effort
required by law. It is a legally binding agreement
to comply within a certain time with the State
and Federal discharge requirements. It lists
what and how much the plant can discharge into
waterways. It also contains plant design data,
water quality data, and schedules of
compliance.
It is not a license to pollute; it is a mandate to
perform.
It is an enforcement tool, and periodic
monitoring and reporting are required to see
that plants are actually performing as promised.
By reviewing the permit document you will be
able to judge how well your plant is doing its
job. Copies must be made available to you. You
can get a copy of the permit from your treatment
plant staff or from an EPA Regional Office.
But don't overlook the best source of O&M
information—the local plant superintendent
and members of his staff. They know better than
anyone else what it will take to improve
operation and maintenance at their plant.
You Are Important
You are a voter and taxpayer—that makes you
important. It means that members of the plant
staff, the people who make the budgets and
arrange the priorities for water pollution
control in your community, are responsible to
you for their actions. They work for you and they
know it.
When you and other citizens begin to pay
attention to your wastewater treatment plant,
local officials will respond. They welcome
citizen support and interest. That's why you are
the most effective anti-pollution force of all.
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What Questions
Should You Ask Your
Local Officials About O&M?
Here are a few:
What kind of performance record does the
plant have? The plant's design criteria set the
standards; how far are we from achieving or
exceeding those standards?
What types of wastes are treated by the
plant? Does runoff from rain and snowfall pass
through? Are there any special problems with
industrial wastes?
What, if any, mechanical problems affect the
plant's performance? Are these frequent
problems?
How large is the plant's staff? Does the
plant have a full time operator? Who actually
hires plant personnel? What qualifications are
required? Are operators certified by the State?
How are employees trained for their jobs? Are
opportunities for continuing training provided?
Compare skills needed by the technical staff
with skills of other community service
occupations. What are the differences in
salaries?
Does the plant have its own laboratory?
What kind of sampling and testing program
exists? The NPDES permit system requires
frequent self-testing and reporting; how is this
requirement being met?
What type of maintenance system Is in use?
Is it a preventive system, or does it merely
respond to breakdowns?
Is there an operation and maintenance
manual written especially for the plant that is
actually used by the operators?
Who sets the yearly operation and
maintenance budget for the plant ? Is money
collected for water service and sewer-use
charges set aside to finance water quality
activities, or is it placed in the community's
treasury for general use?
Visit your wastewater treatment plant and ask
yourself the following questions:
How does the plant look? Is it kept clean?
Are the grounds landscaped? Is the general
environment attractive? Is it a desirable
place to work?
What you learn can provide the basis for a long
or short-term program or campaign toward
achieving our clean water goals.
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