Every modern town or city has a wastewater collection system of some type. The collection system is the conduit for used water, both sanitary and gray (relatively clean, including storm water) water, which initiates at the individual homes and businesses in the community. A primary part of the collection system is a number of “wet wells” that are used as wastewater collection points, or intercepts, from community neighborhoods. Often, lift stations, complete with large electric waste pumps, are used to keep the water moving to the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
There are numerous daily problems to deal with for Operations personnel responsible for the maintenance and continued operation of any collection system. But the major problems are odors from the wet wells and a collection of FOG (fats, oils and grease) masses which solidify on top of the water in the wells. Water in these wells can sit for hours without movement, which results in a buildup of H2S gas that can become dangerous, but always emits an odor, both in the wet well itself and the conduit lines leading downstream. Billions of dollars per year are spent by communities in attempts to eliminate the odors which cause over three quarters of the community’s nuisance complaint calls each year. H2S gas is also very corrosive to the piping and concrete used in construction of the collection system, often reducing its useful life by years.
Reliant Water’s WET WELL WIZARD Collection System Aeration is a cost effective and reliable answer to this odor and FOG problem. The Wizard is a unique patent pending aeration tube that is placed into the center of the wet well to aggressively agitate and mix the wet well water. This constant agitation with highly forced air provides oxygen to the water, activating the growth of aerobic microbes in the wastewater, which in turn begin to digest the organic wastes in the water. This continual microbial activity, combined with constant aggressive agitation, not only eliminates the ability of H2S to form, but it also emulsifies all FOG, and will not allow for FOG masses to collect and build in the wells. When this aerated water is pumped downstream in the collection system it replaces all the water in the lines with oxygenated water, thereby eliminating odors from street drains downstream. Even the water in sags, or swags, in the conduit lines downstream of the wet wells or lift stations become aerated and lose their ability to cause noxious odors.
With a WET WELL WIZARD Collection System Aeration in every pump lift station in the collection system, the water within that system becomes “pre-treated” for the wastewater plant that will be receiving it. Such a pretreatment not only will eliminate wastewater odor entering the plant but that water will contain a very large population of aerobic micro-organisms that will have effectively provided the wastewater operation with partially pre-treated water. This will reduce plant costs in aeration electricity, a reduction in organic solids, and an overall improvement in water quality leaving the plant.