The PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) provides Enhanced Technical Assistance Evaluations (ETAE) with goals of reducing energy consumption and assisting operators and permittees in improving plant operations and reducing nutrients in their plant discharges while maintaining and/or surpassing the requirements of effluent limits established in NPDES permits.
Below are reports generated from ETAE. Descriptions include the facility treatment type and highlights from the ETAE.
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2023 White Oak Country Estates STP, Monroe County DEP wastewater technical assistance staff provided continuous monitoring probes and supplemental laboratory testing services to the White Oak Country Estates STP while facility owners and operator worked through mechanical and programming issues with this groundwater-discharging, modified Ludzack-Ettinger treatment system.
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2023 NESJMA WWTF Organic Loading Study, Schuylkill County This 0.245 MGD conventional activated sludge wastewater treatment facility, serving sanitary sewer collection systems in three municipalities and two potentially significant sources of industrial and non-domestic wastewater, experienced operational difficulties due to existing organic overload conditions. An evaluation of influent organic loading recommended the review and revision of existing sewer use ordinance to develop and implement comprehensive controls over wastewater discharge sources in the sewer service area to reduce the adverse impacts of highly variable organic loading to the activated sludge treatment system.
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2023 Fleetwood Borough STP (PA0021636), Berks County EPA and DEP staff deployed dissolved oxygen and oxidation/reduction probes to assist facility operators in evaluating their Orbal treatment unit for potential improvements, pending a facility upgrade, and recommended using probes to automate aeration capabilities.
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2023 Community Utilities of Pennsylvania, Penn Estates STP (PA0060283), Monroe County This private community wastewater treatment system located in the Poconos near Stroudsburg achieved effective biological nitrogen reduction using timed aeration and anoxic mixing cycles in serial-flow aeration tanks to produce a higher quality effluent, leading to energy savings and reduction in chemical costs. DEP’s wastewater technical assistance program provided monitoring instrumentation and services to help operators optimize the process.
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2023 Pine Grove Joint Treatment Authority (PA0020915), Schuylkill County This well-run major treatment facility located in Pine Grove Township and rated for up to 1.5 MGD, requested assistance from US EPA’s Region 3 Office of Water Programs to improve its biological nutrient reduction (BNR) above and beyond its effluent discharge requirements, in an effort to optimize its position as a nutrient credit producer for the Chesapeake Bay Nutrient Trading Program. DEP staff provided oxidation / reduction potential (ORP) instrumentation used to monitor water quality at the facility’s sequencing batch reactors (SBR). Using the ORP probes, operators were able to graphically visualize data related to nitrification and denitrification, finding their process control “sweet spot” for maximizing nitrogen removal. The report recommended that ORP probes be installed to supplement existing dissolved oxygen probes, with upgrades to the SCADA system that would allow the operators more rapid control of their treatment processes.
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2022 DCNR Ohiopyle State Park STPs (PA0032425 & PA0096521), Fayette County The PA Dept. of Conservation and Natural Resources, Bureau of State Parks, owns and operates three wastewater treatment plants associated with Ohiopyle State Park, a popular venue for white water rafting, angling, camping, and hiking, located in Fayette County. DEP technical assistance staff evaluated two of the package plants, at Kentuck Campground and at the Boaters’ Change House, proposing maintenance and improvements such as replacement of filter media at one and construction of an equalization tank at the other. In addition, due to the high concentrations of nitrate-nitrogen in the treated effluent, staff suggested the use of intermittent aeration in the presence of anoxic mixing to naturally remove dissolved nitrogen.
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2022 Rocky Ridge Estates STP (WQM4594405), Monroe County The contract operator of a modified Purestream Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) requested technical assistance and cold-weather process optimization in this small treatment facility that serves a manufactured housing community in Middle Smithfield Township, near Stroudsburg. The study recommended better control of dissolved oxygen to attenuate high concentrations going into denitrification phase of treatment that requires anoxic (no free oxygen) conditions to convert dissolved nitrate to nitrogen gas. Effluent nitrate reduction is required because this facility discharges to groundwater sources where nitrate concentrations must be held at or below ten (10) milligrams per liter to meet quality standards for potable well water. A dedicated organic carbon source time-controlled to feed the SBR at the start of its denitrification phase was also recommended.
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2021 Dingman-Delaware Valley School District, Dingman Township Campus STP (WQM Permits No. 5292402, 5298404) , Pike County Interrupted by the Covid Pandemic, this WTE of a Pure Stream Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR) with groundwater discharge recommended replacement of an antiquated preliminary treatment comminutor and automated dissolved oxygen control of the aeration blowers.
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2021 Waverly Twp STP Amphidrome (PA0061034), Lackawanna County A wastewater treatment lagoon system in a suburb of Scranton, Pennsylvania, installed a nitrification filter in 2018 to enhance ammonia removal from its treated effluent. Facing stricter ammonia limits in its effluent during a periodic renewal of its effluent discharge permit, the facility owner and operators consented to an instrument-based review of the capabilities of this biological filter system to treat to a higher effluent standard. The subsequent study conducted by DEP’s wastewater treatment technical assistance staff evaluated filter performance during the mid-to-late winter of 2021 to confirm the filter’s treatment capability and suggested ways to improve filter performance during high-flow, low-temperature conditions, including process enhancements to manage alkalinity, reduction and attenuation of peak flows caused by inflow and infiltration in the collection system, and technology-based process monitoring improvements.