Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - NACWA in the News
From Mean to Clean
How the local Utilities Authority keeps Mill Creek pristine
Celeste Regal
Reporter staff writer 02/12/2006
That stuff that swirls down your toilet goes through a lot before it is allowed
back into the river - as well it should.
The Sewage Treatment Facility on Koelle Blvd. in Secaucus is unique because the
wastewater it treats comes out cleaner than what is produced by most treatment
plants in the state.
Secaucus resident and Hackensack Riverkeeper Captain Bill Sheehan said that the
facility is "one of the finest in the region." He said Secaucus Municipal
Utilities Authority Executive Director Brian Bigler and SMUA superintendent
Brian Beckmeyer are serious about their work and do an exemplary job.
The water that runs through your plumbing and through the sewer system travels
through a series of grates and tanks before it is treated and cleaned up to DEP
standards for returning to the waterways. Then, it is sent from the plant into
Mill Creek, a tributary of the Hackensack River.
Some of it can be kept by the treatment facility and used to water lawns, or for
street cleaning and sewer jetting (cleaning).
"The effluent [treated water] can be used for irrigation purposes, and if it
didn't meet DEP [Department of Environmental Protection] standards, it couldn't
be used to water ornamental plants - which can be crucial during a drought," he
said.
Turning waste to useable water
Sewage is the wastewater released by residences, businesses, industries, and
storm runoff and groundwater in any community. A multi-stage process is used to
clean wastewater before it re-enters waterways or is otherwise reused. The
process must reduce or remove organic matter, solids, nutrients, disease-causing
organisms, and other pollutants.
When wastewater is treated at the SMUA, the plant disinfects wastewater and
eliminates harmful organisms.
Statistics say that each person in Secaucus contributes an average of 50 to 100
gallons of wastewater a day. Beckmeyer said that over 3 million gallons of waste
are treated per day at the Koelle Boulevard facility.
Wastewater is carried from homes and businesses, as well as from storm water
runoff via underground sewers. As it runs through utility pipes, the liquid is
filtered through bar screens where large pieces of trash are collected and
disposed of. A grit chamber (the smelliest place of the process) allows sand,
grit and other heavy solids to settle and then are removed.
Once in the plant, it heads into a series of tanks. In the primary sedimentation
tank, scrapers collect primary sludge, or remaining solid matter, along with
scum and grease that floats on top.
An aeration tank then puts large amounts of oxygen into the liquid to speed the
growth of helpful microorganisms that eat the bad ones.
In the secondary sedimentation tank, the remaining solid wastes form clumps and
settle. Then the liquid goes into another tank and is disinfected to kill
disease-causing organisms left in the water.
Any remaining unusable sludge is carted off to another type of facility in
Newark. Twenty employees help keep the treatment plant going 24 hours, seven
days a week.
"There's a lot of equipment here used to treat the 105 million gallons of
wastewater that comes through here each month," said Bigler.
Last year, the SMUA was one of 25 plants nationwide to receive a National Honor
Association of Clean Water Agencies Award for the seventh year in a row for peak
performance.
The SMUA also gives local schools tours of the plant to assist in their
understanding of wastewater disposal.
"We want everyone to know that water is not the disposal resource it once was 50
years ago. You don't just use it and throw it away," said Bigler. "There is a
beneficial use for our effluent."
High level
"With some minor adjustments, we can water lawns with the effluent," Bigler
said. "This is high quality effluent - advanced secondary, level 3."
There are four levels of effluent: primary, secondary, advanced secondary, and
tertiary. Each level removes more of the offending organisms. DEP requirements
for discharged water are stringent, Bigler said, and each treatment plant must
hold a permit called NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System)
listing the allowable levels of BOD, suspended solids, coliform bacteria, and
other pollutants.
"Since the plant upgraded in the late '80s, we've been the only treatment plant
working at that level [with effluent of advanced secondary, level 3]," Bigler
said.
Bigler said since once the overhauled plant began running smoothly in 1991, the
water quality in Mill Creek, a tributary of the Hackensack River, has gotten
much cleaner.
"As the wastewater came out clean, the river changed immediately for the
better," he said. "I am happy to have been a part of the significant changes in
the Creek and beyond."
Since the Hackensack River and its tributaries have been cleaned up over the
last 15 years, wildlife both in the air and in the water has returned in droves
to the adjacent meadowlands, and the habitat has been refurbished.