Lebanon — Seven workers versus an average of 2.8 million gallons of wastewater daily.
That's the number of full-time workers Lebanon employs to treat all the waste coming from the city's sinks, showers and, yes — toilets.

Most of Lebanon's 20,000 residents probably don't spend much time pondering the fate of their bath water, but the city's sanitary sewer department is big business, and the availability of sewers affects development.

Lebanon projects it will take in $2.6 million in revenue from the 6,800 households and businesses it services in the city.

And in 2002, the city paid nearly $100,000 in fines to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency after its system was cited for 26 violations. A 2001 inspection found that the city's facility in the Kingsview Industrial Park "had lost virtually all of its treatment capacity and nearly raw sewage was being discharged from the facility."

To fix the problem, Lebanon closed the facility and spent nearly $4.5 million between 2002 and 2005 on upgrades.

The improvements paid off with a Peak Performance Award from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies in 2005.

Sewers are also the driving force behind annexations. The nine property owners near the Wal-Mart on U.S. 42 who requested annexation last year already have water service. But they need the city's sanitary sewers before they can sell their land for commercial development.

The workers

Out of all the various objects and substances that make their way through Lebanon?s 83 miles of sanitary sewer pipes, the one thing that really irks the Wastewater Treatment department?s workers is fat.

?It gets in the sewers and solidifies and hardens and actually causes backages,? Wastewater Superintendent Johnny Salyers said.

With 25 years treating wastewater for the city, Salyers has seen his share of strange objects show up at Lebanon?s treatment plant on Turtlecreek Road. Aside form the odd gold fish, Salyers had to notify poilce when vials of cocaine and baggies of marijuana got snagged on the screens used to strain the waste as it comes into the plant. One day $4,500 in $100 bills washed up on the screens.

But before prospectors show up hoping to strike it rich, they should know that the city installed a new screen system in 2000, that shreds any cash that makes its way through the city?s pipes. Now it?s mostly just bits of cloth and mysterious red straws that show up by thousands.

Wastewater Administrator John Habig said the straws started showing up about two years ago. Even a very thirsty population of 20,000 couldn?t produce them all, and Habig thinks there must be a straw manufacturer somewhere that?s sending excess product down the drain.

The wastewater workers said they like the varied tasks their jobs afford. A worker might be a mechanic one day, a plumber the next, and a biologist after that.

?I feel like a little kid with a chemistry set,? the department?s newest hire Bert Gonzalez said recently as he learned one of the many tests workers perform to make sure the plant?s effluent meets government standards.

?Growing up I never thought I?d do this — never even dreamed about it,? his trainer Terry Hammons said. ?But I like the work. You never stop learning. If you love the environment, if you love the outdoors, it?s a great job.?

Not that there isn't danger involved and sometimes it can be gross, Hammons admitted.

?I got a 'taste? for this job is about as best I can say it,? Hammons said about a mishap he had with a hose once.

Salyers got more than just a taste. He?s taken more than one accidental plunge in the plant?s two-million-gallon basins where the wastewater is treated for 24 hours.

That was before Habig took over the department 14 years ago, and implemented new safety procedures like harnesses and ropes to keep workers safely above the swirling water.

there are some unexpected benefits as well, Salyers said.

Before the city installed a belt that dries one and a half tons of the plant?s earthy smelling sludge a day, workers used to pile the sludge on pallets to dry in a long shed.

?A week later you couldn?t see the sludge because it was covered with tomato plants,? Salyers said. He once rooted up over a hundred plants and took them to his mom?s garden.

Rest assured she was none to happy when she found out their origin a year later.

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4527 or dwells@coxohio.com.