Sewer Treatment for Destination Resort 1

[PWM1]

I am a civil engineer working on a sanitary sewer design for a destination resort in Oregon. I would like to research treatment options to get an idea of what may work for this application. The resort will have roughly 1000 single family homes and an 18 hole golf course. The sewer system will be split into 3 roughly equal drainage areas. I would like to look into MBR plants and lagoon designs and try to come up with approximate cost information. Could anyone give me some idea of where to look (books, jurisdictions, websites, etc.) to get started on this? We will be using a consultant for the actual treatment design, I only want to learn about the options and potential cost before we hire anyone.

Thanks

 

[RWF7437]

Contact Oregon DEQ.
Look at Bend , Sisters, Redmond, Black Butte, and especially Prinville systems records.

good luck

 

[bimr]

The treatment system scope will more or less be determined by the site and the effluent discharge limitations.

You need to talk to the DEQ and get an idea of what the discharge requirements will be.

It would probably be more practical to visit some similar destination resorts to see what actually works.

 

[PWM1]

Thank you RWF7437 and bimr.

I have left messages with several poeple but unfortunatley have not been able to get any information from manufacturers or DEQ, maybe they are all at the same conference.

I have found a lot of information on-line but still need much more.

Do either of you know if a typical MBR facility for roughly 400 homes needs a minimum amount of inflow to carry out bilogical processes? If so do you know what it is?

Also, do either of you have any idea how much these units may cost?

 

[RWF7437]

"I have left messages with several poeple but unfortunatley have not been able to get any information from manufacturers or DEQ, maybe they are all at the same conference."

Try Other Sources ! Contact the Cities and resorts listed, and others you can find. Don't talk to the receptionist. Talk to the engineer, if there is one, and especially talk to the Operators. Persist. Find someone at DEQ who will give you straight answers to your legitimate questions.... then make a friend of that person . Do something for them in return.

"Do either of you know if a typical MBR facility for roughly 400 homes needs a minimum amount of inflow to carry out bilogical processes? If so do you know what it is?"

I don't know. I do know that a lot depends on things like land availability, weather, seasonal and diurnal variations in flow and local experience. Too many variables to safely generalize. Do you live or work in central Oregon ? Are you familiar with the natural conditions there ? If not, learn more about such things.

"Also, do either of you have any idea how much these units may cost? "

Again, no, not me. But DEQ will have some data as will local contacts. Both DEQ and USEPA used to maintain Cost Indexes but I don't know if they still do. Add this question to your list of questions to ask them, once you get their attention.

good luck

 

[RWF7437]

http://home.earthlink.net/~douglaspage/id24.html

 

[bimr]

The MBR process is one of the more expensive treatment processes.

One would be interested in the MBR process if you had an application where the discharge requirement included minimal suspended solids. That would be a water reuse application or surface discharge into a environmentally sensitive area.

The state DEQ will probably not be able to provide you with accurate costs. You would probably have to get the equipment costs from a supplier. Based on my previous experience, a 500,000 gpd wastewater treatment plant would have budget costs of $2,500,000 to $3,000,000 for a typical project.

The MBR process would be a good application since the membranes could be added on to the facility as the flow increases.

Don't know what you mean by minimum amount of flow. If a facility is sized properly, the flow into the facility is not critical. You may have some startup issues when you are starting up with a very small flow and number of homes. Many wastewater treatment plants are design with multiple units. More units come online as the flow increases.

 

[hogslurry]

Contact Jason Tratch of EcoLibra Systems Inc. They have a very efficient tertiary treatment system which removes all bacterial contamination, no odors and produces clean, bacteria-free recyclable water.It is portable for small operations, can be mobile too
His phone: (306) 270-2989

 

[bimr]

Thanks for the tip regarding EcoLibra. Unfortunately, there is not much on the website that is above the expertise of a high school science project.

 

[civilperson]

Enviroquip just quoted a 25000 gpd MBR at 700k.

 

[jartgo]

In my research, an MBR plant runs about $25 per gallon, installed. So your quote of $700,000 for a 25,000 gpd is not far off.

The minimum flow issues are as bimr pointed out, generally only associated with initial start up of the sytem when you might only have a few houses on line. The issue is that the bugs in the biological process won't have enough to eat and will die, hence no more bio process. This is a concern with any plant, not just MBR's. The operator will have to keep the bugs fed during this initial period either with slugde from another plant or commercially available sources. It's certainly a concern, but not a new one.

 

[Watthour]

A properly designed and managed MBR system can operate successfully from a 10% design loading from BOD to 200% design loading. If EnviroQuip cannot help you, check this link:

MBR Plants

 

[newwasteideas]

I dealt with EcoLibra, their people are world recognized, built systems for UN, etc. They have a ton of info that is available if you get a username and password but need to email them (info@ecolibrasystems.com). Their system is making waves in Canada, Mexico and Europe and need to see it to believe it.

 

[jhebner]

PWM1
The company I work with has developed and owns the rights to a treatment technology called Upflow Sludge Blanket Filtration (USBF). The USBF process followed by secondary filtration (Sand Filters/External Membranes) and disinfection can produce re-usable irrigation water for the golf course. We have completed similar projects like this in the past. USBF is also modular so we can mimic the phased construction of your development, reducing the immediate cost.

http://www.ecofluid.com