Recent News

Highway Rest Areas

The wastewater treatment systems at the rest areas are performing beyond expectations.  We pulled a sample on Memorial Day weekend and sent it off to the lab for analysis.  Influent from  these facilities is quite concentrated; Bod runs 1500 to 4000 mg/l, total nitrogen is 350 to 500 mg/l.   Here are the effluent results:
Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen as N 11.0 mg/L
Ammonia as N 8.07 mg/L
Nitrate + Nitrite as N 20.5 mg/L
Total Nitrogen 31 mg/L
Carbonaceous BOD, mg/L 3.6 mg/L
Total Suspended Solids, mg/L 12 mg/L

These results are better than what most systems can achieve with residential wastewater.  The state of Maryland’s, Bay Restoration Fund, using what they refer to as “Best Available Technology” fails to produce results this good even though those systems are receiving household wastewater.   

Back from Colorado

We were in Colorado last week again working on a nice project.  We are providing  expertise helping the developer gain county approval for a small residential PUD.  It was interesting to hear from other members of the development about the last project they worked on that used onsite systems.  In a conscientious move, the developer committed to requiring  advanced treatment systems on each lot.  They selected a system and wrote the manufacturer into the guidelines.  Once the project was approved, once the manufacturer figured they were locked in, we were told by the development team that the manufacturer raised their prices to the homeowners dramatically.   I am sure we will be installing Eliminite systems at that development this summer because our initial cost is thousands of dollars less and our maintenance costs are much lower.

West Yellowstone Montana
It looks like an existing development in West Yellowstone, Montana, will continue to pollute groundwater with its failed sewage system for at least another year. This is in spite of the fact that it is under an administrative order to replace the system and that all the necessary funding is in place.  In my opinion this is a crime against the environment and is unequivocally due to the incompetence of the project engineer. 

 The engineer was determined to conduct an unfair RFP process by specifying only a single advanced treatement system manufacturer.  The Dept. of Environmental Quality had to force the engineer to hold a fair Request For Proposals.  However, the the engineer was so singularly focused on ommitting  other manufacturers from the bidding that they fouled up important aspects of the project such as the discharge permit.  In the end, I heard their preferred vendor backed out because they could not meet the final discharge permit limits.   The limits were not even that restrictive....we meet them all the time. 

The whole thing was so clearly rigged that we did not even waste our time submitting a proposal.   The sad thing is we could have completed the project for ten of thousands of dollars less than the bid they selected and could have had it completed in about two months. But instead, the sewage lagoon continues to leak raw wastewater into the groundwater a few miles from Yellowstone National Park.   Wastewater isn't the only "dirty" aspect of this business.