Curtiss wastewater treatment plant overflows
It was an unlucky week for the village of Curtiss with two overflow events occurring at the wastewater treatment plant.
Village public works director Larry Swarr reported the overflow events occurred on Monday, April 18, with the first taking place between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. and the second taking place between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. “It wasn’t my favorite day on the job,” Swarr said.
According to Swarr, the first overfl ow occurred on the north end of Lagoon No. 2 at the plant and was discovered at 8:45 a.m. Monday morning and by 9 a.m. he had a pump in place pumping the partly treated waste into the lagoon. The overflow was caused by the line connecting Lagoon No. 2 to Pond No. 1 became clogged. He said by 9:45 a.m. he had gotten the line unplugged noting it took about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get it resolved.
The overflow resulted in about 36,000 gallons of partially digested waste from spilling into the environment. Exposure to the waste was limited to Swarr as plant operator who pumped the waste back to Lagoon No. 1 and worked to unplug the line.
The lagoons are surrounded by a ditch which contained a large amount of the waste. He said it spread past the mowed area into the natural grass area and toward the swamp where the plant discharges.
He said there is a reddish iron area in the grass from the ferrous oxide, which is used to reduce phosphorus levels in the system. However, he noted the iron will actually help the grass growth so he does not anticipate any longterm issues. At no time, did any of the overflow approach a navigable waterway.
In the future, Swarr said the prevention plan is to remove the sludge from Lagoon No. 2 and monitor flows more aggressively when changes are made.
He said they have been working with the Department of Natural Resources on a plan to remove sludge build up at the lagoon. He said the build up of sludge likely contributed to the pipe becoming clogged.
“We are experiencing faster than historical accumulation rates,” Swarr said, noting that this may be in part caused by the ferrous oxide which binds with the phosphorus and drops it to the bottom of the pond. He said the hope had been to get the sludge removed this spring but it may not occur until fall. The sludge will ultimately be spread onto fields. Shortly after dealing with the first overflow, Swarr had to deal with another. The second overflow occurred at the southwest portion of Lagoon No. 2 at the treatment plant.
Swarr said this overflow was caused when the cleanout plug on the line going to Pond No. 1 broke and resulted in a spill of about 12,000 gallons of partially digested waste.
Only the plant operator was exposed to the waste as he worked to shut off the line, replace the broken plug and restored flow to the pond. Swarr suspected the cleanout got sucked into the pond while he was pumping to clean up the first spill. He said it took him about two minutes to get the cleanout plug replaced and the overflow was quickly cleaned up.
Going forward, Swarr said they would be checking pipes after unplugging operations or changes to the flow at the plant.
The Curtiss Wastewater Treatment Plant processes between 100,000-110,000 gallons of waste each day and has about 13 million gallons of wastewater retained in its ponds and lagoons.
In addition to making reports to local media, the village contacted the Department of Natural Resources. The DNR is the state agency that license and regulates treatment plants and works to ensure groundwater is protected. Swarr noted the DNR reports regarding the spill has already taken far longer to complete then getting it cleaned up.
