by Heather Jennings, PE
. . . the lagoon sludge layer, that is. I’ve seen many lagoons full of sludge, and the general attitude I find in the water industry is that the sludge layer is inert and really can only be mechanically dredged. To a certain point, that is correct: sand, soil, grit, plastics—basically inorganics—do need to be mechanically dredged. The organics, on the other hand, don’t, and they are easily removed with bioremediation.
I recently completed a year-long study on a municipal lagoon that accepted some waste from food processors. We sludge judged the lagoon as well as looked at the bioactivity throughout the water column by quarterly measurement of the ATP for a year. The highest level of bioactivity was in the sludge layer!
Over the year, we saw that toxic/septic impacts also inhibited the bioactivity of this layer, although delayed compared with the rest of the water column. What was exciting was seeing how the bioactivity increased as the sludge was stimulated with our Bio Energizer® product. Toward the end of the year of Bio Energizer® application, the bioactivity dropped but it correlated with the reduction of the organics in the sludge layer. Which makes sense: less biomass, less bioactivity.
Overall, it was very exciting to see how bioactive the sludge layer was and that, when it is stimulated, it can bioremediate the organics itself with just a little biostimulant push.
Complete the form below to download/read the complete white paper,
“Lagoons: Under the Surface.
(32 pages, 34 figures, 37 tables)
Related Posts
Video: Earth Day, 2021
Over 50 years ago, on April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets to protest environmental destruction and to celebrate the wonders of Planet Earth. The basic message was that we had to find new ways to live our lives, raise our food, and conduct our businesses that were environmentally friendly and sustainable—that
Your Wastewater System Runs Smoothly, Until It Doesn’t!
By Heather Jennings, PE The first thing I usually hear from operators is that they don’t have any problems! Everything runs perfectly, all the time, until it doesn’t. Then the heartburn, extra hours, and long days begin. The only other thing as sure as death and taxes for a wastewater system is that it will
Bio Energizer® Improves SVI by 50% at Citrus Plant Wastewater Treatment
A citrus plant struggled with poor settling in the clarifier of its wastewater treatment, which caused the sludge blanket to remain high. Even at a low flow rate of 1.2 million gallons per day (MGD), the high sludge blanked allowed less than 18” of free board. The slightest flow increase caused solids to carry over
