Sludge Watch ==> Rhode Island - Synagro explains odor steps

[maureen.reilly at sympatico.ca]

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16786099&BRD=1712&PAG=461&dept_id=24361&rfi=6

Sludge processor explains steps to control odor

MICHAEL HOLTZMAN, Staff Writer
06/14/2006

WOONSOCKET -- It’s a dirty job, so maybe that’s why Tuesday night’s 
community meeting sponsored by Synegro Technologies and Veolia Water was so 
sparsely attended.


Just one citizen showed up at the Cumberland Hill Road site to discuss the 
city and regional wastewater treatment processes and Synegro’s $12 million 
modernization under construction that should be done by early 2007.

That person was Robert Phillips, the recent City Council candidate who plans 
to run again and lives about two miles from the Cumberland Hill Road 
facility on Dunlap Street.

Phillips asked officials from Veolia, which runs the city’s wastewater 
plant, serving Woonsocket and several neighboring towns, and Synegro, 
handling sludge from about 40 communities in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and 
Connecticut, whether it’s the same people who call with complaints about the 
odors the plants generate.

With both companies logging detailed accounts and related data for each 
complaint, John W. Oatley, Veolia superintendent, said there are two kinds 
they typically receive.

One form of complaint, he said, is from especially knowledgeable neighbors, 
familiar with the city incinerator built in the late 1970s and the regional 
sludge processing the now-defunct New England Treatment Corp. began nearly 
20 years ago and Synegro took over in 2003.

"They often know what the problem is and what the smell is from," said 
Oatley, hired here as superintendent of the international water and 
wastewater treatment corporation six months ago. He’s a Rhode Islander with 
15 years working in the field.

Almost all the calls they receive pertain to odor problems, he said.

"A few (citizen complainers) you just can’t reach," he said with a shrug. 
"They’re kind of convinced we’re up to something."

Synegro last year signed a 20-year contract extension with the city, with 
economic incentives and commitment to building a modern, 55--foot, 
self-contained, fluidized bed incinerator that will pulverize 100 tons a day 
of caked sludge at 1,600 degrees F. into inert red ash.

Though that’s been the general incineration process, the hotter, more 
efficient burning and modern heat exchangers makes the process more 
efficient and cleaner burning, Synagro reported.

Tuesday night, with several plant officials -- including Synagro Plant 
Manager Mike Madden -- Synagro’s public relations personnel, a reporter and 
Phillips in a room where coffee and pastries sat nearly untouched, they were 
asked if they thought the minuscule showing reflected satisfaction with 
their performance.

"I certainly do," Oatley said. He said they also "use the amount of calls we 
get as a gauge."

During April there were about 10 complaints, during May fewer and during 
June, thus far, one or two, Oatley said.

"Now when we get a complaint we usually find something," he said, terming 
that a positive sign. There was a recent instance of a mechanical problem 
and weather is often a key cause.

Oatley and Madden talked about how they respond to the 24-hour odor 
complaint hotline (765-7623), with officials of both plants immediately 
notified. They shared a three-page, blank log sheet for each call, which 
shows readings of scrubbers at both plants, questions about the aeration 
system and tanks at the Veolia wastewater plant and about tanker truck 
off-loading of liquid wastewater at Synegro.

There’s also plant weather details from a newly installed weather station 
listing 24-hour temperature reports, wind directions and gusts, humidity and 
related data for each complaint.

The two operations, run behind the city’s main fire station, are 
inter-related, Oatley and Madden explained. Basically, the wastewater 
channeled into the city plant is piped to Synegro where the water’s removed 
in a chemical process to make a concentrated cake and it’s incinerated into 
ash.

The separated wastewater is piped back to the treatment plant on the city 
side and recycled. It accounts for about 50 percent of the wastewater at the 
treatment plant, Oatley said.

"We’re connected," Oatley said when asked if he and Madden had heard stories 
from past years questioning which plant was most responsible for odor 
discharges. "There’s really no separation. We’re joined at the hip," he 
said.

That relationship has alleviated most of the past finger-pointing and 
enabled them to put more time into solving problems, they said.

Veolia had a prepared list of the improvements made over the past six 
months, including replacements of chemical feed pumps and blower units, 
installation of an exhaust biofilter and a tight-fitting discharge port, 
replacing a carbon media filter on the scrubber and installing the weather 
station.

Future plans include Synagro’s introduction of lime into the dewatering 
cycle and regulating septage receiving hours to business times of the day, 
rather than 24 hours a day.

Oatley said their hotline "prompts both companies into action." After 
they’ve collected data and made assessments about the complaint, he said, "I 
call them back within 24 hours."

The official from Veolia, which provides wastewater operations to 
Smithfield, Cranston and Woonsocket, numerous Massachusetts communities and 
more than 100 nationwide, said he also offers to go to the complainants’ 
homes.

Given last night’s attendance, that offer might be needed.