Sludge Watch ==> Sabotage suspected in disruption at Milwaukee Milorganite plant

[Maureen Reilly]

Sabotage suspected in disruption at Milorganite plant
By DON BEHM
dbehm at journalsentinel.com

Posted: Feb. 27, 2008
Milwaukee police are investigating the apparently intentional disruption of 
Milorganite fertilizer production this week at the Jones Island sewage 
treatment plant.

of 12 sewage sludge dryers used in Milorganite production had to be shut 
down Tuesday morning after the incident, said John Jankowski, contract 
compliance officer with the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. Those 
dryers remained out of service Wednesday.

The incident occurred just four days before a new contractor is to take over 
operations of MMSD's facilities.

United Water Services Milwaukee, the district's current operating 
contractor, started an internal investigation Tuesday, which included 
questioning employees. The company decided to contact police Wednesday 
morning, Jankowski said.

Around 8:43 a.m. Tuesday, monitors showed temperatures plummeting inside a 
dryer on the south side of the sludge drying and dewatering facility, 
Jankowski said.

United Water employees subsequently found that the manually operated valve 
for a cold water pipe to that dryer had been opened. The pipe serves a 
water-spraying system that is only to be used to quickly reduce temperatures 
inside the bus-sized dryer in case of an emergency, such as an uncontrolled 
flame.

Sludge in each of the dryers is heated to 200 degrees to kill any pathogens. 
Each dryer is a spinning steel drum equipped with the emergency sprinkling 
system.

"This was not an equipment failure," Jankowski said. "The valve was opened 
intentionally."

As water began filling the dryer, it spilled onto the factory floor. A 
system of conveyors used to distribute sludge to the system of dryers 
carried the wet material to five other dryers.

All of the Milorganite in the six dryers at the time cannot be reprocessed 
because of concerns about quality control, Jankowski said. It will be 
disposed of in a landfill at United Water's expense.

Cleanup of the six dryers was to be completed late Wednesday, and some of 
them could be restarted, he said. The dryer in which the sprinkler was 
activated will be inspected for structural damage from the cold water 
hitting the hot steel.

United Water's 10-year operating contract ends Friday. John Cheslik, manager 
for United Water in Milwaukee, did not respond to telephone messages. A 
United Water spokesman said the company would not comment on the 
investigation.

In December, Veolia Water North America of Houston was hired to operate MMSD 
facilities for the next 10 years, and its contract begins March 1. Veolia 
will be paid $39.1 million in the first year to run MMSD's two sewage 
treatment plants, regional sewers, deep tunnel wastewater storage system and 
Milorganite factory.

Jankowski declined to describe Tuesday's incident as vandalism, and he 
declined to discuss whether it was connected to the upcoming change of 
contractors.

No damage estimate was available Wednesday afternoon, he said.

The lone entrance to the Jones Island treatment plant is an automated 
security gate. Anyone with access to the plant - United Water, Veolia and 
MMSD employees as well as construction contractors - could have walked into 
the Milorganite factory, he said. It wasn't known how many might have been 
inside the factory at the time.

Several cameras inside the Milorganite factory help monitor the fertilizer 
production process, MMSD spokesman Bill Graffin said. He was not able to 
confirm whether any of the cameras might have observed the cold water valve.

The incident did not reduce sewage treatment capacity at Jones Island, but 
it did reduce daily Milorganite production at a time of peak demand, Graffin 
said.

Fertilizer production already was behind schedule and unable to meet current 
spring demand after last summer's contamination of sewage sludge with toxic 
chemicals known as polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. The PCBs probably 
became dislodged during cleaning of two sewers and then flowed with 
wastewater to Jones Island.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=722940