February 2017
January 12 Thru June 15, 2017 - Wastewater Operator School (WOS), Southern Maine Region (meets every other Thursday, twice/month)
February 2017 - MRWA - Basic Plumbing, Boothbay & Yarmouth Areas
February 1, 8, 15, & 22 - MRWA - Wastewater Grade 1&2 Prep, Gorham, Newport, Presque Isle, & Richmond
February 6 Thru 8 - MWUA - 91st Annual Meeting & Trade Show, Portland, Variable TCH
February 7 - MRWA - Microbiology for Water Operations: Bacteria, Viruses, & Parasites, Oh My! , Newport, Oxford, Presque Isle, & Richmond
February 14, 16, 20, 22, & 27 - MRWA - Class II Prep, location TBD
February 16 - JETCC - Ensuring Biosolids Quality W/Process Control, Bangor, WW 6 TCH
February 21 - JETCC - PVC Valves, Connections, & Joining, Waterville, WW 6 TCH
February 23 - MRWA - Farmington Village Corp. Water Dept. Tabletop Exercise, Farmington
February 23 - JETCC - PVC Valves, Connections, & Joining, Kennebunkport, WW 6 TCH
February 28 - NEWEA - Effective Utility Management Webinar at 1:00pm, NEWEA, NEWWA, & EPA
March 2017 - MRWA - Confined Space, Location TBD
March 1 - JETCC - Things That Make the World Turn, Augusta, WW 6 TCH
March 7 - JETCC - Basic Chemistry for Operators, Bangor, WW 3.5 TCH
March 7 - MRWA - Maps & Plans, Livermore Falls
March 8 - MRWA - Basic Electricity, Caribou
March 14 - MRWA - Maps & Plans, Bangor
March 15 Thru 18 - JETCC - O&M of Wastewater Collections Systems, Portland. WW 15 TCH (in cooperation with NEIWPCC)
March 21 - JETCC - Pump Maintenance & Troubleshooting, York, WW 6 TCH
March 22 - JETCC - Motors, Controls, & Electrical Schematics W/Hands on Wiring, Boothbay, WW 6 TCH
March 22 - MRWA - Motor Control Schematic Reading & Design, Richmond
March 23 - JETCC - Pump Maintenance & Troubleshooting, Fairfield, WW 6 TCH
March 23 - JETCC - Water & Wastewater Microbiology & Bacteria Tests, Westbrook, WW 6 TCH
March 30 - JETCC - Math Review & Strategies for Test Services, Bangor, WW 6 TCH
April 5 - MRWA - Control Schematic Reading & Design, Hampden
April 12,13, 25, 26, & 27 - MRWA - Opening for the Season, Lebanon, Wiscasset, Norway, Prospect, & Bar Harbor
April 19 - MRWA - Motor Control Schematic Reading & Design, Caribou
April 25 - JETCC - Biological Nutrient Removal, Wells, WW 6 TCH
April 26 & 27 - JETCC - North Country Convention, Presque Isle, WW 12 TCH
If your certificate number ends in an “odd” number, you must renew your certificate by March 1st. You should have received a reminder letter from JETCC with renewal information.
Certificate renewals include both paying your fee and receiving at least 18 Training Contact Hours (TCHs) for the two-year renewal period. If you don’t fulfill both of these requirements your certificate is considered “Inactive” according to regulations for Wastewater Operator Certification Chapter 531(5)A.
Inactive operators cannot be the operator who has direct responsibility for the operation of any wastewater treatment plant. If you are the operator who has direct responsibility for the operation of any wastewater treatment plant, and your certificate becomes inactive, the licensee for the wastewater treatment plant is required to obtain the services of another certified operator of sufficient grade, or a licensed professional engineer, until such time that you are no longer inactive status.
So make sure that your certificate remains active, and get your paperwork, fees, and TCHs to JETCC by the March 1st renewal deadline.
If you are short a few TCHs, there are still training opportunities available. Check out the Calendar section above to see what is happening.
Still short a few training hours? Remember that up to six hours of related safety training is allowed. For example, OSHA-type safety courses such as confined space, blood borne pathogens, lockout/tagout are all acceptable, whereas human resource or office safety courses (i.e. office ergonomics) are not. Other in-house wastewater training may be accepted on a case-by-case basis. Just make sure it relates to wastewater operations and send a copy of the course description (including instructor bio), and roster or certificate of completion to JETCC.
There are many online wastewater and safety courses that are approved by DEP for TCHs. Contact JETCC to get a list of pre-approved online courses.
Don’t wait until the last minute to submit in-house training! Submitting your information now makes sure there is enough time for DEP review before the March 1st deadline.
And don’t forget you can always check your training totals on the JETCC website, www.jetcc.org. Click on “check your training hours online” on the Certification Corner box on the right. Then click on “View TCH Summary” and find your current total listed by certificate number.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Judy Bruenjes, DEP
207-28707806
Judy.K.Bruenjes@maine.gov
Match the wastewater term with the correct definition
Wastewater Term
1. Aquifer
2. Coliform
3. Colloids
4. Denitrification
5. Density
6. Detritus
7. Buffer
8. Cations
9. Cavitation
10. Cross-connection
11. Combined Sewer
12. Dead Band
13. Flagellates
14. Interceptor
15. Methane formers
16. Zooglea
17. Ohm
18. Watt
19. Rotifer
20. Volumetric test
Definitions
a. Filling a vessel of known volume to check a flow meter or pump output capacity
b. Electric power measure, one volt times one ampere
c. Cycles per unit time, such as cycles per second
d. Surface-active agents such as detergents, which make suds by increasing the surface tension of the liquid
e. Slime mass which grows on biological filter media
f. Two or more substances in combination which make a solution resistant to pH changes
g. Vacuum pockets formed inside a pump due to localized negative pressure, causing rattling as they collapse
h. Organisms which move by waving a whip-like filament
i. Microscopic animals which pull in food particles with a ring of ciliates like a wheel in the front
j. Region of insensitivity around a value
k. A connection which could cause contamination of potable water with wastewater
l. A porous geological strata containing water
m. Receives both wastewater and storm runoff
n. Reduction of nitrate to nitrogen gas, which causes activated sludge to rise and float in clarifiers
o. Decomposed organic residues such as digested sludge
p. A large sewer which picks up flow from mains and trunk sewers and conveys it to a treatment plant
q. Circulating water to heat digesters and buildings from heat sources such as engines and boilers
r. From the colon (intestines) of humans or animals
s. Solid particles which tend to stay together suspended in a liquid due to their electrical charges
t. The weight of a substance as compared to its volume, also used to mean the percent solids of sludge
u. Ions which have a positive charge
v. Grit
w. Bacteria that convert volatile acids to methane and other substances in an anaerobic digester
x. Measure of resistance to electrical current flow
y. Cohesive forces between molecule and fluid
z. Floating material such as oil, grease and plastics
Climate Adaptation Survey for Southern Maine Region Wastewater Treatment Plants
Vanessa Blair-Glantz is a new intern at the Portland DEP office. She graduated from Tufts University last year with a BS in biology, and she is currently a student at USM getting her masters in Ecology. As part of her internship with the DEP, Vanessa is going to be working with Stuart Rose on distributing a survey on climate change to distribute to southern Maine region wastewater treatment plants and managers. The survey will be used to determine the extent to which treatment plant administrations are thinking about and experiencing climate change and whether they are considering preparation of climate adaptation plans.
The initial survey will take the form of a survey monkey, emailed to a wide variety of treatment plants, which will provide us with some quick feedback on whether your treatment plant and community have experienced climate change and whether climate adaptation is actively being integrated in planning. Vanessa will also be working on creating a questionnaire that will go more in depth on these questions, which she will take on visits to a selection of treatment plants to get a greater understanding of the work they are doing. Please look for the initial survey to be emailed to you in February. If your inspector is Matt Hight, Fred Gallant, or Stuart Rose, you may be getting this survey.
Stuart Rose 822-6345 stuart.m.rose@maine.gov.
Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) Program
Earlier in January EPA announced the launch of the WIFIA program to provide long-term, low cost credit assistance in the form of direct loans and loan guarantees for large water and wastewater infrastructure projects. See https://www.epa.gov/wifia for WIFIA program details and contact information. EPA estimates that by leveraging the $17 million program budget they could make up to $1 billion in loans. This program is for large infrastructure projects of $20 million or more for large communities and for projects of $5 million or more for small communities with a population of 25,000 or less.
WIFIA funding for the project is limited to 49% of the project cost, so other financing is required. In addition, the maximum federal funding from all sources is limited to 80% of the project cost. Typical federal funding sources for water and wastewater infrastructure are, but not necessarily limited to, USDA Rural Development, HUD Community Development Block Grants, US Economic Development Administration, Northern Border Regional Commission, and the capitalization grant portion of the State Revolving Loan Funds (SRF). SRF state match and repayment funds are not considered federal funds in this context and are not subject to the 80% limit.
Loan terms are up to 35 years after substantial completion or the useful life of the project, whichever is shorter, and payments can be deferred up to 5 years from substantial completion. The interest rate on WIFIA loans is equal to or greater than the U.S. Treasury rate of a similar maturity at the date of closing. For comparison, on 1/10/2017 the Treasury rate was 2.69% for 20 years and 2.97% for 30 years. EPA charges an Application Fee and Credit Processing Fee estimated to be $350,000 to $700,000, depending on how complicated the credit processing is. In addition, there is an Annual Serving Fee of an estimated $12,000 - $15,000. EPA is required to notify the appropriate SRF of receipt of applications for SRF-eligible projects. State SRFs have first refusal to fund the project.
As in the Clean Water and Drinking Water SRF programs, WIFIA requires the projects to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, the Davis-Bacon Related Acts, the American Iron and Steel Provision and all other Federal cross-cutter provisions.
As a quick and unofficial comparison DEP has estimated the total cost of borrowing (principal, interest & fees) $2.5 and $10 million for 20 years through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and through WIFIA. These loan amounts roughly equal the maximum WIFIA funding available for the minimum size small and large community projects. The comparison uses the current CWSRF interest rate of 1% (also the minimum rate) and the fee of 5% of the annual principal and interest payments. The estimation on WIFIA fees is based on the minimum fees expected by EPA.
$2.5 million loan – CWSRF $2,909,000; WIFIA $3,855,000
$10 million loan – CWSRF $11,637,000; WIFIA $13,652,000
For additional information on this subject, please contact John N. True, CWSRF Program Manager at 287-7808 or john.n.true@maine.gov
NetDMR Update – Central Data Exchange (CDX) Part One
I wanted to follow up on emails you all received from myself
and the EPA regarding NetDMR and CDX. I am here to help guide you through the minor
changes in the way you will be logging into NetDMR. And guess what? The rest of NetDMR will not change, so you will
not need to change your way of entering data or submitting monthly reports once
you are logged in. Not too bad, right?
First, what is CDX? CDX is the EPA’s Central Data Exchange.
We have been told by EPA that starting March 20, 2017, CDX will be the new way
that NetDMR users will be logging into NetDMR.
Think about CDX like this: NetDMR is your office and CDX is
a new front door that is being added to the building. You will all be getting new
keys for the new front door (CDX) and will need to enter the building that way
in the future, but construction is not complete at this time, so you won’t get
your keys just yet. February DMRs (for January data) and March DMRs (for
February data) will still be submitted logging in to NetDMR like you have been.
The first time you will need to use CDX for logging in will be for your April
DMR (for March data) or after March 20, 2017.
Once CDX is ready, you will login through CDX and will not
need to login through NetDMR.
Once you are logged in through CDX and have
entered NetDMR, the rest is the same.
The reason EPA is changing to CDX for logging in is that
some facilities, like industries or military bases, have to report lots of
environmental data, such as hazardous waste or air pollution reports. For
people who have to submit more than one type of regulatory data through more
than one of EPA’s electronic systems, CDX is meant to simplify the login
process so that you do not have to log in to each electronic reporting system
with different user names and passwords. For those of you who only submit DMRs
(most municipal wastewater systems), the change to CDX will just change the
login process.
Here is what you need to know right now about CDX:
Until you hear from DEP or EPA, there is nothing that you
need to do any differently. Continue using NetDMR as usual. You do not need to make
any changes to your user account besides continuing to update your password as it
expires.
Before the time comes for conversion to CDX (mid-March), you
will need to make sure your NetDMR user name meets the requirements for CDX
accounts (most of them are okay!):
- At least 8 characters,
- Not all numeric characters,
- Only acceptable special characters are period(.),
hyphen (-), underscore (_), and the at (@) symbol, and
- Spaces are not allowed.
For those of you that used your email address for your
current NetDMR account, you should be all set and will not need to change
anything.
If your current NetDMR user name does not fit these
requirements, you should have received an email from Rebecca Beam (“me” through
the rest of the article) asking you to contact me. If you do not think your
user name fits these requirements and you have not heard from me, first check
your email and please feel free to call or email!
If you are already using CDX (about 20 of the 400 users in
Maine currently have CDX accounts), you may have a little housekeeping to take
care of. The EPA should be contacting you directly to let you know what you
need to do, if anything, to make sure the transition from NetDMR to CDX is
smooth.
I will continue to update you from time to time in the next
few weeks about what to expect when the EPA is ready to distribute the “keys”
to the new front door.
If you want more information, please read the emails from
January 9th and 10th sent by “EPA NetDMR Communication
<oeca.epa@service.govdelivery.com>” and from me on January 11th.
To help with the CDX transition, EPA will be hosting some
nationwide webinars. It would be good if you all could try to “attend” one of
these from the computer at your facility. The dates and times are:
- Wed, Feb 22, 2017 9:30 – 11:00 Eastern
- Tue, Feb 28, 2017 1:30 – 3:00 Eastern
- Mon, Mar 6, 2017 1:30 – 3:00 Eastern
- Wed, Mar 8, 2017 1:30 – 3:00 Eastern
More information about EPA’s CDX training can be found at https://netdmr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us.
Click on Announcements and Training
Schedules (right hand side), then click EPA Headquarters Training Dates and you
will find more information under the “NetDMR – CDX Integration” heading. I will
also email you the link to the training page as the dates get closer.
We are confident that this transition should not be a big
deal, but please continue to watch for further communications from me via email
and next month’s O&M Newsletter for tips to make this transition from the
NetDMR login to using the CDX login as smooth as possible.
As always, if you have any questions regarding NetDMR call
your inspector or contact Rebecca Beam – NetDMR Coordinator – at 207-287-9034
or rebecca.m.beam@maine.gov.
Copyrighted material. Reprinted and edited with permission from Environmental Leverage, www.environmentalleverage.com.
This is the second of three articles that will appear in the O&M News. The first installation (December, 2016) covered the importance of primary clarification, the impact of which is often underestimated by operators of biological processes. The article covered critical parameters to evaluate and conditions affecting settling. This month we will cover Monitoring & Control and Troubleshooting.
Monitoring & Control
The following should be routinely checked in a primary clarifier; TSS in and out of clarifier, sludge moisture content (% solids), sludge pumping cycle and sludge blanket depth. Weirs, skimmers, draw down tubes and rakes all need regular maintenance.
Troubleshooting
Causes of Low Solids Removal Efficiencies - Hydraulic Short Circuiting can be caused by currents induced by inlets, effluent weir plates that are not level, a difference in influent and clarifier water temperature, or wind causing problems on large tanks.
Causes of Low Solids Removal Efficiencies / High Sludge Bed - Sludge may be scoured & re-suspended by water forward velocity, there could be too low an underflow on sludge pumping rate or schedule, there could be high drive torque that may indicate a high bed. Light organic solids may not increase torque significantly with a high bed as compared to inorganic solids. Manual measurement of bed by "Sludge Judge" or automatic bed indicators is more reliable than torque measurements.
Causes of Low Solids Removal Efficiencies- Increase in influent suspended solids can cause particles to settle as a mass rather than discretely. Increase in Influent Suspended Solids can also cause sudden increase in sludge bed height. If chemicals are used, a decrease in chemical/pound of solids is needed.
If sludge is held too long in the clarifier, it can create gasification by anaerobic decomposition. Gas bubbles can be seen breaking water surface. Re-suspension can occur of sludge solids. Floating black sludge can be seen. A strong hydrogen sulfide odor can be present in severe cases. This is a common problem in pulp, paper and food industries.
Problems can develop in settling tanks due to distribution of solids and flow. Basic trouble areas include short-circuiting, turbulent flow, and bottom scour are discussed below.
• Short-circuiting - Short-circuiting in a rectangular clarifier is usually evident by surface currents observed over the length of the basin. In a circular basin, however, short-circuiting is harder to observe. Clues to problem-areas may be observable as pin floc in certain places around the periphery of the tank and an uneven buildup of sludge at the bottom of the tank.
The degree of short-circuiting in circular units can vary considerably, depending on the type of inlet used. Inlet conditions have been shown to be more critical than outlet conditions. The most important factors to consider in controlling short-circuiting are dissipation of inlet velocity, protection of tanks from wind sweep and uneven heating, and reduction of density currents associated with high inlet suspended solids concentrations.
• Turbulence - Turbulence levels in a settling basin are normally difficult to estimate. Usually the designer attempts to minimize sources of turbulence such as inlet, outlet, wind, and density currents by baffles or flow distribution channels. These sources produce unpredictable levels of turbulence and may increase short-circuiting.
• Bottom scour - Where high forward velocities are used, the possibility of scouring previously deposited sludge can occur. Forward velocities should be from 9 to 15 times the settling velocity of critical size solids in order not to cause scour.
Answers
1. l
2. r
3. s
4. n
5. t
6. v
7. f
8. u
9. g
10. k
11. m
12. j
13. h
14. p
15. w
16. e
17. x
18. b
19. i
20. a
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