January 2015
Jan. 7, Feb. 3, March 4, Apr. 1 May 6, July 1, Aug. 5 - Management
Candidate School - 36 credit hours - Kennebunk, ME - JETCC
Jan. 25-28 – NEWEA Annual Conference & Exhibit - credit hours
vary by session– Boston, MA
Feb. 3-4 - MWUA 89th Annual February Meeting & Trade Show
-credit hours vary by session - Holiday Inn by the Bay, Portland, ME - MWUA
Feb. 12 - Mobile & Remote Communication – 6 credit hours -
Houlton, ME - JETCC
Feb. 19 - Mobile & Remote Communication – 6 credit hours
- Saco, ME - JETCC
Feb. 24, Mar 3, 10, 17, 24 - April 7 - 6 Tuesdays - Basic WW
Training (NYSA) - 30 credit hours -Brunswick - JETCC
Feb. 25 - Hands-on Motor Maintenance-6 credit hours -
Augusta, ME - JETCC
March 12 - Specialty Coatings & Surface Preparation 6 credit
hours - Bangor, ME - JETCC
March 24 - Pump Maintenance & Troubleshooting (NYSA) - 6
credit hours - Bar Harbor, ME - JETCC
March 25 - Fats, Oils, Grease (FOG) Program Basics - 6 credit
hours - York, ME - JETCC
March 26 - Pump Maintenance & Troubleshooting (NYSA) - 6 credit
hours - Bar Harbor, ME - JETCC
April 1 & 2 - North Country Convention (NYSA) - credit hours
vary by session - Presque Isle, ME - JETCC
April 8 - PVC Valves Connections & Joining - 6 credit hours - Topsham, ME - JETCC
April 14 - Math Basics for Operators - 6 credit hours - Calais, ME -
JETCC
April 29 - Introduction to your Microscope - 6 credit hours -
Waterville, ME - JETCC
May 6,7 & 8 - O&M of Wastewater Collection Systems - 15
credit hours - Portland, ME - JETCC with optional NEWEA Exam in cooperation with NEIWPCC.
For more information on these programs, please contact the
training provider directly:
JETCC: www.jetcc.org, NEIWPCC: www.neiwpcc.org, MEWEA (formerly Maine Wastewater):www.mewea.org, MRWA: wwwmainerwa.org, NEWEA: www.newea.org
1. A
new industry is planning to locate in your town and will be discharging process
water to your treatment facility. You
get a sample of process water from another factory that has the same pollutants in the same quantities as
the water that will be come into your facility.
You mix some of the sample with some of your present influent in the
same ratio that you expect when the new factory comes on line. When you run an OUR test on this mixture, you
note that the respiration rate decreases dramatically. This indicates:
a. The mixture is toxic to the mixed liquor.
b. The sample is over aerated.
c. The MLSS must be decreased to accept this
waste.
d. The new waste may require additional aeration
to stabilize.
2. Your discharge license requires you to
store wastewater in your lagoon for 150 days in the winter. If you have an average influent flow of
127,500 gallons/day and a total pond area of 23.42 acres (1,020,000 sq.ft.),
how much freeboard do you need in your 5 foot deep lagoon.
a. 0.5 ft.
b. 1.5 ft.
c. 2.5 ft.
d. 3.5 ft.
3. The
term “return sludge” usually refers to sludge from:
a. Primary Clarifiers
b. Secondary Clarifiers
c. Aerobic Digesters
d. Anaerobic Digesters
4.
Which waterborne disease is not caused by a virus?
a. Hepatitis
b. Cholera
c. AIDS
d. Smallpox
NEIWPCC-JETCC is pleased to offer a Basic Biological
Wastewater training course beginning February 24. The course will run for six Tuesdays through
April 7 with no class on March 31 so participants can attend the North Country
Convention in Presque Isle. Judy
Bruenjes, DWQM will be teaching the course, along with wastewater professionals
from several Maine municipalities. The
class will run 8:30-3:30 at the Brunswick Sewer District.
The course includes lectures, treatment plant and lab tours,
practice questions, and hands-on pump maintenance activities. The class is designed to help operators learn
about operations, maintenance and process control of biological wastewater
plants, as well as assist operators who plan to take an upcoming certification
exam.
Operators will also learn basic wastewater math, lab
procedures, and regulatory requirements for license compliance.
For more information, contact NEIWPCC-JETCC at 207-253-8020,
email jetcc2@maine.rr.com or go to the
JETCC website at www.jetcc.org.
Certified Operators
who have odd numbered certificates will be due for renewal by March 1,
2015. Those operators will receive their
renewal notices in early January. To
renew your license, you need to show proof of at least 18 hours of approved
training and pay the renewal fee of $75.
Licensed Wastewater Operators can
now check their training
hours online.
If you are due to
renew in 2015 and do not expect to have enough training by March 1, it is best
to still send your renewal fee and include a letter stating when you will be
taking the training to meet the 18-hour requirement.
If NEIWPCC/JETCC does
not hear from you by March 1, your certification will become inactive. If you are the Operator in Responsible Charge
of your treatment facility, it will be illegal for you to sign the DMR or Form
49 until you reactivate your license.
For
more information, contact NEIWPCC/JETCC at (207) 253-8020, email: jetcc2@maine.rr.com or go to their
website:
www.JETCC.org,
Our
water quality engineer Rob Mohlar is in the final stage of updating the ambient
background concentrations for phosphorus based on the data that was voluntarily
collected by dischargers to fresh waters in the summer of 2014. These data points are being combined with any
previously existing valid data points that the Department had, along with a
review to estimate background concentrations in portions of receiving water
where data may not have been collected.
New reasonable potential calculations will be run based on this updated
ambient data, and any updated effluent data.
Once completed, this information will be shared with dischargers for
further discussion. Thank you for your
patience on this issue.
During a recent inspection at
a wastewater treatment facility, a discussion about Quality Assurance and
Quality Control brought up questions about Glucose Glutamic Acid testing,
namely if, when and how it should be performed during times when the effluent is
not disinfected. The following is what
was determined after much discussion and follow-up by the MEDEP compliance
inspectors, MEDEP management and the Standard Methods Part 5000 Coordinator.
True or False: - GGA testing should also be part of your QA/QC for
BOD5 testing even when you are not disinfecting your
effluent.
Answer: True - GGA is a QC measure that is utilized regardless of
whether or not it is the disinfection season.
Standard Methods notes that GGA is a standard that tests for both seed
viability and the analyst’s technique
when performing the BOD5 tests.
True or False: On setting up
your GGAs when not disinfecting your effluent, you still have to seed your GGA
bottles (and run a seed control series of bottles as well) as part of the QA/QC
for the BOD 5 testing.
Answer: True again! There seems
to have been some confusion as to whether or not GGAs must be seeded during non-disinfection
season since one of the test’s goals is
to measure the viability of seed. However,
as indicated above, GGAs are more than just a quality control measure for the
seed. GGAs are also a QC measure that is
utilized to check the analyst technique in performing BOD5 tests correctly. GGAs
must always be seeded in order to be valid (note that GGA instructions
indicate that seeding is part of the method).
If you have not been seeding
your GGA bottles, there should be no changes in DO activity in them after 5
days of incubation since the bottles are made up of dilution water and GGA
standard solution only – no microorganisms added to eat up the food or use up
the oxygen. If you have seen changes in
DO in your unseeded GGA bottles, this is a strong indication of some sort of
contamination – and a good reason to check your BOD5 set up technique!
So in summary; please ensure that
your facility performs GGA testing even when you are not disinfecting your
effluent, your GGA bottles are seeded and that seed control bottles are also
run as per the BOD5 method your laboratory staff follow (from either 21st
22nd (or online) edition of Standard Methods). Please feel free to refer to the MEDEP
Compliance and Technical Assistance Guidance Document – Invalid Test Results
and Re-testing associated with BOD & TSS effluent to determine if your GGA
(and BOD5) test results are acceptable.
And, as always, if you have
any questions feel free to contact your Compliance Inspector!
Denise Fournier Behr
A new inspector has been hired in the Bangor
Regional Office to fill the position formerly held by Stacie Beyer. Our new inspector, Stacy Knapp has some
laboratory and wastewater experience as well as a BS in Biology, a Masters
Degree in Business Administration, a Masters Degree in Environmental Health and
Engineering and is working on a PhD in Oceanography. Stacy started on January
12.
We hope to soon fill the vacant water quality
engineer position vacated by Peter Newkirk in Augusta.
MEDEP
and NEIWPCC/JETCC are gearing up to begin Computer Based Testing (CBT) in
March, 2015. New application forms are
available on the NEIWPCC/JETCC website www.jetcc.org.
Certification
exams will still be 100 multiple-choice questions requiring a 70% pass
rate. But instead of sitting in a room
with other operators twice a year, operators will take the exam at a computer
terminal in a testing center. CBT testing centers are located in Portland, ME,
Holden, ME, and Portsmouth, NH. Paper
exams will continue to be offered in Presque Isle twice per year (May and
November) because there are no designated testing centers in Northern Maine.
Registration
(still through NEIWPCC/JETCC) is required 2 weeks in advance. Once approved,
you go online (www.goamp.com) to schedule your exam, which is offered 5 days/week and at least
one Saturday per month. When you complete the exam you will receive your
results right away.
To
help operators transition to the new technology, paper exams will still be
available for everyone on Wednesday, May 13, 2015 in the three historic testing
locations: Portland, Bangor, and Presque Isle. After the May 2015 exam, paper
testing will only be offered in Presque Isle.
For
more information, check out Frequently
Asked Questions on the DEP website or contact NEIWPCC/JETCC
at 207-253-8020, email: jetcc2@maine.rr.com.
1. a A dramatic decrease in the respiration rate indicates that the mixed liquor is not using the new waste as food, requiring more oxygen. This usually indicates the presence of a material that is toxic to your sludge. You may have to require removal of the toxic material or your sludge may gradually acclimate itself to the new material.
2. c 127,500 gal/day * 150 days = 19,125,000 gals
19,125,000 gals / 7.5 gal / cu. ft. = 2,550,000 cu. ft.
2,550,000 cu. ft. /1,020,000 sq. ft. = 2.5 ft of freeboard
You would need to draw down your lagoon so that less than 2.5 feet of water remained in the lagoon at the beginning of the storage season.
3. b Return sludge is the settled mixed liquor containing active microorganisms which is returned to the aeration basin from the secondary clarifiers.
4. b Cholera is caused by a bacteria. Viruses cause all the other diseases.
| 
