Operation & Maintenance

Overview and summary This lesson is focused on the operation and maintenance of wastewater treatment plants: in the first part, the basic principles included into the Operation and Management Manual – the document that should always be annexed to any WWTP design – are presented; next section is addressed to the description of the main procedures to be usually applied for any WWTP operation, enlighting all the most common problems, troubleshootings and their solutions, related to all the treatment processes

INTRODUCTION The field of environmental engineering and regulatory framework has advanced significantly since MassDEP developed the “Guidelines for the Design, Construction, Operation and Maintenance of Small Sewage Treatment Facilities with Land Disposal – Second Draft: January 1988” and the subsequent revisions in April 2004. The 2012 document includes a substantial updating to reflect improvements in wastewater treatment technology and new regulatory changes which establish proper design, construction and operational practices for small wastewater treatment works with discharge to groundwater. Our understanding of groundwater flow dynamics and the potential for impacts on downstream resources has grown. There are also a number of new MassDEP policies and initiatives which directly impact the groundwater program. Lastly, our experience in reviewing the design and operation of wastewater treatment facilities over the years has given us a keen insight into what is necessary to construct, operate, and maintain a modern facility. This document is intended to serve as a technical guide for individuals involved in the design, construction, and use of small wastewater treatment facilities in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It outlines the current regulations, policies, and standards of MassDEP as they relate to facilities that discharge to the ground. For the purposes of this document, small treatment facilities are defined as those with a sewage flow of between 10,000 and 150,000 gallons per day (gpd). This document only applies to these small treatment facilities. It is the MassDEP’s intent that this guidance be used as a supplement to the standards and design criteria found in the document published by the New England Interstate Water Pollution Control Commission titled “ TR-16: Guides for the Design of Wastewater Treatment Works – 2011 Edition”. TR-16 is and will continue to remain as the primary design reference for MassDEP use. This additional guidance is not intended to replace TR-16, but rather to provide further information and standards, where necessary, given the particular problems that we face in Massachusetts in the design and construction of land-based systems. It should be emphasized that while this guidance is intended primarily for small systems, many of the principles and design criteria are also applicable to larger systems. The larger systems (> 150,000 gpd) present a different set of issues that have to be evaluated in a separate manner. As an example, such topics include flow derivation, size of effluent disposal reserve area and/or redundancy, and level of hydrogeologic evaluation. Whenever possible, differences in approach will be noted in the text