CarrieAnne McConnell is Superintendent at the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District's Westerly Wastewater Treatment Plant. She has spent much of her life in and around water- and wastewater-treatment facilities . . . and even had her wedding photos taken at one!
Westerly is undergoing several construction projects to help it treat more wastewater flow during big rain events. CarrieAnne talks about those upgrades, the different types of wastewater-treatment processes that plants can utilize, the very worst of the bad smells, and the need to find and welcome a new generation of workers into this critical industry.
This episode includes a discussion of trickling filters and activated sludge, two different processes used to treat wastewater. Listeners unfamiliar with the basics of wastewater treatment may also want to check out our earlier episodes "How does a Wastewater Treatment Plant Work?" and "The Science of Sludge".
Acronyms used in this episode:
CSOTF: combined sewer overflow treatment facility
MGD: million gallons per day
CE-HRT: chemically-enhanced high rate treatment
BOD: biological oxygen demand, or the amount of dissolved oxygen needed by aerobic organisms to break down organic material in wastewater
TSS: total suspended solids, a measurement of the weight of suspended particles (i.e. not dissolved) in a water sample, when they are trapped by a filter