It's taken 26 years for sludge to build up to about a three-foot depth in one of the processing ponds at the Batavia Wastewater Treatment Plant, but that buildup has reduced the pond's capacity by about 50 percent, so it's time to have it removed.
A removal project is now underway that costs about $1.3 million and is being conducted by contractors who specialize in sludge removal.
The process involves pumping the water-logged sludge out of the pond, screening it for large objects -- shoes, bottles, rocks -- and then sending it through one of two centrifuges, which use gravitational force and a polymer to separate the sludge from the water. The water is pumped back into the pond and the sludge is sent up a conveyor belt and dumped into a truck before it is hauled to a landfill.
Initially, the original estimate for the project was eight weeks, but a second centrifuge was added and now the contractor is processing a truckful of sludge every 90 minutes, to fill at least eight trucks a day, reducing the project timeframe to about four weeks.
Jim Ficarella, superintendent of water & wastewater for the City of Batavia, provided a tour of the project yesterday.
The water that has been squeezed from the sludge just before being piped back to the pond.
There will be about 2,100 dry tons of sludge removed from the pond.
One of the two centrifuges being used.
The pipelines that draw sludge from the pond and return water to the pond.
The screening process for removing large items that have inadvertently fallen into the pond.
The pond with sludge that has floated to the surface and been pushed by the wind to the eastern shoreline.
Ficarella said they know they won't get 100 percent of the sludge out of the pond, but they'll get most of it.
This pond is the second stage of the process. By this point, the wastewater has been at the plant for about three months. The whole process, which includes passing the wastewater through several ponds and a series of wetlands ponds, takes about a year. The clean water is pumped into Tonawanda Creek.
See our previous story: Batavia Wastewater Treatment Plant, one of city's hidden treasures
The plant remains a birder's paradise, with birders traveling, literally, from all over the world, to visit the plant.
