Eugene/Springfield Water Pollution Control Facility 1984-1991

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Page 16 Section D: PLANT OPBRATIONs ata time. The solutionwas the creation of aprocess control committee comprised of the two supervi- sors and representatives from each of the four crews. This change made it possible for ideas and recommendations to be more easily communi- catedand acted on, and the entire staff was willing to "buy in" to control strategies and guidelines. ^ WASTE DISCHARGE PERMIT The Operations work group has operated the 49- MGD activated sludge plant under two different discharge permits since plant start up in April 1984. For the first six months of operation, the plant was allowed to function under the same permit that regulated waste from the old Ciry of Eugene trick- ling filter plant. That permit limited average monthly effluent to 30 milligrams per liter (mg/L) biological oxygen demand (BOD) and 30 mg/L total suspended solids (TSS), except during peri- ods when the Agripac Cannery waste flow ex- ceeded 10 percent of total plant flow, when efflu- entlevels could go up to 40 mg/L BOD and 55 mg/ L TSS. In October 1984, a new, more restrictive discharge permit went into effect. The new permit limited average monthly effluent to'10 mg/L BOD and 10 mg/L TSS with no detectable chlorine residual May through October and 30 mg/L BOD and 30 mg/L TSS with dechlorination not requiredfor all other months. That permit was to have expired in July 1988 but was extended by the DEQ to allow negotiations between the DEQ and the MWMC on proposed changes to limits and other permit language. The activated sludge plant has consistently oper- atedwithin its BOD and TSS permit limits. Sum- mereffluent has averaged 7 mg/L BOD and 4.5 mg/ L TSS. Wintereffluenthas averaged 10 mg/L BOD and 8 mg/L TSS. ^ PLANT START-UP ACTIVITIES Operations played a major role in the preparation and start-up of the new facility, performing a full schedule of work activities a year before the plant went online. Operators had to take considerable time from their work to attend training on the equipment and processes of the new plant. Mean- while, they had to continue operating the old Springfieldplantuntflthe new plantwent on-line. They also had to operate the old Eugene plant after start-up of the new plant until the new processes were stabilized. Only then was the entire flow from the regional area introduced to the new facility. TRAINING Operations personnel required extensive training in the new equipment and processes to be used in the regional plant. The training plan took advan- tage of every possible resource, including outside instructors, equipment suppliers, and in-house expertise. (See Training chapter.) DRY READINESS CHECK Much of the preparation for start-up was per- formed by operators and included dry readiness checks on equipment, gates, and valves. Many valves had to be located because they had been buried by construction activities. In addition, op- erators had to tag equipment and valves for iden- tification and record-keeping purposes. When all discrepancies were corrected, the plant was ready for clean-water testing. CLEAN-WATER TESTING Clean-water plant testing occurred in two phases. The first phase involved afull-scale, simulated operation of treatment process using river water. The second phase included more detailed testing, using the river water that remained in unit pro- cesses. The first phase began in December 1983, then river water was pumped through the plant at a rate of 21 MGD. Several problems were identified. Operators learned that the plant influent screw lift pumps could not perform at the required levels without an oil cooling sys tem. They also found that the pumps needed a redesign of the bearing lubri- cation system, and one of the 200-HP motors needed rebuilding. In addition, they discovered