Eugene/Springfield Water Pollution Control Facility 1984-1991

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Page 42 Section E: RESIDUALS MANAGEMENT FACILITIES OPERATIONS STAFFING At the start-up of the Eugene/Springfield regional treatment plant, the staffing for the solids program followed the staffing of the old plant's sludge pro- gram, which consisted of a solids supervisor, a Utility Worker III, and four Utility Worker II's, and the plant's chemical engineer. In 1986 several changes occurred. A secondUtility Worker II was hired to haul sludge for land appli- cation.The plant operations manager began man- aging the program, which allowed the Chemical Engineer to focus on his major job responsibilities. All utility worker positions were reclassified to wastewater technicians: the Utility Worker III position was reclassified to Wastewater Techni- cian III, and the Utility Worker II positions were reclassified to Wastewater Technician I's. The class title changes better reflected job duties and allowed the plant to bring salaries up to market levels. From December 1987 through March 1988, other supervisor vacancies occurred in both the Sludge Program and the Seasonal Industrial Waste Dis- posal Program. Under a planned management re- organization,two supervisorpositionsweremerged, andanAgripac/solids supervisorwas hiredinApril 1988. In November 1988, the new Sludge Man- agement Facility was nearly complete and the liquid sludge application program that operated from the main plant was slowing down. This en- abledthe plant to reduce the Wastewater Techni- cian Ipositions from five to two. The reductions were accomplished by not refilling a vacant posi- tion, atransfer to another division, and a retire- ment. Additional changes occurred in January 1989, when the staff of the SMF and the seasonal indus- trialdisposal operation merged into one work unit. The two remaining Wastewater Technician I po- sitions were reclassified to Utility Worker III. In January 1990, the Utility Worker III employees were transferred from the Residuals Management section into the Facility Maintenance section. One of the two existing Wastewater Technician III's was promoted to a Wastewater Technician IV -anew position. The Technician III position was filled in July 1990. LAND~APPLIED SLUDGE The sludge managernentprograrn has relied exclu- sively on agricultural land application as a means of using the sludge. The new SMF facility was designed to produce a dried sludge with the same soil conditioning characteristics as liquid sludge but with lower handling costs. Both liquid and dried sludge must meet guidelines that are en- forced by DEQ. In addition, Residuals Manage- ment staff works closely with property owners to ensure that agricultural use and practices meet all application guidelines. • Land Application Guidelines A11 sites must have DEQ approval before any sludge can be applied. Requests to DEQ for sludge application must include information on the physi- cal characteristics of the site, agronomic loading calculations (which determine the nitrogen re- quirements of the crop) and site-life calculations (which determine the life expectancy of the site based on the amount of heavy metals contained in the sludge). Application guidelines require that sludge used in land application have the volatile solids reduced by at least 30 to 40 percent across the digestion process. When applied, the sludge must have a volatile solids content of less than 70 percent. Through the anaerobic sludge digestion process, our sludge has consistently met the volatile solids reduction criteria. Additional guidelines for application sites include maintaining setbacks and buffer zones from water- ways andpropertylines. Farm animals whose prod- ucts are consumed by humans cannot graze on the land for at least 30 days following the application of sludge. • Approved Sites and Acreage The Sludge Management Program currently has 74 sites - 8,643 acres of land -approved for sludge application. Twenty-two sites are approved for year-round application. The sludge is applied during the dry weather months -April through October - on the other 52 sites. • Application Methods To date, most of the sludge has been applied in liquid form. Liquid sludge is hauled to identified