_O & M MANUAL - WEST LANE MOBILE HOME PARK

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"Excerpt from the January 1981 "Journal WPCF, Volume 53, Number 1 " Evaluation of extended aeration activated sludge package plants ................ It is the authors' recommendation that for a successful operation of package plants in the 10 to 150 m3/d ((approx. 2,500-40,000gpd)) range, 400 hours is the minimum yearly man-hour requirement for operating and maintenance. The lack of trained operators and the limited time made available for plant operation are directly related to budget constraints of the municipal or private package plant owners. Because of this limitation, salaries offered to operators for package plant operation are generally inadequate to attract the types of people required. Consequently, unskilled or inadequately trained personnel are placed in charge of the treatment facilities. Limited manpower and funds also rule out the training program for most operators. This problem is particularly serious with package plants that are privately owned. There are two factors that must be considered in the solution of this problem. The first is that adequate manpower and funds must be provided for the operation and maintenance of the treatment system. The package plant owners will have to provide sufficient funding to hire trained operators, purchase operating supplies and maintain equipment. The second factor is that training programs for plant operators must be expanded and upgraded to provide personnel with better qualifications. Introduction to compulsory operator certification would eliminate the unqualified operators. This is to ensure that only those who have proved their competence in the field can be placed in charge of operating the treatment system. ......... ......... The problems encountered in the package plant operation could be categorized into three groups, process, equipment, and operator-oriented problems. Those plants that produce substandard effluent quality were identified to be related to one or a combination of these problems. Process-oriented problems were mainly associated with insufficient biomass, improper aeration, floating sludge, offensive odors, and lack of sludge treatment facilities. Equipment-oriented problems included mechanical breakdown of comminutors, clogging of air diffusers and sludge return systems; malfunction of the skimming device, and ice formation in the clarifier. The major cause of the poor performance of package plants was attributed to the operators' inability to operate and maintain facilities, because of insufficient manpower or lack of operator training, ....................