point loma wastewater treatment plant (14:20)<\/strong><\/h2>\ni have one more story out of san diego. you start digging. you start finding more fun things. their big wastewater treatment plant is called the point loma wastewater treatment plant. and the more i dug into pure water, the more i found out about point loma because they’re able to offset upgrading treatment plant needs because of what they’re doing on the drinking water side. so, they’re using that to kind of bargain with the fed.<\/p>\n
so, this treatment plant, if you can see san diego, it’s out there. i mean that whole long stretch of, if you can see that along the bay, that was the beach that’s closed. so now you got a wastewater treatment plant north of the entire beach that’s discharging the ocean. that is a san diego treatment plant.<\/p>\n
it’s been open since the sixties. it treats about 175 mgd, it’s got to double that capacity, and serves 2.2 million residents. it’s considered advanced primary treatment.<\/p>\n
advanced primary treatment. these are the keys. they call it a chemically enhanced primary treatment facility. because all it has is screening and grit removal, chemical addition, and a sedimentation tank, that is all it does. that is it after the sedimentation. a lot of odor scrubbers because of where it is in the city, and that is it. they discharge it in what they call probably the longest and deepest effluent pipe in the state and in the us. it’s 4.5 miles off the coast, 310 feet deep. so they essentially drop it out long and far away. and the analysis is that because of the temperature variations in the waters, a lot of the solids just stay down there. they have nowhere to go. i mean, it’s still cold that it just traps everything down deep. so, the wastewater really doesn’t have much of an impact.<\/p>\n
they do anaerobic digestion for solid reduction in methane production. they pump their sludge 17.5 miles to a centrifuge. the international wastewater plant pumps their sludge to this same sludge processing, and the sludge generated by the purification center will all essentially go to the same place. so all the solids handled, i mean, i can’t even fathom that the miles of sludge pumping across a city. it just boggles my mind how much maintenance there is in those lines.<\/p>\n
they have what is called an alternate discharge standard because scientific studies have indicated, this is quoted directly out of the epa, \u201cin open coastal waters and well flush estuaries oxygen depletion due to bod from wastewater discharges is generally of no ecological concern.\u201d so because of where it’s going and how it’s going there, it does not indicate any harm. they’re only meeting 80% removal of tss and 58% bod. isn’t that insane? after what we just talked about with what they’re doing with their drinking water, this is what they’re doing with their wastewater.<\/p>\n
so that was why it just blew my mind. but you know, this goes to show that the epa totes a lot of their integrated 2022世界杯32强预选赛
. you know, you’ve got to do many things. let’s talk about a plan to do the right things first or not break yourself trying to fix problem b when problem a is more important, etc. this is exactly what they’re doing because they’re doing this pure water system and they’re essentially going to be capturing more and more of their wastewater. why fix the wastewater? so, they have a plan in place with epa that says you’re not hurting anything in theory, you’re drinking more of your wastewater, so you’re going to be taking it out in the next ten years anyway, we’re diverting 1.8 billion in theoretical wastewater treatment expenditures to drinking water. so essentially, they are saving money there for their drinking water as well. it’s estimated about 1.8 billion would be needed to upgrade this plant to meet current standards. so, they’re allowed to continue to have that 80% tss removal rate and 58% bod removal rate. and that’s how they operate. it just like i said, baffling, it’s just a primary treatment plant.<\/p>\n
so yeah, like i said, enter pure water san diego to save the day. as pure water is diverting more san diego wastewater into the water supply, this will reduce the ocean discharges. their modified permit basically says, you know, even as you divert this away, your loadings are always going to be decreasing. so, it doesn’t matter if as the city grows, your loadings are decreasing. there’s really nothing, you’re not contributing any more wastewater to the ocean so you’re loading is down. so, you’re allowed to keep doing this and producing 83 mgd of potable reused water by 2035. so it’s allowed.<\/p>\n
so that was all i had. thank you everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
exploring the wastewater issues on the west coast the san diego region faces a delicate balance between the growing demand for water and the imperative to preserve and enhance the quality of its water sources. as the population burgeons and climate change introduces new uncertainties, san diego has grappled with issues such as water scarcity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":26932,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[30],"class_list":["post-26312","webinars","type-webinars","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-water"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t \n\t \n\t \n\n\t\t\n