The Story of Sewage in Superior

Go to the Environmental Services Division page

www.ci.superior.wi.us/esd

and click on the History tab to open a page that has a slide show (pdf file) on sewage treatment in the early days of Superior, including when there was over 40,000 people living in town.  In the beginning there was none - no treatment.  Raw sewage regularly went out to local rivers and to Lake Superior.  It wasn't until 1958 that this facility opened.  Improvements in cleaning the wastewater have been added over the years.   The wastewater treatment plant is one big part to help keep local waters clean and healthy for aquatic organisms and for us! 

It was interesting to see the controversy in place and how many people felt a treatment plant wasn't necessary.  

May 19 (Tuesday) program on Water Treatment in Superior (Waste and Drinking Water)

We hope you will attend a program planned for Tuesday, May 19 at 5 p.m. at the Superior Public Library.

Event:   A Closer Look at Water Treatment in Superior, WI
How is it done in Superior?  Drinking Water Treatment and Wastewater Treatment

 We use water everyday.  Water arrives to our homes, schools, and businesses and wastewater will leave from these places.  Attend the approximately one hour program where Superior Water Light & Power will present a closer look at drinking water treatment in Superior and Superior Environmental Services will present about what is done with wastewater to treat it before discharging it back into Superior Bay.   You will also learn about improvements  over the years for better treatment and develop a better understanding on infrastructure in place to have the treatment possible. Finally, you will also take home simple tips on how you can be a part of helping prevent pollution in Lake Superior and conserve water. It would not be a good thing to not have these important services running properly in Superior yet for many decades the services didn’t exist for the early people settling in Superior.   Human health and environmental health are in part connected to proper drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment.  

Any questions?  Call (715)394-0392 or email grethenw@ci.superior.wi.us City of Superior Environmental Services.

 

Have you been to www.superiorstormwater.blogspot.com lately? 

 

Visit our Facebook page or Twitter.  SuperiorESDPW

 

Sludge

What do you think sludge looks like?  The wastewater treatment involves multiple steps to take out materials, including total suspended solids, from the water that will be released into Lake Superior.  It's a Friday and a good day for photos. 

Here are a few:

Here are 4 samples : Influent - what comes into the plant - it's mostly water.
Primary effluent - after treatment through the primary clarifiers
Aeration Basin sample - this is using the activated sludge with lots of organisms
Effluent - is what is released into Lake Superior

 

 

Which sample do you think has the highest TSS (total suspended solids)? 

The correct answer is the Aeration Basin sample.  It would likely have one about 2000 mg/L.  The other values could be about 250 for the influent (note: that sample is looking a bit darker than usual.  It wasn't collected that day), 100 mg/L in the primary effluent and the effluent would be about 10 mg/L.

 

 

 

Here is a view of the Belt Filter Press. The sludge cake are the solids that were concentrated and then removed.  These are what the organisms didn't consume but the organisms do help to greatly reduce the organic materials.   The sludge cake doesn't smell.  It is not of good enough quality to be used on farm fields.  It is trucked the landfill.  Trucks also leave here carrying debris trapped at the screen building and the through the grit chamber. 

 

 

 

Here are our new Huber Step Screens that were installed this winter. They are shiny and new and do the incredible work of removing materials down to 1/8".  Our previous screens only removed down to 1/4".  We are happy to report they are doing well. 

 

 

Here is an inside look.

With looking closely you can see a goldfish and a bandaid among the debris. 

 

 

Speaking of goldfish.  We do have a goldfish here that we've put in effluent and she is doing fine.  She likes to visit with the students when they come.  Her name is

Sue R. Plant.

 

Remember, the effluent is not drinkable but it's safe for swimming and safe for fish and aquatic organisms.

 

 

 

Wastewater Treatment Tours for Superior students in 5th grade start this week

The warmer weather is here and we're eagerly awaiting Superior's 5th graders to come tour the Wastewater Treatment Plant.   We are glad that Four Corners, Cathedral, Lake Superior, Great Lakes, Cooper and Bryant Schools will be coming over the next few weeks.  The tours will last 2 hours and include and indoor portion where the students will act out wastewater treatment and participate in interactive quizzes about the treatment process and the importance of knowing what not to flush and that stormwater, in most cases in Superior, does NOT come here for treatment but rather flows out to local streams untreated.  The outdoor portion is walking through the steps just as the water would flow arriving here, getting cleaned, and then released out to the Superior bay.
The City of Superior pays for the buses to transport the students to the plant.  We are thankful for the teachers who make time in their busy class schedules to have the students come here to learn more about this process.
As the almost 300 students come through and see the wastewater treatment process they will also learn how to help educate others about what not to flush which will help in preventing pollution to the bay and Lake Superior.  The sights (we have a nice location right on the bay) and smells (really not too bad!) are part of getting to know this important process that is at work 24 hours a day.  A team of over 40 people work here : a mix of engineers, operators, collections crew, administration, educators, and other specialists. 


Can you put the following steps in order? 

If you have a small group of people from your organization, church, workplaces or even neighbors that would like to take a tour, give us a call 715/394-0392. 

Scoop the Poop Event Next Week!!!

Get a jump start on Scoop the Poop Week (April 24 - 30)!!!
Come in and make LAWN SIGNS and/or BUTTONS to promote picking up pet waste!
It's a FREE EVENT!! (RSVP at 715-394-0392 or superiorstormwater@gmail.com to ensure we'll have enough materials)
Support Scoop the Poop!! 

When: Tuesday April 21, 2015
            5-7 PM
Where: 51 E 1st St (ESD offices/Wastewater Treatment Plant - across E 2nd & railroad tracks from Golden Inn/Animal Hospital)

Copper-free brake pads

Copper-Free Brake Initiative

On January 21, 2015, EPA, states and the automotive industry signed an agreement to reduce the use of copper and other materials in motor vehicle brake pads. The agreement calls for reducing copper in brake pads to less than 5 percent by weight in 2021 and 0.5 percent by 2025.
In addition to copper, this voluntary initiative reduces mercury, lead, cadmium, asbestiform fibers, and chromium-6 salts in motor vehicle brake pads.
The Initiative will decrease runoff of these materials from roads into the nation’s streams, rivers and lakes. Copper from stormwater runoff can affect fish, amphibians, invertebrates and plants.
This initiative includes:

• Education and outreach to bring about the nationwide reduction in brake pads of copper and the other materials.
• Testing friction materials and constituents for alternatives.
• Marking and labeling friction material packaging and product.
• Providing reporting registrars’ and agents’ contact information to manufacturers, suppliers and other industry entities.
• Working towards achieving the goals in the Copper-Free Brake Initiative within specified timeframes.

Numbers on copper reductions:
California and Washington already passed requirements to reduce these materials in brake pads. Prior to these requirements, fine dust from vehicular braking released an estimated 1.3 million pounds of copper into California’s environment in 2010 and about 250,000 pounds into Washington’s environment in 2011. Estimates for California show as much as a 61-percent reduction of copper in urban runoff due to changes in brake pad composition.
Co-signers:
In addition to EPA, the Environmental Council of the States and eight industry groups signed the initiative: Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association; Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association; Brake Manufacturers Council; Heavy Duty Manufacturers Association; Auto Care Association; Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers; Association of Global Automakers, Inc.; and the Truck and Engine Manufacturers Association.

The above information is from
http://water.epa.gov/polwaste/npdes/stormwater/copperfreebrakes.cfm

Science Night at UWS is coming up April 10

There will be over 50 booths at this event.  Stop by.  Learning. Prizes. Fun.

Clean up the Outdoors

Clean Up the Outdoors

The city of Superior Public Works Department has street sweeping April through the fall and the brush pickup is happening in late April.  Sand was applied to roads during the winter time for driving safety.  Now that the snow is mostly gone the sand remains.  The city picks it up and it heads to a temporary site and then to the landfill.   Some cities do not use sand.  However, there are temperatures that salt doesn’t work (too cold) so sand was a way to add traction for safety during those icy times.   We don’t want the sand – or loose soil – to go down storm drains to head to local streams.   Ensure that soil erosion is reduced by having plant roots in place to hold the soil and find ways to reduce the flow of stormwater such as by putting in a rain barrel or having less impervious surfaces.  Water picks up things as it flows over surfaces.  If the surfaces are clean or held in tack it won’t move things.    

There are two free landfill days scheduled  - one on April 25 and the other on May 2.  From 8 AM until 2:30 PM on those days the City of Superior residents can drop off household trash, brush, tires, grass clippings and used motor oil for free.  To drop-off of a mattress you will have to pay $10 each or $13 to drop one off if damp, wet, or heavily soiled.  From the tour we had at the landfill in the fall, about 18,000 mattress are brought to the Superior landfill each year and not very many of them are recycled because they come in wet.  So keep your unwanted mattress dry so that it can go through the program at Goodwill that recycles all the materials. 
  As a reminder recyclables, electronics, appliance, demolition/construction material, batteries, fluorescent bulbs, and household hazardous waste are not accepted at the landfill.  

Also, be sure to pick up pet waste as you walk your dog.  It’s natural material and would ‘go away’ in time but by picking it up you are removing the chance for stormwater to move some of the pet waste and have it travel down a storm drain. 

Finally, inevitably there is litter around.  The wind blew it, the rain moved it, or someone litters on purpose.    Put on a pair of rubber gloves and do some litter pickup for areas in town.  It will be a great way to bring beauty to our city.  Parks, yards, and areas in town will soon have flowers in bloom.  Let’s let the flowers color the lawns and not litter.

 

Enjoy the warmer days and longer days ahead.  Get out and go for a walk.  Admire our local streams and the shore of Lake Superior and bay.  We really do live in a beautiful place.

 

Over 80 students,  fifth graders from Lake Superior Elementary  and fourth and fifth graders from Four Corners Elementary, attended a Superior Water Fair this morning at the Mariner Mall.  The Water Fair was organized by the City of Superior Environmental Services and included 10 learning stations.  Stations included guests from  Lake Superior Research Institute, Natural Resources Research Institute, Iron River Fish Hatchery, Master Composters, Regional Stormwater Protection Team, Lake Superior Research Institute and community volunteers.    Playing Lake Superior Jeopardy, sorting fish into their micro-habitat hideouts, and calculating water use for the total number of showers per year and the gallons of water saved in a year by a shorter shower, viewing benthic macroinvertebrates, sorting waste into where it should go (medicine to the police station, household hazardous waste to the proper disposal location and recycling, testing water samples for water quality, seeing how rain causes stormwater to pick up pollutants from the land, and learning how a fish hatchery breeds fish and prepares for the stocking of area lakes and learning about aquatic invasive species were all part of the morning’s activities. 

The fair ended with a visit by Adam Clark, meteorologist from KBJR, and he talked the water cycle and forecasting weather.  He also created a cloud in a bottle. 

This is the 3^rd year for the fair that has included two schools in Superior at a time. 

Impaired Waterbodies of Wisconsin.

The US EPA has a website that has a searchable database to look up different water bodies in the state of Wisconsin.

The database includes the TMDL (total maximum daily load) for a given material into a waterbody.  Some streams and rivers are impaired due to too much of something entering the system.

Mercury TMDLs are being developed.   Fish advisories are in place.

In our neck of the woods the St. Louis River is the main body of water of concern.