(9/23) Brian Lubenow, Taneytown’s city engineer, presented updates to the Public Works Department’s compliance with the wastewater treatment plant and with the sewer collection system to the City Council on September 8.
Taneytown’s wastewater treatment plant was originally built in 2000 and was upgraded in 2016 for enhanced nutrient removal (ENR) through funding by the Maryland Department of the Environment’s (MDE) bay restoration program, according to Lubenow.
The project was done under a consent agreement with the state, and penalties were issued when the project fell behind schedule and "exceeded the consent agreement limits," with fines reaching around $80,000, he said. Eventually the penalties were brought down to $27,000 and paid off, closing the consent agreement with the state, he said.
Issues at the treatment plant continue however with "annual exceedances of total nitrogen and total phosphorus ever since the plant was completed," he said.
There are annual load limits placed on the plant which ‘float’ or change depending on the water flow the plant received. The more water that makes its way to the plant, the harder it is to treat it, which means more nutrient are released to the environment. While the total releases limits do increase with the increased flow, the state does have a maximum, which the plant can’t exceed, according to Lubenow.
Permitted flow is 1.1 million gallons per day (MGD) and the average daily flow is 1.0 MGD. On a dry day the plant averages is 0.4 (MGD). However on rainy days, especially heavy rain days, the plant can see upwards to 7.5 MGD, he said.
The biggest challenges faced by the plant in consistently meeting the nutrient removal limits is controlling the influx of groundwater, often called ‘wild water,’ into the sewer system.
The major source of the influx of groundwater in through the older portions of the city’s sewer collection system, which are made of old terracotta piping which is more susceptible to cracking, and leaking, according to Lubenow.
A survey is currently underway to review all the city’s manholes and confirm where the terracotta piping is, he said. The survey is approximately 80% complete. Once done, the city will be able to determine which sections are leaking the most and put in place a plan to address those sections. However the projects will require "significant capital expenditures’ that will need to be approved by the City Council
By reducing infiltration of wildwater , while at the same time, improving the waste water planet’s capacity to handle higher flows, the plant should be able to meet Maryland’s nutrient removal requirements said Lubenow.
